Your Smartphone Makes You Stupid
You lock yourself in a study room on the second floor of your college library, surrounded by dusty tomes and people who love to kiss, and start writing your thesis. Unfortunately, you haven’t gotten rid of your biggest distraction while studying: your smartphone. Turning it off won’t distract you, but throw it out the window.
Come to think of it, just leave it at home.
This is what the University of Chicago study suggests after discovering that your smartphone is in close proximity, not only distracts you from the task at hand, but also reduces your ability to cope with more complex cognitive activities like memorizing and processing data. For those who rely heavily on their smartphone (i.e. everyone), the impact on their cognitive abilities can be the most severe.
The researchers asked participants to keep their silent phones in plain view on a desk, in a pocket or bag, or in a separate room altogether. They then ran tests on a computer to measure cognitive ability, one called the Automated Operation Span, which measures working memory, and the other called Raven’s standard progressive matrices , which measure mobile intelligence.
“This study identifies a potentially costly side effect of integrating smartphones into everyday life: the ‘brain drain’ caused by smartphones. We provide evidence that the mere presence of consumers’ smartphones can negatively impact two measures of cognitive ability – available working memory and functional flexible intelligence – without interrupting sustained attention and increasing phone-related thoughts. “
The problem arises because your brain uses some of your cognitive abilities to stay on track when you know your phone is next to you, begging to be touched. This is compounded when something like a notification grabs your attention, making you wonder what that notification really means (text messages from family, email from boss), sending your brain away from your main goal.
The results showed a surprisingly strong case for leaving the phone elsewhere if you want to get the job done well. Two groups of participants who kept phones nearby, either on a desk or in a bag, showed lower working memory (the ability to temporarily remember information) and lower functional flexible intelligence (the ability to solve new problems and see patterns).
Participants with phones in another room significantly outperformed participants with phones in their pockets or on the desk on all tasks.