Individual differences in memory disruption caused by simulated cellphone notifications.

People who read and dismiss distracting notifications while performing academic or professional tasks may pay a high cognitive price. Multimedia interruptions clearly impair comprehension and memory; however, their impact may depend on the individual's cognitive abilities and experiences. In a pilot study and two experiments, we explored the effects of three levels of distraction from cellphone notifications (no notifications, dismiss notifications and read notifications) on memory for categorised word lists. Individual differences in working memory capacity, attachment to and dependence on cellphones, and media multitasking, texting, video gaming and musical experience were assessed. Memory impairment increased with the level of distraction irrespective of participant scores on the individual difference measures. Dismissing notifications disrupted relational processing more than individual-item processing, whereas reading notifications disrupted both types of processing. Heavy texters demonstrated particularly poor memory performance, whereas individuals with high working memory capacity and high reliance on their cellphones performed relatively well. These results were interpreted in terms of recent multitasking theories and suggest that no one is immune from the disruptive effects of cellphone notifications while performing academic or professional tasks.

Distinctiveness and priority in free recall of words.

Participants recalled low- and high-priority words varying in distinctiveness in three experiments. Word priority was established by assigning point values based on font colour or conceptual category. Word distinctiveness varied across three list structures: homogeneous lists of words (same colour or category), 50/50 lists containing words in two font colours or from two categories, and isolation lists in which a word was isolated in serial position two either by colour (Experiments 1 and 2) or category (Experiment 3). Word priority was established before list presentation in Experiment 1 and after list presentation in Experiments 2 and 3. When colour priority was established before list presentation, participants recalled high-priority words better than low-priority words across all list structures. Early isolation enhanced recall for high-priority words but impaired recall for low-priority words. When colour priority was established after list presentation, neither priority nor distinctiveness enhanced recall. When category priority was established after list presentation, participants recalled high-priority words better than low-priority words, and isolation only enhanced recall when it was combined with high priority. We concluded that priority and distinctiveness combine to produce the early isolation effect, and that encoding and retrieval processes interact to enhance memory for high-priority and distinctive events.