We live in a world of distractions. We multitask our way through our days. We wear watches that alert us to text messages. We carry phones that buzz with breaking news.
A new study suggests that distractions -- those pesky interruptions that pull us away from our goals -- might change our perception of what's real, making us believe we saw something different from what we actually saw.
Even more troubling, the study suggests people might not realize their perception has changed -- to the contrary, they might feel great confidence in what they think they saw.
Read the complete article from Ohio State News here: Distractions distort what’s real, study suggests
Your cognitive capacity is significantly reduced when your smartphone is within reach — even if it’s off. That’s the takeaway finding from a new study from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. McCombs Assistant Professor Adrian Ward and co-authors conducted experiments with nearly 800 smartphone users in an attempt to measure, for the first time, how well people can complete tasks when they have their smartphones nearby even when they’re not using them.
In one experiment, the researchers asked study participants to sit at a computer and take a series of tests that required full concentration in order to score well. The tests were geared to measure participants’ available cognitive capacity — that is, the brain’s ability to hold and process data at any given time. Before beginning, participants were randomly instructed to place their smartphones either on the desk face down, in their pocket or personal bag, or in another room. All participants were instructed to turn their phones to silent.
The researchers found that participants with their phones in another room significantly outperformed those with their phones on the desk, and they also slightly outperformed those participants who had kept their phones in a pocket or bag.
The findings suggest that the mere presence of one’s smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity and impairs cognitive functioning, even though people feel they’re giving their full attention and focus to the task at hand.
Read the complete article from the University of Texas at Austin here: The Mere Presence of Your Smartphone Reduces Brain Power, Study Shows
The full text journal article from the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research can be found here: Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own
Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
Many in the music industry have been split as to whether people can really hear a difference between CD quality music and high resolution audio -- even celebrity musicians have entered the fray with new music streaming services: Tidal launched by Jay-Z and Pono players and music service spearheaded by Neil Young and crowd funded through a Kickstarter campaign.
Both streaming services launched in the last two years have been met with scepticism. However, this new study found that listeners can tell the difference between low and high resolution audio formats, and the effect is dramatically increased with training: trained test subjects could distinguish between the formats around sixty per cent of the time.
Read the complete article from Queen Mary University of London here: People can hear the difference in high resolution audio, study finds
The full text journal article can be found here: A Meta-Analysis of High Resolution Audio Perceptual Evaluation
The New York Times ran this article in its "Fashion and Style" section on the anxiety that can be caused by the "typing awareness indicator"- that little gray bubble with the ellipses that pops up on your iPhone while the person on the other end of your text message is writing a response. Although this article does not describe an experiment, it is such a rich topic for experimentation!
Read the article from the New York Times here: Bubbles Carry a Lot of Weight
