Call Me Maybe: Effects of Notification Modality on Visual Sustained Attention

Smartphone use has been examined in a variety of contexts, including their influence on sustained attention. Most importantly, notifications received while completing the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) have led to deficits in sustained attention performance. The present study re-examined this phenomenon by differentiating audio and visual notifications, to examine their individual influence. It was hypothesized that trials that notifications were received would result in slower reaction times across both notification types. Data were collected using the SART in both the fixed and random conditions. Visual pop-up notifications were sent for half the trials, while auditory cues were sent for the other half. Results were in accordance with previous findings, demonstrating an overall effect on sustained attention performance. Furthermore, visual notifications led to more errors than the auditory condition.