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Mainly, what studies have tried to find is whether direct attention is needed for encoding of information (Focusing, 2008). Distractions have been found to affect how well we pay attention to things and thus tend to affect how well we encode information in our working memory which appears lead to problems in recalling the information even in short periods of time (Chunk & Turk- Browne, 2007). Distractions have been found to have an effect on our memory (Focusing, 2008).
Noise is a known distract, certain noises affect people in certain ways and depending on when and how these noises are used, they can affect how well we pay attention and recall the information from the tasks we were performing (Hughes, Jones, & Mackey). There are a number of noises that are deemed annoying/distracting such as a dentist’s drill, crying baby and construction noises, however, an extremely common noise that has been deemed greatly annoying/distracting is a ringing cellophane (Bell, Boucher, & R??ere, 2014).
The research performed by Bell (Bell et al, 2014) found that one of the noises most people surveyed found annoying was a ringing cellophane. From this, the researchers decided to see how much of a nuisance an unanswered phone was so they performed a repeated measures test with their participants using either the participants orienting, a different, irrelevant orienting during encoding or silence. They found that participants performed worse when they had to ignore the cellophane regardless of whether it was their own or not.
This recent study shows us how interference, in particular, noise interference, from the unanswered cellophane affects how well we pay attention and can lead to rose recall, even though cellophanes are common, everyday artifacts. Methods Participants There were 40 participants conveniently selected by the confederates. The participants were separated into two conditions, Group A which was the no distraction condition, and Group B which was the distraction condition. The average age of the participants was 25. 08 (SD 8. 03) with the minimum age being 18 and the maximum age being 52.
The sample consisted of males and 80% females. The ethnicities of the participants were as follows: 17. 5% Asian or Asian American, 7. % Black or African American, 32. 5% Hispanic or Latino, 30% Non-Hispanic White, 12. 5% Other. Out of the 40 participants, 72. 5% were fluent in languages other than English and 27. 5% were not fluent in other languages. (ADD LANGUAGE). (ADD CAFFEINE) Materials Memory Recall Survey. This survey consisted of 1 5 questions measuring the demographics, attention span, bilingualism, and caffeine consumption of participants. The demographer CICS asked for participant’s age, gender and ethnicity.
Following these, we asked if English was their first language, whether they were fluent in more than one language and how many languages they spoke. We then asked if they became easily distracted and asked them to pick a specific noise they found most annoying/distracting. After this we asked if they consumed caffeinated beverages. We also asked them to check all the caffeinated products that applied from a list of 10 caffeinated food and beverage items, including different coffee options( brewed, instant, espresso), tea, chocolate, energy drinks and soda.
We asked how many caffeinated drinks they consumed per week, and if they had ensured any caffeine today. Lastly, if they answered yes, to consuming caffeine the day of the task, we asked them how many caffeinated beverages they had today, and if they felt more awake/alert after drinking a cup of coffee. Word List. The word list consisted of ten neutral words, some including rock, desk, plug, wall, and ring. Cell Phone. The cell phone was used to distract participants with the orienting Presto. This orienting consisted of loud and shrill sound effects.
Procedure Participants were selected out of convenience and separated evenly into two groups, Group A and Group B. Once selected, participants filled out a consent form agreeing to continue with the study. Participants then filled out the Memory Recall Survey and were then told to wait for further instructions after completing it. Once they were finished, participants in group A were given the World List, and were told that they would have one minute to memorize the ten neutral words on the list.
After the one minute was up, participants handed back the word list, and had an additional minute to recall and record any words they remembered on the back of their Memory Recall Sun. ‘eye. After completing this task, subjects were thanked for their participation and free to leave. Participants in Group B were given the same Instructions as Group A, the difference being that a cellophane was placed in a hidden area of the room, and triggered to ring in the Presto orienting during the full minute of recall.