The Effects of Distraction on One’s Thoughts

I wanted to test by how much distraction will have an effect on someone’s reaction time in solving problems.

Does distracting a student hinder his or her ability to think?

There will be two randomized groups of 50 students each. Group A will solve multiplication problems on a computer without any other images on the screen, and without music as well. Group B will solve the same multiplication problems on a computer with images appearing on the side of the screen and loud music playing in the background. After the students are finished solving the problems, the number of right and wrong between the two groups will be compared to see if the distractions surrounding the students had an effect on their concentration and ability to think.

For this experimental design, I plan on using images and sounds as independent variables and the outcome of the math problems as the dependent variable.

My hypothesis is that the group of students who are not distracted by the images and sounds will score a higher grade than the group of students who were distracted by the images and sounds.

If my hypothesis turns out to be correct, I think this will benefit students everywhere, and help them realize that listening to music and doing other actions (such as Facebook) while doing homework or studying for a test will hinder them from getting the highest potential of studying or work that they would be doing, if not distracted.

I think thinking of the research question was hard to do because I had to find one that I could do, and was interested in.

Also when designing the experiment, it was hard to try to keep the amount of confounding variables to a minimum. So I had to change my research experiment a couple of times.