Substantial differences in attentional disengagement between Prolific and MTurk samples: Implications for experimental outcomes

Abstract

Attention often disengages from primary tasks in favor of secondary tasks (i.e., multitasking) and task-unrelated thoughts (i.e., mind wandering). In this study, we assessed whether attentional disengagement, in the context of a standard cognitive task, can substantially differ between samples collected via commonly used online participant recruitment platforms, Prolific Academic (Prolific) and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Initially, eighty participants were recruited through Prolific to perform an attention task in which the risk of losing points for incorrect responses was varied (i.e., high risk = 80% chance of loss, low risk = 20% chance of loss). Attentional engagement was assessed by measuring task performance along with self-reported mind wandering and multitasking. On Prolific, we observed surprisingly low levels of disengagement. We then conducted the same experiment on MTurk. Strikingly, MTurk participants exhibited greater levels of disengagement than did Prolific participants. In addition, there was an interaction between risk and platform, with the high-risk group exhibiting less disengagement, in terms of better task performance, than the low-risk group, but only on MTurk. Platform differences in trait inattention and relations among study variables were also observed. Therefore, choice of recruitment platform could impact results, particularly those that relate to attentional disengagement.