Human Distrations' Psychology
It is appropriate to discuss in this chapter the influence of distracting timuli on behavior because distraction simply means changing the focus of perception or attending to something else. Everyone has had difficulty in directing his attention because of flashing lights, loud noises, odors, gossip, or other kinds of distracting stimuli.
When the stimulus causing the distraction acts upon the same sense organ that is concerned with attention, we run into trouble. Thus outside noises interfere greatly when one is talking over the :elephone, but flashing lights may have little distracting effect.
Of course not all distraction comes from the outside. It is difficult to attend to what you are doing if you are worried, afraid, or excited. In this connection it has been found that taxicab drivers who ad family worries were more likely t.o have accidents than those who did not. The accidents occurred becawle the worried drivers were unable to meet the attention requirements of safe driving.
From a practical standpoint,. the control of distraction is important because a person's efficiency may be reduced by stimuli that take attention away from his job. The accident incurred by the taxi driver is a case in point. In one stuqy, the actual cost of distraction ",vas determined in terms of the energy required to perform a unit of work. Typists worked under two conditions: some days surrounded by soundproof walls; other days in the same place except that the partitions were removed, allowing the usual noises to prevail. The energy cost was measured by having the typists breathe into a bag so constructed as to capture tpe expired air. The air was then analyzed for the amount of carbon dioxide, and from this, oxygen consumption has determined. The amount of typing accomplished under the quiet and noisy conditions was the same, but. the energy cost was much greater under the noisy condition.
