Is overhearing a phone call more distracting and memorable than hearing both sides of a conversation?

Details

Researchers had participants work on a word-unscrambling task while overhearing a scripted conversation. Some heard a person speaking on a cell phone; others heard both people talking together. Participants believed the study concerned word puzzles and reading comprehension, rather than overheard conversations.

Afterward, participants were tested on whether they recognized words from the conversation and rated how distracting it had been. Those who heard only the caller’s side reported greater distraction and were more accurate and confident when recognizing conversation words, even though that conversation contained fewer words and less noise.

The finding concerns reported distraction and memory for the conversation, not a demonstrated drop in performance on the ongoing task: word-unscrambling scores did not differ significantly. Participants were not explicitly told to ignore the conversation, so how much attention they gave it could vary. The abstract does not report sample size or participant demographics, and the experiment does not establish harmful effects in actual workplaces or public places.