Interesting! You mention anecdotally that you might personally be fine answering a text message during reading but not during a quiz. But the true impact on study effectiveness could indeed be the inverse of this preference.
I'd love to see a version of this experiment where the interruptions come during the *retrieval practice* portion of studying, rather than during the initial reading or rereading.
After all, retrieval practice activities (e.g. quizzes, flashcards) are typically *already* broken up into more atomic chunks, which might make them more amenable to short interruptions between each chunk. In contrast, interrupting *reading* might take a user out of a flow state of a broader understanding of the subject that they were in the process of grasping, which could be much more difficult to recover even after just a 10-second SMS check.
Great area to continue exploring as our brains continue to be assaulted by more and more frequent distractions at all stages of the learning and studying process!
Interesting! You mention anecdotally that you might personally be fine answering a text message during reading but not during a quiz. But the true impact on study effectiveness could indeed be the inverse of this preference.
I'd love to see a version of this experiment where the interruptions come during the *retrieval practice* portion of studying, rather than during the initial reading or rereading.
After all, retrieval practice activities (e.g. quizzes, flashcards) are typically *already* broken up into more atomic chunks, which might make them more amenable to short interruptions between each chunk. In contrast, interrupting *reading* might take a user out of a flow state of a broader understanding of the subject that they were in the process of grasping, which could be much more difficult to recover even after just a 10-second SMS check.
Great area to continue exploring as our brains continue to be assaulted by more and more frequent distractions at all stages of the learning and studying process!