The effect of divided attention on speech production

Abstract

This study examined the effect of divided attention on language production. Subjects recalled information learned and performed mental arithmetic tasks simultaneously. Compared with a no-arithmetic control condition, speech produced in the divided-attention condition showed less information recalled, more frequent prolonged pauses, and extensive deterioration in clausal and sentential structures. Attention deficit seems to disrupt message construction, the smooth flow of speech output, and sentence construction processes in speech. © 1992, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.