Background: The ability to apportion cognitive resources to process multiple visual and auditory
stimuli is essential for human communication in competing conditions.
Purpose: The purpose of the current research was to examine the effects of a cell phone conversation
on a battery of cognitive tests, using both timing (RT) and accuracy (A′) as dependent
measures.
Research Design: A repeated measures ANOVA was conducted.
Study Sample: Forty-two college-age (mean 22 yr) adult females with normal hearing and cognitive
function participated in the study.
Data Collection and Analysis: In one condition (quiet), a standardized cognitive assessment battery was administered
to participants in a quiet room. In the (cell phone) condition, subjects were formulating
and responding to specific questions about their travel experiences during administration
of the same cognitive assessment battery. The computer automatically records subject
performance. Post-hoc pairwise comparisons were conducted using the Bonferroni approach.
The alpha level was set at .05 for all data analysis. This method of analysis was
repeated for each of the dependent measures, RT, and A′.
Results: The results revealed a consistent, significant effect on reaction time between the
two conditions. The same analysis was also conducted to examine the effect of participation
in a cell phone discussion on accuracy. As with RT, results revealed a consistent,
significant affect on A′ between the two conditions.
Conclusions: Our study supports the notion that there are differential effects of auditory distracters
across cognitive spheres. For simple automatic type visual cognitive tasks, the effect
is minimal. However, as visual tasks increase in difficulty, the effect of the auditory
distraction is magnified, particularly when the task requires extensive division of
language resources.
Key Words
Attention - auditory distraction - CalCAP - cell phone - cognition - cognitive accuracy
- cognitive reaction time - cognitive resource allocation - dual task - mobile phone
- visual attention
