Date of Award

Spring 2021

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Major

Psychology

First Advisor

Michael Grubb

Abstract

Boredom is defined as an individual’s feeling of dissatisfaction with surroundings causing disengagement and discontentment with the present. State boredom is specifically boredom in the present moment, and has been theorized to be caused by attentional failures. State boredom is measured using the Multidimensional State Boredom Scale (MSBS), a 29- question scale scored using a 7-point Likert scale. There are 5 subscales in the MSBS: disengagement, high arousal, inattention, low arousal and time perception. This study focuses on the change in the subscale scores after attentional failures take place. This study uses the attentional blink paradigm to trigger attentional failures in participants to see how their state boredom changes after completing the paradigm. The attentional blink is a phenomenon that reflects the cognitive failure explaining the inability to identify a target when it is presented within 200-500ms of a previous target. Participants completed the MSBS before and after completing the attentional blink paradigm. A 2-factor repeated measures ANOVA showed a significant increase in state boredom for the disengagement and time perception subscales. A paired samples t-test also showed a strong attentional blink across both the lag positions and the participants. Overall, there was evidence of a significant increase in state boredom for disengagement and time perception after completion of the attentional blink paradigm.

Comments

Senior thesis completed at Trinity College, Hartford CT for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Psychology.

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