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Instructor/Advisor

Micheal Stroud

Keywords

Attention, Multitasking, Distraction

Abstract

The goal of this experiment is to test whether individuals can effectively divide their attention between two visually demanding tasks. The project requires two experiments. The basic attentional task for both experiments was performed by having participants look at random images that are either "cute" (e.g., a cat or dog) or "scary" (e.g., a frightening face). They must respond by pressing the "0" key for scary images and the "1" key for cute images. Reaction time in milliseconds will be recorded for all of the experiment. The distractor task for experiment 1 was a visual distractor. While completing the basic task, participants will also watch an episode of "Peppa Pig" on a phone placed next to the computer screen. To ensure they are engaged in this secondary visual task, they will be asked follow-up questions about the content of the episode after the experiment.The distractor task for experiment 2 was verbal distractor. While completing the visual categorization task, participants are also asked to recite the nursery rhyme "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" out loud.

Split Focus: Investigating Visual Attention with Competing Tasks

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