Smartphones, even in off mode, have the ability to reduce a person’s cognitive ability, making them mute, according to a new study. Assistant Professor Adrian Ward and co-authors of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin conducted experiments with nearly 800 smartphone users in an attempt to measure for the first time people’s ability to complete tasks when they have their Smart phones nearby even when they are not using them.
The smartphone does not even have to ring or vibrate, but its mere presence can significantly reduce a person’s cognitive ability, even when it is changed if it is out of the study, he said. In one experiment, the researchers asked the study participants to sit down at a computer and take a series of tests that required full concentration in order to get good results. The tests were aimed at measuring the participants’ available cognitive capacity, ie the brain’s ability to store and process data at any given time.
Before starting, participants were randomly placed to place their smartphones on their desk face down, in their personal pocket or bag, or in another room. All participants were instructed to keep their phones quiet. The researchers found that participants with their phones in another room significantly outnumbered those with their phones on the desk, and also slightly outperformed participants who had kept their phones in a pocket or bag.
The results suggest that the mere presence of a smartphone reduces the available cognitive ability and impairs cognitive functioning, even though people feel they are giving their full attention and focus on the task at hand. “We see a linear trend that suggests that as the smartphone becomes more visible, available participants’ cognitive ability decreases,” Ward said.
In another experiment, the researchers looked at how a person’s dependence on a smartphone or the intensity with which a person feels they need to have a smartphone to spend a typical day of cognitive impairment. Participants performed the same series of computer-based tests as the first group and were randomly assigned to keep their smartphones either in view 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.
Researchers found that participants who were more dependent on their smartphones worked worse compared to their less dependent peers, but only when they kept their smartphones on the desk or in their pocket or purse. “It’s not that the participants were distracted because they got notifications on their phones,” Ward said. “The mere presence of their smartphone was enough to reduce their cognitive ability.
