Impact of Cellphone Use on Attention

We observed a total of 120 participants from Texas State University. Students were observed in their everyday classroom lectures. Observers were instructed to only observe students seated beginning from their right to left, in front right to left, and lastly, directly in front. The observation tactic was used to determine which students to observe first.

Measures

Observers were observing participants to see whether cellphone use distracts students from taking notes in class. The independent variable is cellphone use, which was defined as being actively engaged and looking at your phone for longer than 5 seconds or more during the 5-minute interval. There were two variables, cellphone use and non-cell phone use. Participants who looked or touched their phone for more than 5 seconds were categorized under cellphone use. The participants that were categorized under non-cellphone use were the ones that did not touch or look at his or her cellphone for at least 5 seconds or more.

The dependent variable is attention, which was defined as taking notes by visibly typing or writing down information given in the lecture. There were two levels: taking notes and not taking notes. Those participants that were actively writing or typing notes were categorized as undertaking notes and those who were included in the not taking notes category were the participants who didn’t write or type notes.

Procedure

The type of study used was a naturalistic observation. The observers sat in their normal seats and let the surrounding seats fill in randomly. Under the possible circumstance of empty seats, the observer was instructed to begin observations closest to them from right to left, then in front right to left and the final participant option would be directly in front About 10-15 minutes into class the observer would observe a maximum of 2 students for 5 minutes each. During the 5 minutes, the observer recorded if the participant looked or touched their phone for more than 5 seconds or if they were paying attention by actively typing or writing down notes.

Results

For the results, a Chi-Square test of independence was used to determine the relationship between cellphone use and the impact on attention. The variables tested showed a relation that was statically significant, X2(1, N = 120) = 21. 89, p =. 001 (see Figure 1). Participants who were categorized as non-cell phone users were more likely to paying attention by taking notes than those who were cellphone users that did not take notes.