Photo credit; GaudiLab/Depost Photos
I have a new favorite website for journalistic coverage of psychology research: Psypost.org. You can read a few articles per month for free. Unlike my other "favorite" site (StudyFinds), Psypost strives to report the research without adding unwarranted causal claims or undue hype. In this post, we'll talk about their article, Smartphone checking predicts daily cognitive failures, study says.
This is a good example for practicing Chapter 9 concepts. Here's why the authors hypothesized there might be a link between these variables:
Research has suggested that frequent smartphone use can lead to cognitive overload and decrease attentional control, which may contribute to cognitive failures such as forgetfulness, distraction, and mind wandering. Additionally, smartphone use can be highly distracting and interruptive, which may interfere with the ability to focus and complete tasks.
The study's participants were 181 college students who used iPhones. Psypost summarized the method as follows:
The participants first completed a baseline survey that collected baseline data such as age, sex, monthly household income, and subjective socioeconomic status. The participants then completed a daily diary study for seven days. Screen time and smartphone checking for seven days were objectively tracked using the inbuilt iOS Screen Time Application Programming Interface.
The incidence of daily cognitive failures was assessed by the 13-item Cognitive Failures in Everyday Life Scale, in which the participants indicated whether they had experienced cognitive failures such as leaving tasks unfinished due to distraction, failing to remember the right word to use, or unintentionally allowing their mind to wander.Participants also reported each day whether they had experienced any of seven types of stressors.
a) Based on the reading so far, you can identify several of the variables in the study. Fill them out on this table:
| Variable name | How was this variable operationalized? | What are the variable's possible levels? | Is this manipulated or measured? |
| (add rows as needed) |
Ready for the results? Here's what the Psypost journalist wrote:
The researchers found that daily smartphone checking predicted higher levels of daily cognitive failures even after controlling for age, sex, monthly household income, subjective socioeconomic status, daily stressor exposure, daily positive affect, and daily negative affect.
b) In the results above, what is the criterion variable? What are the predictor variables?
c) Imagine that a person argues, "perhaps the main reason smartphone checking is associated with cognitive failures is stress....people experiencing a stressful event may need to check their phones more often, and stressed out people may also make more cognitive errors."
Is this a mediator, moderator, or third variable argument?
Draw a little sketch of this argument using one of the models in Figure 9.14.
Can the regression analysis rule this argument out, or not?
e) What do you think of the construct validity of the "phone checking" variable? What about the "cognitive failures" variable?
f) How would you ask about the external validity of this study?
g) What information do you need in order to consider the statistical validity of this result?
Here's a link to the original research/empirical article, which appeared in the British Journal of Psychology.
