Aranday 1

Question: How do distractions and disruptions affect the

writing and reading process?

SÖRQVIST, PATRIK, ANATOLE NÖSTL, and NIKLAS HALIN. “Disruption of Writing Processes by the

Semanticity of Background Speech.” Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, Received 23 May 2011,

accepted 22 November 2011, vol. 53, no. 2, 2012, pp. 97–102, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-

9450.2011.00936.x.

Summary:

This source is about a study conducted on 48 Swedish students that underwent a procedure of listening

to 3 different types of sound while having to write a story for each type of sound. The aspects they

investigated in their research was text production, corrections and errors, and pauses. One of their

predictions is that they “…expected to find a larger effect of speech due to a conflict between semantic

processes in addition to a conflict between serial order processes.” The conclude by saying that a

complex task like writing is sensitive to noise, and that their study can be an argument that offices

should reconsider promoting noisy work environments.

Bowman, Laura L., et al. “Can Students Really Multitask? An Experimental Study of Instant Messaging

While Reading.” Computers and Education, vol. 54, no. 4, 2010, pp. 927–31,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.024.
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Summary:

This source is about a study done on how instant messaging affects the process of reading. The study

was conducted on 89 college students that were separated into three groups for them to read an

academic passage. These conditions of the three groups were that one instant messaged before reading,

the second instant messaged during reading, and the last group didn’t instant message at all. They

predicted that the group that instant messaged would take longer to read and do worse on a

comprehension test of the passage. They conclude saying, “Our findings suggest that they will actually

need more time (from multi-tasking) to achieve the same level of performance on an academic task.”

Green, McKinley. “Smartphones, Distraction Narratives, and Flexible Pedagogies: Students’ Mobile

Technology Practices in Networked Writing Classrooms.” Computers and Composition, vol. 52,

2019, pp. 91–106, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2019.01.009.

Critical Analysis:

I chose this source because I can personally connect with it the most and it revolves around my question

about distractions. This source is about a study conducted through survey responses and interviews. In

the abstract it states how students are more engaged in their work when they can use technology as a

device for learning. And when the learning material isn’t engaging for students, students will turn

towards their smartphones as a source of distraction. This article was written pre-covid, meaning that

there were fewer interactive ways to learn with technology. But I can still remember things from that

era that were technologically interactive like Kahoot and Quizizz, both acting as a review activity for

tests that genuinely helped me as a student. Right before quarantine, we were introduced to Nearpod,

an app that allowed us to look at notes and write answers for questions through our phones. This
 Aranday 3

helped by saving time from writing, and you could instead by listening to your lecturer. This source will

act as a pro for distractions for my research.