The human mind is adept at accomplishing many simultaneous tasks. A person is quite capable of speaking, running, bouncing a ball, and manuevering around his opponents while playing basketball, while maintaining a steady heartbeat and breathing rhythm. However, isn't it facinating that when you are reading, it is nearly impossible to also have a verbal conversation with someone, or even to understand what someone is saying on the radio? Have you ever noticed that when you begin to daydream in a boring lecture, you seem to stop seeing what is in front of you in favor of whatever you are daydreaming about? Often, when you return from your daydreaming state, you are surprised to find that the scene in front of you has changed!

It appears that our senses require some of the same agencies in order to inform us about the world around us as are required to help us remember what the world of yesterday looked/smelled/tasted/felt/sounded like. These examples of conflicting activities can be very helpful in understanding the mind because they give us a clue about what actions of the mind are treated in a similar fashion.

It is our hypothesis that by inspecting the activites which we are unable to accomplish simultaneously, we may be able to identify operations which require exclusive access to a shared agency. We intend to discuss examples of conflicting activities and to propose an organization of the mind that would cause these conflicts to occur. We will draw from the Soceity of Mind book, especially from sections 5.3, 6.1, 6.7, 19.3, 19.6, and 29.2.

Simultaneous Tasks Paper

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The Whole Brain Atlas