Comparing attentional disengagement between Prolific and MTurk samples.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Psychological Research Methods

Background:

• Attention frequently shifts from primary tasks to secondary activities (multitasking) or unrelated thoughts (mind wandering).
• Online platforms are increasingly used for participant recruitment in psychological studies, but platform-specific effects are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether attentional disengagement during a cognitive task differs between participants recruited from Prolific and Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk).
• To examine the influence of risk (point loss) on attentional disengagement across different recruitment platforms.

Main Methods:

• An attention task was administered to participants recruited via Prolific and MTurk, with varying risk levels for errors (high vs. low point loss).
• Attentional disengagement was measured through task performance, self-reported mind wandering, and multitasking frequency.
• A second experiment adjusted MTurk reputation criteria and remuneration to assess the persistence of platform differences.

Main Results:

• Prolific participants exhibited lower levels of attentional disengagement compared to MTurk participants.
• MTurk participants showed significantly more disengagement, with an interaction effect where high-risk conditions reduced disengagement more than low-risk conditions on MTurk.
• Platform differences in individual traits and variable relationships were observed, and persisted even after adjusting MTurk criteria.

Conclusions:

• The choice of online participant recruitment platform (Prolific vs. MTurk) can substantially impact findings related to attentional disengagement.
• Recruitment platform characteristics, including reputation criteria and remuneration, may influence participant engagement and task performance.
• Researchers must consider potential platform biases when designing and interpreting studies involving cognitive tasks and online participant samples.