Sanders, G. S., & Baron, R. S. (1975). The motivating effects of distraction on task performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32(6), 956-963.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.32.6.956
Conducted 2 studies with a total of 72 undergraduates to assess whether distraction has drivelike effects on task performance. In both studies, the effects of distraction over all trials interacted significantly with the nature of the task; distraction tended to facilitate the performances of simple tasks and significantly impaired performance on complex tasks. Moreover, analyses focusing upon drive carryover effects generally replicated these effects; when distraction was momentarily suspended, performance on simple tasks was facilitated in both studies (compared to nondistraction controls), whereas performance on the complex task used in Study 2 was still impaired. Results of Study 2 indicate that lack of impairment on the complex task in Study 1 on such trials was due to practice effects of repeated testing. Results indicate that distraction (a) has drivelike properties and (b) does not invariably impair performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)