The Impact of Online Distractors on College Student Reading Recall when Reading Online

Online learning has grown in its prevalence. This format often includes the use of digital reading materials. However, when reading on the computer, alerts and other distractors are a regular occurrence. Research shows that when distracted, students’ performance suffers. We tested the impact of distractors on a computer screen while students were reading a digital text. Results from an experiment with N=69 undergraduates showed that reading recall was negatively impacted for students who were distracted when compared to a control group. The differences were similar for positive and negative stimuli presented as distractors. These findings highlight the need for students to be taught how to remove potential distractors when learning online.