The Influence of Fidgeting on Test Results
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The influence of fidgeting on test results By Ali Al Kaabi, Enzo Keuning and Luc van Noort 09-02-2018 R.S.G. Slingerbos Levant, 6V 1 Abstract In schools, fidgeting might be popular behaviour. In order to decide where certain students should be located inside a classroom when doing a test and how to deal with these “fidgeters”, it can be important to look at how fidgeting influences the test results of students. From studying literature, the hypothesis was that fidgeting would improve test results, however having somebody that fidgets audibly in your area was expected to be negative for the test results. A hypothesis was also formed about students with an attention disorder, people with an attention disorder were expected to have a bigger positive effect from fidgeting. To check these hypotheses, an experiment was set up, using a total of 76 students who were asked to fill in a test, under different conditions. Half of these students were asked to perform a regular experiment, where everybody was allowed to fidget if they wanted. The other half of the class was put in a different classroom and was not allowed to fidget at all. After studying the results gathered during these tests, the results showed the best results in the group of people that were not fidgeting in the room where fidgeting was allowed, the next best results were from the group of people that were fidgeting in this room and the worst results were from the group that took part in the control experiment and were not allowed to fidget at all. People with an attention disorder were not proven to have a benefit from fidgeting. 2 Table of contents Abstract 2 1. Introduction 5 1.1 Research questions 7 2. Hypothesis 8 2.1 What is the effect of fidgeting on the test results of students? 8 3. Literature 9 3.1 How does fidgeting contribute to staying focussed and concentrated? 9 3.2 What is the effect of fidgeting while carrying out a test on the result of the test of the person performing fidgeting? 11 3.3 What is the effect of fidgeting on the test result of another person who is located in the same room and who is not fidgeting? 13 3.4 What is the difference in the influence of fidgeting during the test between people with an attention disorder and people without an attention disorder? 14 4. Method 16 4.1 Requirements 16 4.2 General 16 4.3 Experiment 16 4.4 Control experiment 17 4.5 Processing results 19 5. Results 20 5.1 Results of group 1 20 5.2 Results of group 2 22 5.3 Results of group 3 23 5.4 Results from the group with a concentration disorder (from all classes) 24 5.5 Result analysis 25 6. Conclusion 26 6.1 How does fidgeting contribute to staying focussed and concentrated? 26 6.2 What is the effect of fidgeting while carrying out a test on the result of the test of the person performing fidgeting? 26 6.3 What is the effect of fidgeting on the test result of another person who is located in the same room and who is not fidgeting? 26 6.4 What is the difference in the influence of fidgeting during the test between people with an attention disorder and people without an attention disorder? 27 6.5 General conclusion 27 7. Discussion 28 7.1 Experiment discussion 28 7.2 Further Research 29 3 8. References 30 Appendix 33 Appendix 1 - Test 1 33 Appendix 2 - Answer Sheet Test 1 34 4 1. Introduction Everyone tries to fully concentrate while doing a test. While you are doing a test you often play with your pen, tap on your table or you are biting your fingernails. All this is considered fidgeting. In this research paper it will be explored how fidgeting may influence your test results. Does it contribute to staying concentrated or focussed? Does the sound of fidgeting of other people distract you? Why do we fidget? And does fidgeting contribute to staying concentrated or focussed if you’ve got an attention disorder? All these questions will be answered in this research paper. With all these questions the research question: What is the effect of fidgeting on the test results of students? Will be answered. Fidgeting is explained as: “Making small movements, especially of the hands and feet, through nervousness or impatience.” Besides fidgeting is mostly done unconsciously. Because fidgeting shouldn’t distract you from your primary task: “Fidgeting must be deliberate to be effective. Intentional fidgets allow you and your child to self-regulate A DHD symptoms in a controlled, constructive fashion. An effective fidget doesn’t distract you from your primary task because it is something you don’t have to think about”.1 Researchers started to dig into this phenomenon “fidgeting” while fidget spinners gained popularity the last few years. Teachers and parents started to prohibit these toys, because they associated 1, 6, 7 the toys with “distraction”. But actually researchers think these toys achieve the exact opposite: it could help with focussing and concentrating (as earlier mentioned). This research could be important for society. Because people that are attending school all do different things to get concentrated while making a test. For example some people can easily concentrate with many background noises and other people prefer a completely silent classroom while making a test. Or some people fidget while making a test, and other people do not fidget while making tests. People that are attending school may get better test results when schools take into account that different people need different circumstances while doing a test. Therefore if the research shows fidgeting can contribute to having good test results, schools may find solutions for children that want to fidget or not fidget while making a test. In addition, classes could be rearranged based on the research, if it’s found whether or not people sitting next to people that are fidgeting would score lower or higher on their test. The calculating test (Rekentoets), is a test all students of high schools in the Netherlands have to do. This makes the research more relevant for society. Figure 1 shows that the recall performance of inattentive children, or children with a concentration disorder, a positive relation has to the amount of white noise, which is noise with the same amplitude/intensity throughout the frequency. And in contrast the recall performance of attentive children, or children without a concentration disorder, and the amount of white noise have a negative relationship. As a conclusion this study states: “In 1 Rotz, R., & Wright, S. D. (2017, August 01). The Body-Brain Connection: How Fidgeting Sharpens Focus. Retrieved from https://www.additudemag.com/focus-factors/ 5 particular awareness should be raised regarding the possibility that the environment has be individually adjusted to the need of the children, where inattentive children in a normal 2 population show noise benefit when performing cognitive tasks.” I n the graph you see that inattentive children work better in cognitive tasks with the white noise. This research also states that the environment in which these children work should be fine-tuned to the needs of the children. Figure 1: Recall performance as a function of noise and attention; inattentive vs. attentive children (teachers judgments: attentive N = 41; inattentive: N = 10).2 figure 2: schematic overview of brain parts and their functions3 2 Söderlund, G. B., Sikström, S., Loftesnes, J. M., & Sonuga-Barke, E. J. (2010, September 29). The effects of background white noise on memory performance in inattentive school children. Retrieved from https://behavioralandbrainfunctions.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1744-9081-6-55 3 [Diagram of the brain, including the basal ganglia and thalamus]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brain-and-mind.com/2017/08/most-of-time-i-spend-thinking-about.html 6 It may be from a substantial need to include brain research in this research paper. Because if we want to fully understand what fidgeting does to our concentration and the test results it is necessary to talk about the brain: “The thalamus is found at the center of the brain and controls our attention span and our interpretation of pain. It also monitors ‘input’ and helps us to keep track and pay attention to the right sensations in the brain. It likely plays an important role in learning by helping us to direct our attention and to place importance on the right stimulus, thereby being more likely to retain that information.”4 In this citation from K. Hillman, who has a degree in psychology, 1,6,7 it is stated that the thalamus controls our attention span. Other researchers have stated and have proved that fidgeting contributes to staying focussed, concentrated and it also should contribute to your attention span. Keeping these two statements when someone fidgets the thalamus in the brain could be active. 1.1 Research questions To answer the research question: what is the effect of fidgeting on the test results of students? There will be elaborated on four sub questions. These four sub questions will be answered by both literature study and an experiment. In order to answer the main- and sub questions , both sources in the form of literature and an experiment will be used. To answer the question: “How does fidgeting contribute to staying focussed and concentrated?”, only literature will be used. This literature will be found using the internet, searching for scientific sources that have the same or a similar subject to this research.