NEW YORK – A research psychologists at NASA says multitasking isn't “one of the great strengths of human cognition,” and decades of research back the theory that humans aren’t the most efficient species for juggling more than one task at a time. However, most employers continue to seek out new hires who claim to possess great multitasking skills.

“Multitasking,” writes The Wall Street Journal, is a term “more rooted in blind faith than fact. It's the wellspring of office gaffes, as well as the stock answer to how we do more with less when in fact we're usually doing less with more. What now passes for multitasking was once called not paying attention.”

David Gardner, who writes instructional material for trainers, knows better than to attempt multitasking thanks to personal experience. As an employee of a marketing company “stretched so thin,” he once sent 4,000 nuns direct mail offers addressed as “Dear Mr. Sister,” writes the Journal.

However, mistakes abound, most employers continue to seek out workers who can do three things at once – even though the research suggesting that people can efficiently multitask is not in human favor.

“Multitasking doesn't look to be one of the great strengths of human cognition,” James C. Johnston, a research psychologist at NASA's Ames Research Center told the Journal, adding, “It’s almost inevitable that each individual task will be slower and of lower quality.”

While some researchers say analytical thinking “can happen in parallel, as long as the tasks have been practiced,” Johnson adds that the amount of practice is “too high for the practical world,” noting that a task such as responding to e-mails requires “fantastically more cognition” than simpler tasks often included with multitasking research, writes the newspaper.

“In the lab, researchers call it ‘multitasking’ when subjects can recognize, for example, the colors of dots while also discerning high and low tones ... not exactly the skill set you need to win a vice presidency,” writes the Journal.

Meanwhile, although multitaskers “seem to be accomplishing a lot,” in most cases they are “literally just going through the motions,” notes the newspaper. As a result, according to Hal Pashler, director of the Attention and Perception Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego, “your mouth can be moving while your brain is elsewhere."