Your cognitive capacity is significantly reduced when your smartphone is within reach — even if it’s off. That’s the takeaway finding from a new study from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. McCombs Assistant Professor Adrian Ward and co-authors conducted experiments with nearly 800 smartphone users in an attempt to measure, for the first time, how well people can complete tasks when they have their smartphones nearby even when they’re not using them.
In one experiment, the researchers asked study participants to sit at a computer and take a series of tests that required full concentration in order to score well. The tests were geared to measure participants’ available cognitive capacity — that is, the brain’s ability to hold and process data at any given time. Before beginning, participants were randomly instructed to place their smartphones either on the desk face down, in their pocket or personal bag, or in another room. All participants were instructed to turn their phones to silent.
The researchers found that participants with their phones in another room significantly outperformed those with their phones on the desk, and they also slightly outperformed those participants who had kept their phones in a pocket or bag.
The findings suggest that the mere presence of one’s smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity and impairs cognitive functioning, even though people feel they’re giving their full attention and focus to the task at hand.
Read the complete article from the University of Texas at Austin here: The Mere Presence of Your Smartphone Reduces Brain Power, Study Shows
The full text journal article from the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research can be found here: Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own
Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
Check out these high school scientists' research highlighted in Science Daily! In addition to presenting their research at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference & Exhibition, these young women were at last year's ISEF (see the ISEF binder in JD's room for a copy of their abstract).
According to their research, telling youths who are juggling multiple electronic devices to 'focus on the task at hand' may not always be good advice. Contrary to popular belief that multitasking leads to poor performance, the young researchers found the opposite is true for adolescents who spend a lot of time switching between media devices and tasks. "Maybe practice really does make perfect," Ms. Ulmer said. "In our current multimedia environment, there are people who are multitasking at an exceedingly high rate, and the reality is that they may have become really good at it," Ms. Caulfield added.
Read the complete article from EurekAlert! here: Some Adolescents Adept at Media Multitasking, Research by High School Students Reveals
Shooting silly-looking rabbits with a plunger gun in a video game called Rayman Raving Rabbids can improve the reading ability of dyslexic children, according to a new study publishing in the March 18 issue of Current Biology—despite the fact that the game contained no reading or linguistic components. The counterintuitive finding supports the idea that dyslexia is not only a disorder of linguistic centers of the brain, but may also involve areas that govern attention and motor skills.
Read the complete article from The Scientist (and find a link to the full text journal article) here: Playing for Words
