Day 38: Phones, Attention and a Small Sample
At the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán in Mérida, psychology students Abdiel (A) and Eunice (B) present the results of their experiment on phones and attention to their professor, Dr. Cecilia Canché (C).
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Spanish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Spanish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Los resultados son contundentes, doctora: con el celular a la vista, la atención cae un veinte por ciento.
The results are clear-cut, Professor: with a phone in sight, attention drops by twenty percent.
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B
Además, los treinta participantes fueron elegidos por sorteo y evaluados a la misma hora.
What's more, the thirty participants were chosen at random and tested at the same time.
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C
Suena prometedor. ¿Y elegidos por sorteo entre quiénes, exactamente?
That sounds promising. And chosen at random from whom, exactly?
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A
Pues entre los compañeros de la carrera, que eran los que teníamos a la mano.
Well, from our classmates in the program, since they were the ones we had on hand.
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C
Si bien el efecto es llamativo, hay un sesgo evidente: sus compañeros sabían lo que ustedes buscaban.
While the effect is striking, there's an obvious bias: your classmates knew what you were looking for.
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B
¿Ves, Abdiel? A pesar de que no les dijimos nada, medio salón adivinó la hipótesis.
See, Abdiel? Even though we didn't tell them anything, half the class guessed the hypothesis.
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C
Repítanlo en otras facultades. Y anoten un caso más: usted, joven, ya revisó el celular tres veces.
Repeat it in other departments. And add one more case: you, young man, have already checked your phone three times.
Your progress is saved in this browser only, with no sign-up. The course page and the menu show where you left off. Well done! Next up: Day 39: The Sargassum Forecast
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