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Instructor/Advisor

Michael Stroud

Keywords

Attention, Multitasking, Distraction

Abstract

Multitasking refers to the engagement in multiple tasks simultaneously or in rapid succession, often resulting in the division of attention and cognitive resources across activities (Alzahabi & Becker, 2013). This experiment aims to explore how visual multitasking (reading a tongue twister while identifying shapes) and auditory multitasking (identifying shapes while hearing distracting animal sounds and having to identify the animal) influence reaction time and accuracy. The first task was to correctly identify a basic shape within an image (square, circle triangle) using a corresponding key on the Superlab program. For the first part this was all the participant had to do. For the second part, at the same time the participant must read aloud a tongue twister on a Macbook. The second experiment had the same shape identification method, but the participant would hear a random animal sound played at random times during the second part of experiment. They had to call out what animal it was when they heard the sound. The reaction times of response to identifying shapes were recorded for both tasks. By comparing the effects of different types of multitasking, the study will provide insights into whether certain forms of interference are more cognitively taxing than others. The hypothesis is that performance on visual identification task will decrease when paired with another visual task or while experiencing auditory stimuli.

Animal Noises and Jumbled Words: A Multitasking Test

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