Wearing a face mask can temporarily disrupt decision-making in some situations, according to University of Queensland research.
Dr David Smerdon from UQ’s School of Economics analysed almost three million chess moves played by more than eight thousand people in 18 countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and found wearing a mask substantially reduced the average quality of player decisions.
“The decrease in performance was due to the annoyance caused by the masks rather than a physiological mechanism, but people adapted to the distraction over time,” Dr Smerdon said.
“The data showed masks were more likely to decrease performance in situations where there was a demanding mental task with a high working memory load.
“This is something to keep in mind for occupations in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics as well as other professions that demand…
