Working Under Distractions

Last registered on December 01, 2023

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Working Under Distractions

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0012534

Initial registration date

November 18, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

December 01, 2023, 4:52 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

Netherlands

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Yang Zhong

Affiliation

University of Amsterdam

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2023-11-20

End date

2023-12-31

Keywords

Behavior, Gender, Lab

Additional Keywords

Preferences

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Individuals need to work under various forms of distractions in modern educational and professional settings. Some distractions require individuals to multitask, like phone calls and some distractions do not require a response, like workplace noises. We aim to use a lab experiment to measure the effect of different types of distractions on productivity, to study heterogeneity in handling distractions, and to elicit willingness to pay to avoid being distracted.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Zhong, Yang. 2023. "Working Under Distractions." AEA RCT Registry. December 01. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12534-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

In the first treatment, individuals will solve the main cognitive task first, followed by ten small adding-numbers tasks.

In the second treatment, the main cognitive task will be interrupted at ten random moments by the adding-numbers tasks. The screen for the main cognitive task will disappear and the timer will freeze when the small adding-numbers tasks interrupt. Participants will have to solve these adding-numbers tasks correctly before returning to the main cognitive task.

In the third treatment, individuals will still solve the main cognitive task for ten minutes but a podcast (in English) on a topic of general interest will be played at the same time. Participants will not be able to turn it off. After the main cognitive task, participants will solve ten small adding-numbers tasks.

Intervention Start Date

2023-11-20

Intervention End Date

2023-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

a) To study the effect of different types of distractions on performance in a cognitive task.
b) To study individual heterogeneity in ability to handle distractions.
c) To elicit willingness to pay to avoid being distracted.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The experiment will run in the following order: before the start of the game, participants first fill in a personality questionnaire. After that, participants practice the two types of games that they will play in the experiment: Nonogram and adding numbers. They will then play the games for three main rounds (each round with a different treatment) followed by a choice round. The experiment will end with a small survey on demographics.

In the main part of the experiment, we will use three treatments to capture the effect of different types of distractions in a within-subject design. In all treatments, individuals will have ten minutes to solve a main cognitive task (Nonogram) that will be rewarded through a piece-rate scheme. Participants will also play ten small adding-numbers tasks in each treatment, but how this task is presented will differ among treatments. Each adding-numbers task needs to be solved correctly within one minute, otherwise, points will be deducted.

In the first treatment, individuals will solve the main cognitive task first, followed by ten small adding-numbers tasks.

In the second treatment, the main cognitive task will be interrupted at ten random moments by the adding-numbers tasks. The screen for the main cognitive task will disappear and the timer will freeze when the small adding-numbers tasks interrupt. Participants will have to solve these adding-numbers tasks correctly before returning to the main cognitive task.

In the third treatment, individuals will still solve the main cognitive task for ten minutes but a podcast (in English) on a topic of general interest will be played at the same time. Participants will not be able to turn it off. After the main cognitive task, participants will solve ten small adding-numbers tasks.

All participants will solve the same set of Nonogram and adding-numbers tasks in each round but the order of the treatment will be randomized among individuals.

Lastly, we will elicit willingness to pay to avoid being distracted by the adding-numbers tasks or by the podcast by presenting participants with a price list with options between solving the main cognitive task with these two types of distractions and solving the main cognitive task without distractions but with a monetary deduction.

Before the participants see the games played in the experiment, they will fill in the Big Five personality questionnaire in which we add a few items to measure participants’ attitudes towards distractions in work. We will also include questions that measure other social preferences.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

randomization done in the lab by a computer

Randomization Unit

individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

200 students

Sample size: planned number of observations

200 students

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

200 students

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

We can calculate the minimum sample size using the one-sample mean test. In a pilot experiment to test for level of difficulty of the games, to have a 5% change in points earned in part (a) where we are interested in the effect of distractions on performance, a sample size of 200 is required for a power level of 0.8.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB