It is now well known that multi-tasking is unproductive – a study by the University of Texas has shown that smartphones are a massive distraction from actual work. The study also examined how mobile devices that are out of sight affect our brain capacity.
Adrian F. Ward, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas, Austin, and his research team examined the influence of smartphones on our brain capacity in 2017. The result: It’s best to banish the devices to another room if you want to concentrate properly.
We are all addicted to smartphones
The basis of the study is that smartphones play an immense role in our society: they are used for communication and networking, information, leisure activities – and are therefore relevant in almost every area of life. According to the study, this is also the reason why we allocate a very large part of our brain capacity to the smartphone in almost every situation: simply because we are constantly expecting an SMS or news report to arrive.
In their work, Ward and the research team refer to an older study that found 89 percent of cell phone users experience phantom vibrations or ringtones from their devices.
Display up or down?
The scientists in Texas randomly divided over 500 test subjects into three groups: While all test subjects completed the same cognitive tests, the test subjects in one group kept their smartphones on the table next to them, the test subjects in a second group put the devices in a bag and the Subjects in the third group left their cell phones in a separate room.
The result: The test subjects whose mobile devices were in another room were able to concentrate best on the test and also performed better than the other test subjects. According to Ward in the University of Texas News, the condition (on or off, silent or with sound) and position (display up or down) did not play a role in the results of the study: “The mere presence of your smartphone was enough to reduce their cognitive abilities.”
Each distraction increases working time by half an hour
Daniel Oppenheimer, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, tells The Atlantic that this result is linked to addictive behavior. He compares the attention given to smartphones by the subjects with the attention given to a pack of cigarettes by a smoker waiting for his smoke break.
And Ward explains in the University of Texas News: “You’re not consciously thinking about your smartphone, but this process – the process of not thinking about something – uses some of your limited cognitive resources.”
Putting your smartphone in another room in situations or tasks that require a lot of attention to relieve your brain of the process of not thinking about the smartphone is worth it: According to the New York Times, a study shows The issue of distraction is that you need up to half an hour after each interruption to return to the task you were working on with full attention.
Editorial team finanzen.net