Shut-up and listen

As much as we might like to tell a back-seat driver to shut up, it seems that it is safer to listen to them than to talk to them. Recent research provides a better understanding of why language, talking and listening, including on a cell phone, interferes with visual tasks, such as driving.

In two different experiments, associate professor of psychology Dr. Amit Almor of the University of South Carolina found that planning to speak and speaking put far more demands on the brain’s resources than listening.

His findings are based on two different experiments that involved nearly 50 people. One required participants to detect visual shapes on a monitor and the other needed them to use a computer mouse to track a fast-moving target on screen.

In both the experiments, the participants performed the visual tasks while listening to narratives and responding to the narratives.

“We measured their attention level and found that subjects were four times more distracted while preparing to speak or speaking than when they were listening. People can tune in or out as needed when listening,” Almor said.

In both the experiments, the researchers placed the participants in a circular, surround-sound environment in which the speakers were hidden and the voice shifted from the front, rear or either side.

Almor found that all the participants could complete the visual tasks in front of them more easily when the voice also was in front.

This effect, while not so strong as the difference between preparing to speak or speaking and listening, suggests that simultaneously performing a language task and a visual task is easier when the tasks are in the same space physically and cognitively, according to Dr Almor.

“Either people are used to face-to-face communication or, when they engage in a language task, they create a mental representation in their mind and place the voice somewhere in the space.

“In this case, that space is in front of them, which suggests that it may be easier to have all things that require attention occupy the same space,” Almor said.

Reference

Almor, A. (2008). Why does language interfere with vision-based tasks? Experimental Psychology, 55, 260-268.

Similar Posts:

• The Folly of Multitasking
• Multitasking by appointment
• Heavy multitaskers make poor multitaskers
• Less power impairs the mind
• Who slows you down at work?