Distraction Conflict

Saunders proposed that the presence of others creates distraction to the person attempting to perform the task
when a person is distracted, less attention is paid to the task which inhibits performance of simple tasks and facilitates performance of simple tasks
Saunders et al 1978
1. tested effect of distraction conflict on performance of a task
2. ppts presented with a simple or complex task in the presence of others doing either the same or a different task
  1. hypothesized that an actor doing the same task as the ppt would provide more distraction as they would be a source of competition
3. those in the high-distraction condition performed the simple task better and the complex task worse
  1. supports distraction-conflict
  2. can also be applied to animals

Resource summary

	Created by sophieisnotakise over 10 years ago