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Abstract
Multitasking with media is increasing. This shift in media consumption presents challenges to advertising practitioners and researchers because it may affect people's attention, perception, and memory for advertising contained in those media. However, while audience multitasking behavior has recently received increased attention, the individual predictors of media multitasking are underexplored. To better understand the audience factors associated with heavy media multitasking we conducted a survey with samples from a student population (N = 308) and a national consumer population (N = 501). Age and gender were significant predictors only in the national sample, while personal control and need for simplicity were predictors only in the student sample. Results also indicated that sensation seeking and creativity were significant predictors of multitasking in both samples. Interestingly for advertisers, increased perception of advertising utility was also a predictor of multitasking in both the student and national sample.