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Aurora

Abstract

In everyday life, individuals are faced with tasks that require sustained, visual attention. However, distractions are also a part of everyday life, and with the increase in technology use came an increase in distractions that may affect concentration and performance on these visual tasks. Previous research has examined how task-unrelated visual and auditory stimuli, presented at different intensities, impact functions of learning and memory. However, it has yet to determine their impact on ongoing, attention-demanding, visual tasks. The present study used a 2x2 between-subjects design to test the impact of both visual and auditory distractors, presented at either a high or low intensity, on performance during a spot-the-difference task. 110 college students, aged 18-23 with a mean age of around 19, were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. The number of correct differences participants identified out of 24 on a spot-the-difference task was recorded. A significant effect of distractor type was found (p < .05), with visual distractors leading to significantly fewer differences identified during the spot-the-difference task than auditory distractors. This suggests that task-unrelated visual material is more distracting during an ongoing visual task than auditory material. Removing visual distractions during a visual task could potentially help to facilitate concentration and improve task performance.

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