Television distraction and the performance of introverts and extroverts
Abstract
An experiment was run to test the effect on reading comprehension of distraction by a television programme, which was presented while reading took place. Respondents, classified in terms of extroversion or introversion, carried out two reading comprehension tests in silence and in the presence of a television drama programme. As predicted, extroverts and introverts both performed better in silence, but there was a significant interaction that showed that extroverts performed better than introverts in the presence of television distraction. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research on this subject.
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Six of ten studies found that media use while reading interfered with reading comprehension, with correlations from -.24 to -.51.
“In addition, six of ten studies found that media use while reading interfered with reading comprehension, r range = À.24 to À.51 (Armstrong & Greenberg, 1990;Furnham, Gunter, & Peterson, 1994;Jeong & Hwang, 2012;Pool et al., 2000Pool et al., , 2003aPool et al., , 2003b)).”
From The consequences of media multitasking for youth: A review (2015) · cites this paper as Furnham, Gunter, & Peterson, 1994
Studies on personality characteristics indicated that introverts perform worse than extroverts when exposed to television while reading.
“Studies on personality characteristics indicated that introverts perform worse than extroverts when exposed to television while reading (Furnham et al., 1994;Ylias & Heaven, 2003).”
From The consequences of media multitasking for youth: A review (2015) · cites this paper as Furnham et al., 1994
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- Authors
- Furnham, A., Gunter, B., & Peterson, E.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Furnham, Adrian
- ORCID
- Furnham, Adrian
- Venue
- Applied Cognitive Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1994-12
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 705-711
- ISSN
- 0888-4080 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0720
- OpenAlex
- W2066410228
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 2.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Applied Cognitive Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
- Keywords
- reading comprehension, introversion, extraversion, personality differences, television drama, divided attention
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