The effect of smartphone use on cognitive function was quantified using measures of neural activity called event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants engaged in a primary task ( Exp. 1a : executive function; Exp. 1b : gambling) with no distraction and while using their smartphone to read online news articles. Smartphone use slowed behavioral responses and reduced the P300 ERP amplitudes by ∼50 percent and provides evidence that smartphones have a large distracting effect. Experiment 2 compared executive function ERPs from smartphone-experienced users ( Exp. 1a ) with those collected on smartphone-naive subjects (collected in late 2006 and early 2007; Scisco et al.). This comparison provides preliminary evidence that smartphone use may be improving visual spatial attention. Collectively, the data highlight some costs and benefits of smartphone use.

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Anonymous web-based experiments are increasingly used in many domains of behavioral research. However, online studies of auditory perception, especially of psychoacoustic phenomena pertaining to low-level sensory processing, are challenging because of limited available control of the acoustics, and the inability to perform audiometry to confirm normal-hearing status of participants. Here, we outline our approach to mitigate these challenges and validate our procedures by comparing web-based measurements to lab-based data on a range of classic psychoacoustic tasks. Individual tasks were created using jsPsych, an open-source JavaScript front-end library. Dynamic sequences of psychoacoustic tasks were implemented using Django, an open-source library for web applications, and combined with consent pages, questionnaires, and debriefing pages. Subjects were recruited via Prolific, a subject recruitment platform for web-based studies. Guided by a meta-analysis of lab-based data, we developed and validated a screening procedure to select participants for (putative) normal-hearing status based on their responses in a suprathreshold task and a survey. Headphone use was standardized by supplementing procedures from prior literature with a binaural hearing task. Individuals meeting all criteria were re-invited to complete a range of classic psychoacoustic tasks. For the re-invited participants, absolute thresholds were in excellent agreement with lab-based data for fundamental frequency discrimination, gap detection, and sensitivity to interaural time delay and level difference. Furthermore, word identification scores, consonant confusion patterns, and co-modulation masking release effect also matched lab-based studies. Our results suggest that web-based psychoacoustics is a viable complement to lab-based research. Source code for our infrastructure is provided.

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Web-based experiments offer the potential to collect large datasets from diverse cohorts of listeners, and can help circumnavigate constraints on in-person testing placed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we (1) outline our infrastructure for multipart web-based hearing studies, (2) describe our approach to screening participants for headphone use and “normal-hearing” status, and (3) compare performance trends in the same task paradigms between lab- and web-based studies. Browser-based psychoacoustic tasks were implemented using jsPsych, a free and open-source JavaScript library. Dynamic sequences of psychoacoustic tasks were combined with consent pages, questionnaires, and debriefing pages using Django, a free and open-source Python library for web applications. Subjects were recruited, pre-screened for demographic characteristics, and compensated anonymously via Prolific.co, a web-based human-subject marketplace. Headphone use was checked by supplementing the procedures in Woods et al. (Atten Percept Psychophys, 2017) with a binaural hearing task. Guided by a meta-analysis of normative data, screening for (near) normal-hearing status (and compliance with instructions) was done by combining scores in a suprathreshold cocktail-party task with survey responses. Individuals meeting all criteria were anonymously re-invited to complete the main psychoacoustic tasks. Preliminary results suggest that performance trends and “main-effects” are comparable to lab-based data.