Date of Graduation

12-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Psychology (MA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Connie Lamm

Committee Member

Jennifer Veilleux

Second Committee Member

Anastasia Makhanova

Keywords

cognitive control, EEG, ERPs, media-multitasking, self-regulation

Abstract

As the number of mobile phone users grows, understanding the impact of multiple streams of media on media multitasking and related neural correlates is especially pertinent. This research aims to understand the association between media multitasking tendencies on the neural correlates underlying cognitive control using event-related potentials (ERPs). Specifically, we were interested in the N2 and P3, ERPs that measure neural activation underlying aspects of cognitive control. Based on the literature, we predicted that participants who have high media multitasking scores would show more negative N2 activation and more positive P3 activation than their low media multitasking counterparts during an AX-CPT task, indicating less efficient neural processing. However, we did not find the expected pattern of results. It is possible that reactive and proactive control are not related to digital media multitasking or it may be that some potential design issues impacted our results. The current paper will explore these issues.

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