Humans under bombardment: performing in a real-time world

In present-day technologies, such as computer games, multimedia simulators, educational animations, chatrooms and, and synchronous teaching platforms, the performance of users depends on their ability to process simultaneously large volumes and various types of stimuli that "bombard" their cognition in real-time and at a high speed. Real-time thinking is described here as a cognitive skill that helps users to work effectively in real-time environments. The paper describes the major dimensions of real-time thinking (i.e. simultaneous processing, responding to high-speed stimuli, attention management and multi-tasking, handling multiple perspectives and multiple representations effectively and managing real-time feedback), and discusses the challenges it poses for online teachers and designers of multimedia learning environments.