Media Multitasking Effects on Cognitive vs. Attitudinal Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Despite the recent proliferation of research on media multitasking, a comprehensive meta‐analytic review of its effects has not been available. Based on a review of 49 media multitasking studies, this meta‐analysis showed that multitasking has negative effects on cognitive outcomes, whereas it has positive effects on attitudinal (or persuasion‐related) outcomes. Moderator analyses suggested that the negative effects of multitasking on cognitive outcomes varied by (a) user control, (b) task relevance, and (c) task contiguity. Specifically, multitasking had greater effects (a) when media users had less control over the media, (b) for tasks that were unrelated, and (c) for tasks that were physically distant. Implications for future multitasking research are further discussed.

Everyday functioning-related cognitive correlates of media multitasking: a mini meta-analysis

“…First, studies must have examined the association between measures of media multitasking and self-report measures of cognition, or psychological traits or mental-health issues related to cognition. Therefore, four review articles (Aagaard, 2015;Carrier, Rosen, Cheever, & Lim, 2015;Lin, 2009;van der Schuur et al, 2015), two meta-analysis (Jeong & Hwang, 2016; Wiradhany & Nieuwenstein, 2017), one measurement validity article (Baumgartner, Lemmens, Weeda, & Huizinga, 2017), 12 articles which only included laboratory task performance measures Alzahabi, Becker, & Hambrick, 2017;Cain & Mitroff, 2011;Edwards & Shin, 2017;Gorman & Green, 2016;Lui & Wong, 2012;Moisala et al, 2016;Murphy et al, 2017;Ophir et al, 2009;Ralph & Smilek, 2016;Ralph et al, 2015;Yap & Lim, 2013), two articles in which the level of media multitasking was manipulated (Kazakova, Cauberghe, Pandelaere, & De Pelsmacker, 2015;Lin, Robertson, & Lee, 2009), one article in which only a brain imaging measure was used (Loh & Kanai, 2014) and two articles in which only media multitasking behavior was observed (Loh, Tan, & Lim, 2016;Rigby, Brumby, Gould, & Cox, 2017) were excluded from further eligibility assessment.…”

Dealing with media distractions: an observational study of computer-based multitasking among children and adults in the Netherlands

“…needed for finishing a task (Bowman, Levine, Waite, & Gendron, 2010;Eyrolle & Cellier, 2000), and lower academic performance (for reviews, see Carrier, Rosen, Cheever, & Lim, 2015;Jeong & Hwang, 2016;Van der Schuur, Baumgartner, Sumter, & Valkenburg, 2015).…”

The POPC Citizen: Political Information in the Fourth Age of Political Communication

“…Such behaviors have been cast as a new form of online political engagement that may also translate into offline political participation and civic engagement (Gil de Zúñiga, Garcia-Perdomo, & McGregor, 2015;Vaccari, Chadwick, & O'Loughlin, 2015). However, if looked at more closely from an information-processing perspective, the multitasking nature of the reception situations produced by dual-screen use may well lead to diminished cognitive benefits of exposure to the news (Jeong & Hwang, 2016; see next section).…”