Titbits of one-sided cell-phone conversations are
ubiquitous in our everyday lives. Whether we like it or not, we overhear these talks
while riding public vehicles, walking around the campus, or randomly eating on
restaurants and malls. I, personally, frequently overhear my parents’ cell-phone
conversations even if I’m in my room, and it just leaves me quite frustrated
since I can’t study well and/or concentrate on facebook-ing.
Thankfully, I discovered I’m not alone since a study
by Emberson et al. (2010) shows that it’s normal for people to get irritated
and out of focus when they hear nearby cell-phone conversations. In their
experiment, they had recorded “halfalogue” – one-sided dialogue which is the
same as overhearing half of the cell-phone conversations – in female college
women.
They gathered participants and let them hear these
recordings while instructing them to do tasks that require attention such as
tracking a moving dot using a computer mouse. Another treatment was formed,
wherein participants did the same concentration task, but they were exposed on hearing
both sides of the cell-phone conversations.
True enough, the researchers found that the
participants performed worse on their task when they were overhearing the
halfalogues. However, it is interesting how there is no decreased performance
when they were overhearing both sides of the cell-phone conversations.
This led the researchers to conclude that the brain
ignores predictable things while paying more attention to things that are
unpredictable. In this case, our brain finds it predictable when both sides of
the conversation are audible, which leads to non-disruption of attention in
doing tasks. On the other hand, hearing the unpredictable halfalogues always
put us on our toes since we always try to guess what they are talking about or what
will be the next thing they will say.
This is in rapport with the findings of Sutter (2011) where he exposed the public to staged conversations while they were
waiting on a bus station or travelling on a train. In one treatment, only one
end of the cell-phone conversations is heard (halfalogue), while the other
treatment enables people to overhear face-to-face conversations. Indeed, mobile
phone conversations are found to be more noticeable, intrusive, and annoying than
face-to-face conversations.
Moreover, it should be noted that these halfalogue
not only affect our attention when doing certain tasks, but also our focus in
doing mundane activities. Older adults are actually found to have difficulty
crossing the road and are less likely to complete their crossing when exposed
to overhearing cell-phone conversations compared when they are listening to
music or undistracted (Neider et al., 2011). Even analyzing traffic patterns
and making decisions when to cross are affected.
These studies really have astounding implications on
me, because ever since I’ve encountered this, I try to be more sensitive when I’m
talking at my cell-phone in a public area. I try to modulate the volume of my
voice since people really hear, not because they eavesdrop or pay attention,
but because it is an unconscious cognitive mechanism for us to be forced to
listen.
References:
Cell-phone Booth [Online Image]. Retrieved August
25, 2012, from http://blog.thefoundationstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/cell-phone-booth.jpg
Brave [Online Image]. Retrieved August 25, 2012,
from http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6963ecigx1r6aoq4o1_500.gif
Emberson, L., Lupyan, G., Goldstein, M., &
Spivery, M. (2010). Overheard cell-phone conversations when less speech is more
distracting. Psychological Science,
21(10), 1383-1388. doi:10.1177/0956797610382126
Neider, N., Gaspar, J.,
McCarley, J., Crowell, J., Karczmarski, H., & Kramer, A. (2011). Walking and talking: Dual-task effects on street crossing
behavior in older adults. Psychology
and Aging, 26(2), 260-268. Retrieved August 25, 2012, from Ebsco database.
Mason, R. (2011). Overheard
[Online Image]. Retrieved August 25, 2012, from http://www.atrandomcomics.com/1257%20-%20Restaurant%20Conversation.jpg
Sutter, N. (2011). Examining the intrusiveness and
impressions of public mobile phone conversations. Unpublished paper presented
at Student Symposium, Indiana. Retrieved from http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/bitstream/123456789/194978/1/SutterN_2011-3_BODY.pdf
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