Distraction Conflict theory Flashcards
who thought of this theory
Baron 1986
Basics
Conflict experiences between task at hand and attending to others in our immediate surrounding
Conflict inducing stimuli could be anything e.g. flashing lights
These stimuli causes a distraction by increasing demands for cognitive resources TASK V AUDIENCE
This conflict increases arousal which in turn facilitates dominant responses that leads to social facilitation on simple tasks but inhibition on difficult tasks as drive overcomes distraction
PEOPLES PERFORMANCE ON SIMPLE TASKS IS FACILITATED BY AROUSAL BUT INHIBITED ON COMPLEX TASKS BY THE SAME AROUSAL
Increase in arousal…
increases dominant response-whether that is helpful or hindering depends on the complexity of the task and how well the task is learnt
social facilitation
easy task, learnt skill=less demand for cognitive resources audience would increase performance=social facilitation
social inhibition
difficult task, new kill, more demand for cognitive resources, audience would inhibit performance=social inhibition
Guerin and Innes 1984
“in the presence of others there is a conflict between attending to the person and attending to the task”
This is called ATTENTIONAL CONFLICT and is responsible for the arousal of the person. ATTENTIONAL CONFLICT occurs between multiple stimuli when the subject is interested in paying attention to each stimuli
what is attentional stimuli
a conflict between attending to the task and attending to the person, this is responsible for the arousal of the person.
Occurs because the person wants to pay attention to all stimuli
Huguet et al 1999
conducted a study where participants did the strop test with a coactor who either worked more slowly, at the same pace, or faster than them.
Interference decreased for participants who worked at the same pace or faster coactors. Participants engaged in social comparison with the coactor and this created distraction. Distracted and hence performance decreased
Extensions Bernd 2002
overload hypothesis
feedback loop model
capacity model
extensions
overload hypothesis
Bernd 2002
distractors lead to cognitive overload (when an individual is bombarded with excessive information) and while in this overloads, participants will do worse on complex tasks and do better on simple tasks because in simple tasks the person focuses on the new stimuli whereas in complex tasks, the person focuses on distractors too which come with the complex task
extensions
feedback loop model
Bernd 2002
Become aware of ourselves and focus attention on that. People become aware of the differences between their actual and anticipated behaviour.
People perform better in front of an audience due to increased awareness of behaviour
extensions
capacity model
Bernd 2002
for tasks that require automatic information processing (simple tasks), the presence of others does not cause problems because the short term memory is not required for automatic information processing and so performance increases.
For tasks that require controlled information, the presence of others does impede the level of performance because the short term memory is necessary to focus attention on the task and the attention
ORDER
What is it social f and social i attentional conflict Studies; Huguet et al, 1999 barch and Kerr 2003 Extensions; Bernd 2002, overload hypothesis feedback loop model capacity model
