تاثیر حواس پرتی بر روی درک مطلب: تجزیه و تحلیل پنج عامل بزرگ شخصیتی

This experiment is a partial replication of the Furnham, Gunter, and Peterson (1994) study of personality and television distraction effects on undergraduate reading comprehension performance. We examined the effects of television distraction on the reading comprehension of 178 undergraduates who were either relatively high or low on the five major personality domains: extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), agreeableness (A), conscientiousness (C), and openness to experience (O). Participants completed a personality inventory and two comprehension passages—one in silence and the other while being distracted. The usual extraversion over introversion superiority was found in one condition, while a lack of task difficulty/complexity and the effects of transmarginal inhibition are thought to have complicated other findings pertaining to E. Results were inconclusive with respect to N, C, A and O. These results, which highlight the complex nature of personality, comprehension and distraction, are discussed with reference to other research findings.

To what extent is the reading comprehension of different personality types affected by distraction? This question has received considerable recent research attention by Furnham and his colleagues (e.g. Furnham and Allass, 1999, Furnham and Bradley, 1997, Furnham et al., 1994 and Furnham et al., 1999). Whereas this literature has focussed on the differences in performance of extraverts (Es) and introverts (Is), this study will assess the impact of distraction on the five major personality domains—extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), conscientiousness (C), agreeableness (A), and openness to experience (O). Cognitive task performance is directly affected by levels of cortical arousal (Eysenck, 1967 and Eysenck and Eysenck, 1985). According to this view, optimum task performance is reached at moderate levels of cortical arousal. Introverts perform less well than do extraverts when distracted because of the introvert's greater cortical arousal and subsequent aversion to over-stimulation (Eysenck, 1967). The only important qualification to this pattern is that, under certain high levels of stimulation, Is are better able to inhibit arousal responses than are Es. This is said to be due to the de-arousal of the central nervous system at high levels of stimulation (transmarginal inhibition; TMI) and the Is lower threshold for this phenomenon (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985). Therefore, Is should only be more aroused than Es under moderate levels of stimulation (Matthews & Deary, 1998). Eysenck's (1967) central hypothesis of E superiority under conditions of distraction has received some support over the years. For example, Howarth (1969) reported E superiority in serial learning tasks, while Morgenstern, Hodgson, and Law (1974) also found that Is function less efficiently than do Es in the presence of distraction. More recently, Furnham et al. (1994) claimed evidence for the theory in a study of television distraction, reading comprehension and extraversion. Whilst both Es and Is performed better in the silent condition, Es outperformed Is under conditions of television distraction and also reported lower levels of perceived distraction. In an experiment that highlighted the importance of distractor complexity, increasingly complex music resulted both in consecutive increases in the performance of Es and decreases in the performance of Is (Furnham & Allass, 1999). Likewise, in a study of ‘pop music' and personality by Furnham and Bradley (1997) it was reported that Es outperformed Is under conditions of music distraction for both reading comprehension and memory tasks. On the other hand, the most recently published research by Furnham et al. (1999) found no significant support for Eysenck's (1967) position, although the data pointed in the expected direction. These results, however, may have been at least partly due to the fact that participants in that study were tested in a high school classroom setting and were probably distracted in other ways (e.g. the rooms had views across the school; see Furnham et al., 1999). As proposed by Furnham et al. (1999), it is possible that other personality domains besides E may also be implicated. It is conceivable, for example, that high scorers on neuroticism (High Ns) will underperform relative to Low Ns when distracted (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985). High Ns have been described as having higher autonomic arousal, a greater tendency for both worry and anxiety, and as being more easily distracted when conditions are stressful (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1985 and Matthews and Deary, 1998). Thus, it follows that if the performance of High Ns were to be hindered by moderately loud, distracting stimuli in timed testing conditions, they might more easily become anxious or stressed, thereby leading to a deterioration in performance. Besides replicating Furnham et al. (1994), the contribution of this study is the incorporation of additional personality domains (N, A, C, O). Recent work by Barkley (1997) provides some theoretical justification for this study. He proposed a hybrid neuropsychological theory of executive function (covert, self-directed forms of behaviour e.g. verbal working memory) and self-regulation, extending his theory to an understanding of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Drawing upon aspects of Gray's (Gray, 1987 and Gray, 1994) behavioural inhibition system and concurring with the view that ADHD arises from under-activity in this system (e.g. Quay, 1988 and Quay, 1997), Barkley specifically focuses on the nature of self-regulation, how the executive functions are involved in it, and demonstrations of their critical dependence on behavioural inhibition. According to Barkley (1997) all successful human performance is depicted as contingent upon functional behavioural inhibition that refers to the withholding or cessation of responses and resistance to distraction. He proposes that, aside from those with ADHD, some individuals in the larger general population could also be expected to find it far easier than others to inhibit distracting stimuli due to their self-regulatory mechanisms either being neurologically better developed or self-trained than other individuals. Barkley (1997) also claims that distractors are more likely to disrupt the performance of inhibition-deficient individuals when the task performance requires greater self-regulation (executive control). Contemporary personality research has already claimed an association between high conscientiousness (High C) and better self-regulation with respect to planning, performing cognitive tasks, overcoming distraction (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and “…sustaining arousal” (Brand, 1997, p. 30). Indeed, definitions of this domain routinely include descriptive terms such as “driven” and “persistent” (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Indirect relationships have also been proposed between Low Cs and poor self-regulation (White, 1999). Given these considerations, therefore, one has good reason for expecting High Cs to outperform Low Cs when distracted. Individuals high in agreeableness (High As) are reported as having greater field/perceptual independence from cues in the environment, compared to Low As. Thus, High As are better able to “…attend narrowly in a focused manner, avoiding the influence of the perceptual field…” (Brand, 1997, p. 30). Agreeableness has also been linked with processes of “effortful control” and the self-regulation and inhibition of negative affect (Ahadi & Rothbart, 1994, p. 342). Thus, High As are expected to be more skilled at controlling emotions such as anger and anxiety in situations involving frustration (e.g. conditions of distraction; Graziano, Jensen-Campbell, & Hair, 1996). Given these qualities and descriptions of High As as being helpful and compliant (Costa & McCrae, 1992), one could predict that, under conditions of television distraction, they will outperform Low As when distracted. Finally, openness to experience has been found to be associated with divergent thinking, an ability thought to contribute to creativity (McCrae & Costa, 1997). High Os are described as creative and original, very curious about their inner and outer environments and more willing than some to entertain unconventional ideas (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Not only are High Os described as creative, they are also seen as having an “active imagination”, showing a “preference for variety”, and as being unconventional (Costa & McCrae, 1985, p. 10). Thus, it could be argued that the self-regulatory skills of High Os would enable them to cope well with the novel situation of completing a timed reading comprehension test in the laboratory with the television switched on. In summary, the following hypotheses guided this research: 1. Es will outperform Is on a reading comprehension task when distracted; 2. Low Ns will outperform High Ns on a reading comprehension task when distracted; 3. High Cs will outperform Low Cs on a reading comprehension task when distracted; 4. High As will outperform Low As on a reading comprehension task when distracted; 5. High Os will outperform Low Os on a reading comprehension task when distracted.