Does staring at your phone for hours on end serve any practical purpose? Are smartphones hijacking our mind?
We already know about the research that phone notifications distract people from their tasks.
iPhone Photo: Pixabay
But new research says while smartphones do give us a connection to information, news and entertainment, their persistent presence comes at a cognitive cost - your brain capacity is significantly reduced.
Even when they're switched off.
This is the finding of a new study - and one of the authors behind the study is cognitive psychologist and marketing professor Adrian Ward, from the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas.
Smartphones have been with us for a decade now and very rapidly have come to occupy the centre of our lives, he says.
"If we're constantly surrounding ourselves with these really attractive stimuli, things that we want to pay attention to, the act of not paying attention to them could actually be detrimental because we have to use some of our cognitive resources to not pay attention to our phones," he says.
The discovery comes after tests done on university students.
The researchers had undergraduate students come in to a behavioural testing laboratory. They brought smartphones with them and were asked to keep their phones in one of three locations: on the desk nest to them, on their bags outside the room or with a research assistant.
The students were asked to complete some tests in which they had to learn new information, solve novel problems and test their memories.
"Those that had their phones closest did the worst, farthest away did the best on these tasks requiring intensive cognitive resources."
But even those with phones out of reach were affected, Ward says.
"Sometimes you can resist that urge to use your phone, but the desire to use it is still there so supressing that desire takes up some of your cognitive resources … whether it's turned on or off.
He says our phones have taken on a "privileged attentional value" we automatically pay attention to our phones no matter where we are.
"The stronger your dependence on the phone, the more you need your phone around, the more it's harming you to have it around. Which is a pretty ironic and potentially troubling effect."
