The purpose of this study was to examine individual difference in focused attention and the influence of these differences on verbal task performance under ocnditions in which irrelevant speech was presnet.Subjective workload was also examined (using the NASA TLX,Hart and Staveland,1984).Fifty-four participants performed three editing task trials under quiet,discontinuous,and continuous speech conditions.The Task Absorption subscale of the Expanded Tellegen Absorption Scale (Jackson,Klein Reeth,and Waters,1997) was also administered.Significant differences were found within coditions between High and low Task Absorbers.The importance of focused attention in the open-plant office is discussed.
展开▼
