Ah!

I just remembered this:

I was listening to NPR a while back and they had a story about a recent scientific study conducted on multitasking. Specifically, this study examined the apparent ability of younger people these days to do several things at once with multimedia devices, such as write a post, surf the net, watch a video, play a game, etc.

What the study found is that users aren't actually doing everything at the same time. Instead, what their young minds are capable of doing which older ones can't do relatively rapidly switch their focus between these various points. Whatever they aren't actively paying attention to at any given moment doesn't impinge on their awareness to a significant degree. They seem to tune it out like old-time radio static, while they pay attention to whatever currently has their interest.

In a combat environment, successfully being able to *ignore* the input from all but one of your data sources at a time would not be a survival-enhancing ability . . . .