Open AccessDISTRACTION EFFECTS IN TASKS OF VARYING DIFFICULTY: METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN MEASURING DEVELOPMENT OF DISTRACTIBILITY
Author(s) -
Hale Gordon,
Flaugher Jan
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
ets research bulletin series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2333-8504
pISSN - 0424-6144
DOI - 10.1002/j.2333-8504.1976.tb01087.x
Subject(s) - distraction , task (project management) , psychology , audiology , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , management , economics
The effects of distraction on 5‐ and 8‐year‐old children's performance on a short‐term memory task were examined. Tasks at three levels of difficulty were employed to determine whether a floor effect could account for the lack of an age difference reported in an earlier study. A floor effect does not appear to be a key factor; performance was well above chance under all conditions here, yet the absolute amount of performance decrement was roughly equal for the two age levels regardless of task difficulty. Also at issue here is whether proportional change might be a more appropriate index of distraction effects than absolute performance decrement. The relevance of the present data to this issue is discussed. The children adapted somewhat to the presence of distraction as shown in greater per‐formance impairment for the first trial under distraction than for remaining trials. The degree of adaptation was roughly comparable for the two age groups.