Here's an interesting study that was conducted in April 2017, which I shared a while back in this very newsletter, but didn't discuss it in any detail. It's called
Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity.
You probably don't need to read the results (which are made clear in the title) because I think we're all aware of the negative effects of smartphones on everyday life.
But I thought I would include a few interesting quotes from the report, which includes lots of background info on this topic. First here's a quote from the abstract for the study:
"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."
The key point there is that this is dealing with people who are normally good at maintaining attention. That's certainly relevant when looking at the effects of mobile phone use.
Another quote:
"Research indicates that signals from one’s own phone (but not someone else’s) activate the same involuntary attention system that responds to the sound of one’s own name."
And how about this one for those in school:
"Research in the educational sphere demonstrates that using mobile devices and social media while learning new material reduces comprehension and impairs academic performance."
The rest of the paper goes into great detail on the methods, procedure, and results of the experiments, so be sure to check it out if you want to take a deep dive into the study.
Now on to this week's hand-picked productivity links!
