1In their tutorial, Maya and Tom discussed their psychology assignment on workplace concentration with Doctor Reid.
2Maya originally planned to write about multitasking, but the tutor advised narrowing the topic considerably.
3Doctor Reid explained that switching between tasks leaves what psychologists call attention residue behind.
4In other words, part of your mind stays stuck on the previous task, reducing performance.
5Tom assumed the effect lasted seconds, though the research suggested it could persist for twenty minutes.
6The tutor recommended the study by Leroy, originally published in two thousand nine, as essential reading.
7Maya wondered whether email notifications were the main problem, but interruptions from colleagues proved equally damaging.
8It was not the frequency but the unpredictability of interruptions that harmed concentration most severely.
9For their experiment, they first proposed testing students at home, then agreed a laboratory setting was safer.
10Doctor Reid warned them against using questionnaires alone and suggested measuring actual task completion times.
11The deadline, originally set for March, was eventually pushed back to September after ethical approval delays.
12Both students left the tutorial feeling the project was demanding but far more clearly defined.