The distracting effects of a ringing cell phone: An investigation of the laboratory and the classroom setting

doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.03.001

Journal of Environmental Psychology

Volume 29, Issue 4, December 2009, Pages 513-521

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.03.001 Get rights and content

Abstract

The detrimental effects of a ringing phone on cognitive performance were investigated in four experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, the effects of different types of sounds (a standard cell phone ring, irrelevant tones and an instrumental song commonly encountered by participants) on performance were examined. In Experiment 1, slower responses were observed in all auditory groups relative to a silence condition, but participants in the ring and song conditions recovered more slowly. In Experiment 2, participants who were warned about the potential for distraction recovered more quickly, suggesting a benefit of this prior knowledge. This investigation continued in a college classroom setting (Experiments 3a and 3b); students were exposed to a ringing cell phone during the lecture. Performance on a surprise quiz revealed low accuracy rates on material presented while the phone was ringing. These findings offer insight into top-down cognitive processes that moderate involuntary orienting responses associated with a common stimulus encountered in the environment.

Section snippets

Experiment 1

The purpose of Experiment 1 was to track the response to a phone ring over time. This goal was accomplished by making group comparisons in a lexical decision task in which different auditory distracters were heard by some participants but not by others. The trial-level reaction time (RT) measures allowed us to track the time course of distraction effects and to detect potentially subtle differences among the various auditory conditions. During the experimental block of the task, participants

Experiment 2

In the second experiment we explored the hypothesis that anticipation of a ringing cell phone could moderate the disruptive effects. The advantage of prior knowledge for minimizing the detrimental effects of auditory distraction would lend support to the premise that top-down processes influence the time course of the response to distracting sounds. The main objective of the second experiment was to investigate whether the anticipation of an auditory distraction would influence the cost

Experiment 3a

The findings from Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that introducing a phone ring into an experimental setting significantly disrupted performance on laboratory-based cognitive tasks, particularly when people did not anticipate a distracting sound would occur. The survey results from Experiment 1 further suggested that participants were frequently exposed to ringing cell phones in their daily lives and felt that this exposure led to distraction from their ongoing activities. An important

Experiment 3b

The results of Experiment 3a suggested that cell phone rings were disruptive in the classroom setting; however, the results may have been confounded by the presence of a visual distraction. The confederate searched through her bag while the phone was ringing, appearing to try to silence the ring. This may have created a visual distraction effect in addition to any distraction present from the ringing phone. Experiment 3b was conducted to address this issue. Two major changes are noteworthy. The

General discussion

The results of the present research revealed new evidence about the distracting effects of cell phone rings. Although the ringing sound was detrimental to cognitive performance in both the laboratory and real-world settings, the effects were very short lived in the laboratory setting. The brief effects observed in the laboratory (Experiments 1 and 2) were consistent with an attentional orienting explanation (Cowan, 1995), coupled with additional top-down processes. These experiments

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The distracting effects of a ringing cell phone: An investigation of the laboratory and the classroom setting

Abstract

Section snippets

Experiment 1

Experiment 2

Experiment 3a

Experiment 3b

General discussion

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Disruption of office-related tasks by speech and office noise

British Journal of Psychology

Auditory distraction and short-term memory: Phenomenon and practical implications

Human Factors

Auditory distraction from low-intensity noise: a review of the consequences for learning and workplace environments

Applied Cognitive Psychology

Working memory controls involuntary attention switching: evidence from an auditory distraction paradigm

European Journal of Neuroscience

The MRC psycholinguistic database

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Attention and memory: An integrated framework

The semi-annual wireless industry survey

Neural mechanisms of involuntary attention to acoustic novelty and change

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience