The mere presence of your smartphone reduces brain power, study
shows
University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin)
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.
"We see a linear trend that suggests that as the smartphone becomes more noticeable, participants' available cognitive capacity decreases," Ward said.
"Your conscious mind isn't thinking about your smartphone,
but that process -- the process of requiring yourself to not think about
something -- uses up some of your limited cognitive resources. It's a brain
drain."
In
another experiment, researchers looked at how a person's self-reported
smartphone dependence -- or how strongly a person feels he or she needs to have
a smartphone in order to get through a typical day -- affected cognitive
capacity.
Participants performed the same series of computer-based tests
as the first group and were randomly assigned to keep their smartphones either
in sight on the desk face up, in a pocket or bag, or in another room. In this
experiment, some participants were also instructed to turn off their phones.
The
researchers found that participants who were the most dependent on their
smartphones performed worse compared with their less-dependent peers, but only
when they kept their smartphones on the desk or in their pocket or bag.
Ward
and his colleagues also found that it didn't matter whether a person's
smartphone was turned on or off, or whether it was lying face up or face down
on a desk.
Having a smartphone within sight or within easy reach reduces a
person's ability to focus and perform tasks because part of their brain is
actively working to not pick up or use the phone.
"It's
not that participants were distracted because they were getting notifications
on their phones," said Ward. "The mere presence of their smartphone
was enough to reduce their cognitive capacity."
