The effect of various types of distractions in a testing environment on the performance of academic tasks

School Name

Spring Valley High School

Grade Level

11th Grade

Presentation Topic

Psychology and Sociology

Presentation Type

Non-Mentored

Written Paper Award

4th Place

Abstract

With the invention of smartphones and mass media, distractions are becoming more prevalent in students’ lives more than ever. Students believe they can multitask between engagement in social media and academics. However, this results in their academics suffering negative repercussions. Findings from this study could emphasize the importance of limiting distractions in work environments and could determine what types of distractions should be avoided depending on the academic work. It was hypothesized that text messaging would have the greatest impact on test scores, especially those in mathematics. Subjects were randomly distributed into one of three academic tasks (SAT Reading, SAT Math, and SAT Vocabulary) and performed their designated task in five types of testing environments: no distraction, music (without lyrics), music (with lyrics), text messaging, and Internet/social media. Responses were scored using the corresponding answer keys and were compared. At α = 0.05, the three ANOVA tests for each academic task indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the scores of each testing environment for any subject, (F(4,45) = 1.2326, p = 0.3106), (F(4,45) = 0.5453, p = 0.7033), and (F(4,45) = 0.3152, p = 0.8663). Therefore, the hypothesis was not supported. In conclusion, the impact of text messaging on academic performance is no greater than the impact of other distractions such as music and social media.

Location

Wall 308

Start Date

3-25-2017 10:15 AM

Presentation Format

Oral and Written

Group Project

No

COinS
 
Mar 25th, 10:15 AM

The effect of various types of distractions in a testing environment on the performance of academic tasks

Wall 308

With the invention of smartphones and mass media, distractions are becoming more prevalent in students’ lives more than ever. Students believe they can multitask between engagement in social media and academics. However, this results in their academics suffering negative repercussions. Findings from this study could emphasize the importance of limiting distractions in work environments and could determine what types of distractions should be avoided depending on the academic work. It was hypothesized that text messaging would have the greatest impact on test scores, especially those in mathematics. Subjects were randomly distributed into one of three academic tasks (SAT Reading, SAT Math, and SAT Vocabulary) and performed their designated task in five types of testing environments: no distraction, music (without lyrics), music (with lyrics), text messaging, and Internet/social media. Responses were scored using the corresponding answer keys and were compared. At α = 0.05, the three ANOVA tests for each academic task indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the scores of each testing environment for any subject, (F(4,45) = 1.2326, p = 0.3106), (F(4,45) = 0.5453, p = 0.7033), and (F(4,45) = 0.3152, p = 0.8663). Therefore, the hypothesis was not supported. In conclusion, the impact of text messaging on academic performance is no greater than the impact of other distractions such as music and social media.