Learning while being distracted

I am definately guilty on that one, I find I can listen without really paying atttention and still remember stuff afterwards. Well it turns out that when you are focused on one task you use declarative memory (memories that can conciously be discussed). But when you multitask, you use a combination of declarative and procedural (i.e. "task oriented") memories and a totally different part of your brain. It has the advantage of being harder to forget (e.g. riding your bike), but less flexible to apply to new conditions... So according to this study in PNAS , ADD may not be all bad...