Physiological Effects Experienced After Introduction of a Distraction and Its Effects on Performance
File(s)
Date
2019Author
Kozlowski, Samantha
Koepf, Nicole
Wiess, Timothy J.
Rybarik, Kayleigh
Chreptowicz, Victor
Publisher
Journal of Advanced Student Sciences (JASS)
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Many college-aged students are immersed in a world full of distractions. These
distractions can be attributed to the rapid-growing technology of smartphones, the growing social
climate, or a plethora of other factors. These distractions may have a large effect on the student’s
stress level and ability to focus on the task at hand. We examined how a student’s performance
and stress level changed when participating in gameplay both in silence and with a designated
distraction, a two-minute audio recording. Once the study was concluded, we compared both the
differences in physiological responses and game-score between the baseline, no distraction
gameplay, and distraction gameplay. When comparing the differences in heart rate, breath rate,
and skin conductance over the course of the study, we calculated p-values of .46, .70, and .53
respectively. For the game-score, we calculated a p-value of .001. Overall, we found that there
was no significant physiological response to the distraction; however, there was a significant
difference in performance of the games with and without distraction.
Subject
Breathing Rate
Respiration Rate
Skin Conductance
Performance
Distraction
Auditory Stimulus
Irrelevant Sound
stress
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/82010Description
An article that appeared in JASS, issue 2019