Telephone conversations affect the executive but not the alerting or orienting network

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Mobile phone use is prevalent, and prior research indicates it impairs visual attention.
• Gunnell et al. (2020) identified cognitive delays but unaffected selective attention mechanisms during dual-tasking.
• The specific attentional networks affected by phone conversations remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate which specific attentional networks are impaired by engaging in a phone conversation.
• To differentiate the impact of mobile phone conversations on alerting, orienting, and executive attention.

Main Methods:

• Employed the attentional network task (ANT) to assess performance.
• Compared participant performance during silent conditions versus conditions involving a phone conversation.
• Evaluated the alerting, orienting, and executive attentional networks.

Main Results:

• A significant delay in response time was observed across all three attentional networks.
• The alerting and orienting network effects remained unchanged by phone conversations.
• A reduction in the conflict effect within the executive network was observed during conversations.

Conclusions:

• Engaging in phone conversations slows overall response speed.
• Mobile phone use specifically impacts the executive attentional network.
• Conversations reduce the capacity for processing environmental information due to executive network interference.