College
College of Arts and Sciences
Mentor Information
Dr. Paul Atchley
Description
As technology becomes increasingly integrated in daily activities, there are growing concerns for the effects of multi-tasking within the workplace. It is important to consider how communication efficiency may be impacted by dual-task situations. Therefore, understanding the potential outcomes that distraction may have on language production is valuable in determining optimal working conditions for effective use of emotional communication. This dual-task study was designed to understand the effects of distraction on emotion-based communication behavior. A driving task was utilized as the means of distraction in this experiment, while the concurrent negotiation task was analyzed to understand how emotional language was affected based on attention. The results indicated that positive affective communication, including tone and words, was significantly higher in the non-distracted group. Similarly, engagement during negotiation was also significantly higher in the non-distracted group through increases in volume and speed of speech. The results of this study provide significant support for the idea that attention modulates an individual’s degree of involvement within a conversation and an overall reduction in the expression of emotional language when distracted.
The Effect of Distraction on Emotion-Based Communication Behaviors
As technology becomes increasingly integrated in daily activities, there are growing concerns for the effects of multi-tasking within the workplace. It is important to consider how communication efficiency may be impacted by dual-task situations. Therefore, understanding the potential outcomes that distraction may have on language production is valuable in determining optimal working conditions for effective use of emotional communication. This dual-task study was designed to understand the effects of distraction on emotion-based communication behavior. A driving task was utilized as the means of distraction in this experiment, while the concurrent negotiation task was analyzed to understand how emotional language was affected based on attention. The results indicated that positive affective communication, including tone and words, was significantly higher in the non-distracted group. Similarly, engagement during negotiation was also significantly higher in the non-distracted group through increases in volume and speed of speech. The results of this study provide significant support for the idea that attention modulates an individual’s degree of involvement within a conversation and an overall reduction in the expression of emotional language when distracted.
