Author: Alison Pearce Stevens / Source: Science News for Students
Are you ever tempted to check your phone in class? It seems harmless enough to take a quick peek. But a new study finds that college students don’t retain information as well when devices are allowed in class.
That was true even among students who did not use the devices themselves.And college students are likely not to be the only ones affected, say Arnold Glass and Mengxue Kang. Both of the study’s authors are psychologists who work at Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J. Glass says he’s sure he would find the same results if he had studied middle- or high-school students. Why? The effects he and Kang saw are likely due to basic human tendencies — ones that don’t change with age.
These researchers had noticed their students were using laptops and phones during class. And they suspected there could be a problem with that. The human brain simply isn’t wired to do several things at once.
People like to think they can multitask. But the brain actually can focus attention on just one thing at a time. When people switch between tasks, their brains can’t keep up with everything. So there will be a delay as their attention moves from one task to another. Someone who is listening to one person talk, for instance, can’t also listen to another. They can’t even listen and read at the same time.
So what happens when students try to listen to a lecture while they check their email? Or participate in a classroom discussion while liking a friend’s photos?
Glass and Kang thought this kind of multitasking might make it harder for students to learn. Their new data now confirm that it does.Will this be on the test?
Glass and Kang worked with two groups of Rutgers students. Both groups were taking the same psychology course, just at different times. Both groups had the same teacher and covered the same material. The only difference between them was the time of day that they met (one right after the other).
The researchers then added one more difference between the two groups. One class was allowed to use digital devices on odd days but not on even days. The other class had the same rules, but on opposite days. This let the researchers compare how students with…
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