Visual attention not impaired by listening or motor act of speech

1. “Targets in yellow” “Track targets” “Is this a target?” Telephone Conversation Impairs Visual Attention Via A Central Bottleneck Melina Kunar (1) , Randall Carter (2) Michael Cohen (3) & Todd Horowitz (3,4) • The University of Warwick • Colgate University • Brigham & Women’s Hospital • Harvard Medical School General Methods Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) measures sustained visual attention Track 4 disks out of 8 Introduction Conclusions Driving is impaired while talking on a mobile phone (e.g. Strayer & Johnston, 2001). Indirect evidence (e.g. impaired memory) suggests this is an attentional problem (Strayer & Drews, 2007). Here we looked for direct evidence. Yes, telephone conversation disrupts visual attention • Visual attention not impaired by listening or motor act of speech • Impairment occurs when making cognitive demands on speech Does telephone conversation disrupt visual attention? Experiment 2 Experiment 1 What aspect of conversation interferes with MOT? Experiment 1a Single Task – MOT Dual Task – MOT and phone conversation (hands-free) Experiment 1b Single Task – MOT Dual Task – MOT and listening to narrative Suggests that bottleneck occurs at a central cognitive stage Single Task – MOT Dual Task – MOT and phone conversation (hands- free) Dual Task – MOT and shadowing (repeat word) Dual Task – MOT and generate (word game) • MOT draws from visual attention resources and central, amodal attention resources • Telephone conversation competes for amodal resources Good Performance Bad Performance References Strayer, D. L., & Johnston, W. A. (2001). Driven to distraction: dual-Task studies of simulated driving and conversing on a cellular telephone. Psychological Science, 12(6), 462-466. Strayer, D. L., & Drews, F. A. (2007). Cell-phone-induced driver distraction. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(3), 128-131. Telephone conversation interferes with MOT; listening for comprehension does not Cognitive task of generating speech impairs MOT Please contact me at M.A.Kunar@warwick.ac.uk with any questions