How Noise Distraction Affects Performance on Math Test Based on Difficulty Phoebe Torchia Binghamton University Psychology 344

Introduction Background noise has the ability to distract listeners from tasks and decrease efficacy Background noise pulls attention because of the urgency to see if there’s a necessary response Factors that contribute to distraction: frequency, variation, amplitude, etc. Sound is heard involuntarily Research on noise distraction is important in order to optimize learning environments Our Hypothesis: Students will score significantly less well on the difficult exam during the distraction trial, but the distraction will not significantly affect results on the easy exam

Methods Participants: 60 Undergraduate Psychology Students from Binghamton University Apparatus: Four math tests distributed in four conditions (A1,A2,B1,B2) A1 (easy) and A2 (difficult) were two math tests administered without a distraction B2 (easy) and B2 (difficult) were two math tests administered with a distraction (cell phone ringing) Design: 2x2 between subjects design Half of participants in no distraction condition, half of participants distraction condition IV1: Distraction IV2: Difficulty of Exam DV: Exam Results Both trials were given seven minutes to complete a math exam, half of the participants in each trial had a difficult exam, half of the participants in each trial had an easy exam. Trial 1 had no distraction, Trial 2 had a cell phone distracting every two minutes throughout the trial

Results Two-Way ANOVA test – No significant differences between trials – Distraction did not impact test results in a significant way – Only significance was the mean number correct for the easy trial vs. the mean number correct for the difficult trial

Discussion Results showed that our hypothesis was incorrect, there was no significant difference in test scores due to the distraction Both the easy group and the difficult groups performed better in the distraction trial than in the non distraction trial Our findings were inconsistent with previous research done on noise distraction – Possible reasons: too small of a sample size, not enough of a distraction

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