Manipulating and Measuring Media Multitasking: Implications of Previous Research and Guidelines for Future Research

Media multitasking has been receiving increased attention from communication scholars as well as scholar in other fields, with studies focusing on the prevalence, predictors, behavior, and effects. Several recent papers have provided overviews of findings from media multitasking research, or provided frameworks to help researchers think about conceptual issues around multitasking. This article expands on those efforts by refining the methodological elements that are important to consider in media multitasking research. We discuss the validity of operationalizations in previous studies, and the impact that design and measures had on the conclusions drawn. In order to do this, we map the different options for manipulating and measuring media multitasking, discuss the implications, and provide guidelines for future research examining media multitasking to help connect disparate findings and provide additional guidance for researchers to move forward with this topic.