Abstract
Fidgeting is defined as small movements particularly in the hands and feet. It includes tapping feet and fingernails, shaking legs, readjusting one's position, or one's clothing. Fidgeting can arise in individuals for various reasons like boredom, stress, or anxiety. It may be that fidgeting behavior can be helpful with increasing attention span. However, inhibiting fidgeting may also lead individuals to pay attention to nothing else but the inhibition of fidgeting. This study was conducted to see if fidgeting, while performing vigilant oriented tasks, lead to better performances on such tasks. All participants wore pedometers on both their wrists and ankles in order to record their movements for the duration of the study. Participants began the study by completing both an easy and hard visual search task and finished by completing a vigilance task. Each participant was unknowingly assigned to either a move or suppress condition for the vigilance task, in which they were told to play with a toy or to hold a toy steady. The results indicated that therer was greater accuracy and faster response times in the easy visual search condition, as was expected. The results for the vigilance task suggested that participants assigned to the move condition moved five times as much as participants assigned to the suppress condition. In addition, participants were more vigilant when they were allowed to move. Overall, our results provide evidence for the hypothesis that people pay more attention when they are instructed to move and detriments in performance are seen when people are instructed to inhibit movement.
Faculty Sponsors
Dr. Leanne Boucher and Dr. W. Mathhew Collins
Project Type
Event
Location
Alvin Sherman Library
Start Date
4-8-2016 1:00 PM
End Date
4-8-2016 5:30 PM
Does Fidgeting Affect Cognition?
Alvin Sherman Library
Fidgeting is defined as small movements particularly in the hands and feet. It includes tapping feet and fingernails, shaking legs, readjusting one's position, or one's clothing. Fidgeting can arise in individuals for various reasons like boredom, stress, or anxiety. It may be that fidgeting behavior can be helpful with increasing attention span. However, inhibiting fidgeting may also lead individuals to pay attention to nothing else but the inhibition of fidgeting. This study was conducted to see if fidgeting, while performing vigilant oriented tasks, lead to better performances on such tasks. All participants wore pedometers on both their wrists and ankles in order to record their movements for the duration of the study. Participants began the study by completing both an easy and hard visual search task and finished by completing a vigilance task. Each participant was unknowingly assigned to either a move or suppress condition for the vigilance task, in which they were told to play with a toy or to hold a toy steady. The results indicated that therer was greater accuracy and faster response times in the easy visual search condition, as was expected. The results for the vigilance task suggested that participants assigned to the move condition moved five times as much as participants assigned to the suppress condition. In addition, participants were more vigilant when they were allowed to move. Overall, our results provide evidence for the hypothesis that people pay more attention when they are instructed to move and detriments in performance are seen when people are instructed to inhibit movement.
