Professional Development Committee

Our smartphones enable—and encourage—constant connection to information, entertainment, and each other. They put the world at our fingertips, and rarely leave our sides. Although these devices have immense potential to improve welfare, their persistent presence may come at a cognitive cost. In this research, we test the “brain drain” hypothesis that the mere presence of one’s own smartphone may occupy limited-capacity cognitive resources, thereby leaving fewer resources available for other tasks and undercutting cognitive performance. Results from two experiments indicate that even when people are successful at maintaining sustained attention—as when avoiding the temptation to check their phones—the mere presence of these devices reduces available cognitive capacity. Moreover, these cognitive costs are highest for those highest in smartphone dependence. We conclude by discussing the practical implications of this smartphone-induced brain drain for consumer decision-making and consumer welfare.

The debate over whether the use of mobile technology found in smartphones has an effect on brain development in children and teens has been an ongoing concern of parents and educators. With the widespread use of this technology, the question remains whether the use of such phones can lead to long term cognitive effects that impact language development skills, memory capability and maintaining focus on tasks at hand.

This research investigates the impact of consumer-owned mobile device use on decision-making. We build on the limited prior research on mobile technology in consumer research by considering the differing ways consumers utilize mobile devices at the point of decision. In particular, we conceptualize and examine two major categories of mobile device use: task-unrelated and task-related use. This demarcation is based upon the relationship between the mobile device usage and the decision situation. Using data from both field and experimental settings, we demonstrate that depending on use, mobile devices can act as a double-edged sword with either positive or negative implications for consumers. From a substantive perspective, this work is important because mobile technologies are a fast-growing communications medium and consumers are becoming increasingly reliant on these technologies in their daily lives. From a theoretical perspective, understanding the negative role that mobile technologies play in shaping consumer decision-making extends the research on distraction beyond the context of driving. In particular, we demonstrate the general deleterious effect of mobile use on decision-making even for routine decisions. Furthermore, we identify positive effects on decision-making by highlighting mobile device’s utility as a decision aid.

Universities have experienced increases in technology ownership and usage amongst students entering undergraduate programs. Almost all students report owning a mobile phone and many students view laptops and tablets as educational tools, though they also report using them for non-academic activities during lectures. We explored the relationship between student course engagement and the use of smartphones, laptops, cell phones, and tablets during lecture. Undergraduate students responded to an online survey asking about both course engagement and mobile device habits. Results show that smartphone use was most strongly related to lowered course engagement and while laptop use was related to lowered engagement, it was to a lesser extent. In contrast, overall engagement of students using tablets or cell phones was not significantly different than those who did not.

Video - Manoush Zomorodi, an author and podcast host, and JP Connolly, a science teacher and tech director, discuss how digital devices can distract students and affect their mental and physical health — and what we can do about it. This segment is part of a special series of video highlights from SXSWedu, produced by The Chronicle.

Nicholas C. Burbules explores the effects of various social media on the ways people communicate, and the implications of these effects for the use of social media in educational contexts. Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other applications are being used in increasing numbers, especially by young people. It is where they live, share, and learn, so it is to be expected that educators would want to find ways to use these technologies to engage them. At the same time, however, these new media come with a host of issues and dangers as well as possibilities. Creative educators need to be aware of these in weighing the advantages and disadvantages of social media for educational purposes.

Educators and researchers are beginning to acknowledge the ways technology can be a tool for learning and development, rather than merely a danger. Contrary to advice I myself have found persuasive in the past, the surprising conclusion of this new thinking could be that some children will spend more time -- not less -- with screens. It's a natural consequence of the growing capabilities of the devices at our disposal. The American Academy of Pediatrics once recommended parents simply limit children's time on screens. The association changed those recommendations in 2016 to reflect profound differences in levels of interactivity between TV, on which most previous research was based, and the devices children use today.

"Sometimes technology can help us achieve the learning goals we have already set for our students, and sometimes, it can spur us to think anew about our own teaching goals and practices."

In the past, many school districts clamped down hard on students using cell phones. As the devices have become more prevalent, some schools have made allowances for when they may be used — while others have kept the lid on them.

Results of several studies have suggested that smartphone addiction has negative effects on mental health and well-being. To contribute to knowledge on this topic, our study had two aims. One was to investigate the relationship between risk of smartphone addiction and satisfaction with life mediated by stress and academic performance. The other aim was to explore whether satisfaction with life mediated by stress and academic performance facilitates smartphone addiction. To identify test subjects, systematic random sampling was implemented. A total of 300 university students completed an online survey questionnaire that was posted to the student information system. The survey questionnaire collected demographic information and responses to scales including the Smartphone Addiction Scale - Short Version, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Data analyses included Pearson correlations between the main variables and multivariate analysis of variances. The results showed that smartphone addiction risk was positively related to perceived stress, but the latter was negatively related to satisfaction with life. Additionally, a smartphone addiction risk was negatively related to academic performance, but the latter was positively related to satisfaction with life.

Every day in class, faculty members wage a constant battle with cellphones and laptops for the attention of students. In this series, James M. Lang explores the impasse over how to cope with those unwanted digital distractions.

With the advent of Smartphone technology, access to the internet and its associated knowledge base is at one’s fingertips. What consequences does this have for human cognition? We frame Smartphone use as an instantiation of the extended mind—the notion that our cognition goes beyond our brains—and in so doing, characterize a modern form of cognitive miserliness. Specifically, that people typically forego effortful analytic thinking in lieu of fast and easy intuition suggests that individuals may allow their Smartphones to do their thinking for them. Our account predicts that individuals who are relatively less willing and/or able to engage effortful reasoning processes may compensate by relying on the internet through their Smartphones. Across three studies, we find that those who think more intuitively and less analytically when given reasoning problems were more likely to rely on their Smartphones (i.e., extended mind) for information in their everyday lives. There was no such association with the amount of time using the Smartphone for social media and entertainment purposes, nor did boredom proneness qualify any of our results. These findings demonstrate that people may offload thinking to technology, which in turn demands that psychological science understand the meshing of mind and media to adequately characterize human experience and cognition in the modern era.

The objective of the current study was to examine the effect of early computer experience, using quasi-experimental design, on creative thinking among Jordanian kindergarten children. It intended to answer two main research questions. First, does adding a computer to a kindergarten environment enhance children's creative thinking? Second, does children's creative thinking differ due to gender? Experimental group consists of (37) and the control groups consist 0f (39) child. In this study the Arabic Jordanian version of Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking TTCT was used. Each class of the experimental groups have computer learning center, as well as preinstalled developmentally appropriate educational software programs. The findings show statistically significant differences between the experimental and the control groups only on creative thinking total score. All dimensions show no significant differences between boys and girls, and no effect of interaction between group and gender, In the light of the findings of this study, some recommendations are presented. Key words: computer, creative thinking, kindergarten.

Imagine a classroom in the not-too-distant future. Textbooks, slideshows, and notes all interface neatly with devices that once called “phones” and “laptops”—but now those learning materials proliferate through desks, walls, clothes, jewelry, glasses, and maybe even tattoos or contact lenses. The teacher, trained to teach in the 2010s, wants to say, “close your laptops and put away your phones.” But when the phone is embedded in a fingernail, what can a teacher do?

Taking notes on laptops rather than in longhand is increasingly common. Many researchers have suggested that laptop
note taking is less effective than longhand note taking for learning. Prior studies have primarily focused on students’
capacity for multitasking and distraction when using laptops. The present research suggests that even when laptops
are used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning because their use results in shallower processing.
In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than
students who took notes longhand. We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers’
tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is
detrimental to learning.

Existing research indicates that off-task smartphone use within classrooms is negatively related to many important academic measures such as attention, comprehension, and grades. However, many educators have begun to advocate smartphone utilization in education, particularly to prepare students for future work environments. There is an increasing use of mobile devices within health care environments and it will be important for pharmacy graduates to possess both technical and socio-technical skills to safely and effectively use digital information. Instructors face the difficult task of controlling digital distractions within the classroom. From a student perspective, it is important that the education environment includes technologies used in practice. Discussing the issues and opportunities of smartphone use within the framework of a health care environment may help guide instructors with regard to their approach to dealing with student smartphone use. This article summarizes existing literature regarding smartphone use in classrooms and provides recommendations to educators for addressing potential problems and opportunities.

Tired of telling students to put away their phones? A veteran teacher shares tips for using mobile devices as learning tools.

These devices offer the convenient ability to connect with others and retrieve information, but could they be impacting the way your brain works?

Parents, therapists and schools are struggling to figure out whether helping anxious teenagers means protecting them or pushing them to face their fears.

While smartphones and related mobile technologies are recognized as flexible and powerful tools that, when used prudently, can augment human cognition, there is also a growing perception that habitual involvement with these devices may have a negative and lasting impact on users’ ability to think, remember, pay attention, and regulate emotion. The present review considers an intensifying, though still limited, area of research exploring the potential cognitive impacts of smartphone-related habits, and seeks to determine in which domains of functioning there is accruing evidence of a significant relationship between smartphone technology and cognitive performance, and in which domains the scientific literature is not yet mature enough to endorse any firm conclusions. We focus our review primarily on three facets of cognition that are clearly implicated in public discourse regarding the impacts of mobile technology – attention, memory, and delay of gratification – and then consider evidence regarding the broader relationships between smartphone habits and everyday cognitive functioning. Along the way, we highlight compelling findings, discuss limitations with respect to empirical methodology and interpretation, and offer suggestions for how the field might progress toward a more coherent and robust area of scientific inquiry.