Bella Iosilevich

Distraction from phone use is a common problem in classrooms. The potential they provide for the digital disruption of learning has led to policies that prevent students from having phones during classes, but students often find these policies frustrating. Nor does phone removal address the underlying issue of boredom that may drive phone use in the first place. My study will investigate the relationship between trait boredom (susceptibility to boredom), distraction, and memory in a classroom context. My key goals will be to (1) study how digital distractions and supervision effect learning, (2) study how digital distractions and supervision influence self-reported engagement and distraction, and (3) study how trait boredom and motivation relate to distraction and learning outcomes.

The population used will be Baruch undergraduate students. I will address how these variables interact within environments that vary in their opportunity for digital distraction. Specifically, I will vary the level of supervision (vs. non-supervision) and access to cell phones (vs. no access) when students are viewing and attempting to learn from video lessons about math and English. Memory is measured for lecture content across these four conditions to determine how the opportunity for digital distraction impacts learning. Participants will be covertly recorded during the lecture to validate whether students will use cell phones when they have access. The amount of phone use in individuals will be related to both their subjective experience and lesson comprehension. Because it is expected that that boredom will be a major motivating force for why participants use digital devices (if available) or engage in other distractions (looking around, doodling, napping) if phones are not available, I will measure trait boredom before the study and state boredom and distraction after each lecture. Overall, my project aims to study the impact of boredom and supervison on attention, specifically with the distraction of digital devices.