The Relationship Between Media Multitasking and Attention Problems in Adolescents: Results of Two Longitudinal Studies

Baumgartner, Susanne E.; Schuur, Winneke A. van der; Lemmens, Jeroen S.; Poel, Fam te

doi:10.1093/hcre.12111

Cited by 56 publications

(51 citation statements)

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“…Furthermore, both the immediate and chronic effects of media multi‐tasking are relatively unexplored in children and adolescents, who are the prime users of such technologies and are at a phase of development that is crucial for refining higher cognitive abilities. The first longitudinal study of media multi‐tasking in young people has recently found that frequent multi‐tasking behaviours do predict the development of attentional deficits specifically in early adolescents, but not in older teens. Additionally, extensive media multi‐tasking during childhood and adolescence could also negatively impact cognitive development through indirect means, by reducing engagement with academic and social activities, as well as by interfering with sleep, or reducing the opportunity to engage in creative thinking.…”

Section: “Digital Distractions”: a Hijack Of Attention On The Informamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, the Internet's digital distractions and supernormal capacities for cognitive offloading seem to create a non‐ideal environment for the refinement of higher cognitive functions in critical periods of children and adolescents’ brain development. Indeed, the first longitudinal studies on this topic have found that adverse attentional effects of digital multi‐tasking are particularly pronounced in early adolescence (even compared to older teens), and that higher frequency of Internet use over 3 years in children is linked with decreased verbal intelligence at follow‐up, along with impeded maturation of both grey and white matter regions.…”

Section: Conclusion and Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The “online brain”: how the Internet may be changing our cognition

et al. 2019

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The impact of the Internet across multiple aspects of modern society is clear. However, the influence that it may have on our brain structure and functioning remains a central topic of investigation. Here we draw on recent psychological, psychiatric and neuroimaging findings to examine several key hypotheses on how the Internet may be changing our cognition. Specifically, we explore how unique features of the online world may be influencing: a) attentional capacities, as the constantly evolving stream of online information encourages our divided attention across multiple media sources, at the expense of sustained concentration; b) memory processes, as this vast and ubiquitous source of online information begins to shift the way we retrieve, store, and even value knowledge; and c) social cognition, as the ability for online social settings to resemble and evoke real-world social processes creates a new interplay between the Internet and our social lives, including our self-concepts and self-esteem. Overall, the available evidence indicates that the Internet can produce both acute and sustained alterations in each of these areas of cognition, which may be reflected in changes in the brain. However, an emerging priority for future research is to determine the effects of extensive online media usage on cognitive development in youth, and examine how this may differ from cognitive outcomes and brain impact of uses of Internet in the elderly. We conclude by proposing how Internet research could be integrated into broader research settings to study how this unprecedented new facet of society can affect our cognition and the brain across the life course.

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Section: “Digital Distractions”: a Hijack Of Attention On The Informamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion and Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The “online brain”: how the Internet may be changing our cognition

et al. 2019

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“…The meta-analysis covers a period of more than 25 years, the earliest data was collected in 1990 (Forschungsgruppe Wahlen et al, 2013), and the latest panel started in 2017 (Roßteutscher et al, 2018). Baumgartner et al (2017) 2016 NL Adolescents online 3 919 32 Baumgartner et al (2017) 2016 NL Adolescents online 2 397 33 Roßteutscher et al (2018) 2017 DE Adults online 11 9531…”

Section: Methods Samplementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only (sub-)samples with more than 50 respondents per measure were included in order to obtain stable estimates. Among the analyzed data sets are well-known studies such as the General Social Survey, the American National Election Study (ANES) or the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES, Rattinger, Roßteutscher, Schmitt-Beck, Weßels, & Steinbrecher, 2015), but also data from diverse media exposure and effects studies (Baumgartner, van der Schuur, Lemmens, & te Poel, 2017;Quandt, Festl, Breuer, Scharkow, & Kowert, 2017), consumer panels (Wonneberger & Irazoqui, 2017) or previously unpublished project data. 1 Most studies in the sample were conducted in either Germany (n = 11) or the Netherlands (n = 10), followed by the United 1 The references for unpublished data contain some information about the sample and data collection, but might not discuss the media exposure measures at all.…”

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confidence: 99%

The reliability and temporal stability of self-reported media exposure - a meta-analysis

Scharkow¹

2018

Preprint

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The measurement of media exposure is essential to not only traditional audience research, but also media effects research which relies on accurate estimates of media exposure. Even in the age of digital trace data and passive audience measurement, the workhorse of basically all communication research is self-report data. In this paper, I present a meta-analysis of the reliability and temporal stability of media exposure self-reports. Results show that media self-reported exposure was moderately reliable and highly stable. The estimated reliability was lower in youth samples, while rank-order stability was very similar for a adults and adolescents. Moderation analyses showed that exposure to specific outlets yielded more reliable information in adult samples, while media-specific differences in reliability were only found in youth samples.Keywords: meta-analysis, reliability, media exposure, panel dataThe measurement of media exposure is essential to not only traditional audience research, but also media effects research which relies on accurate estimates of media exposure. Even in the age of digital trace data and passive audience measurement, the workhorse of basically all communication research is self-report data. For several decades, scholars have investigated the reliability, accuracy and validity of self-reported media exposure measures (Allen, 1981;Chaffee & Schleuder, 1986), with most methodological research being conducted on question and response formats (Andersen, de Vreese, & Albaek, 2016;Coromina & Saris, 2009;Prior, 2013) or, more recently, on the accuracy and validity of self-reports compared to passive measures (LaCour & Vavreck, 2014;Prior, 2009; A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the DGPuK methods division in Amsterdam, NL. I thank Marko Bachl for helpful comments and suggestions on the data analysis. Replication data and code are available at https://osf.io/t6z3qCorrespondence concerning this article should be addressed to Michael Scharkow, Department of Culture and Communication, Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany. E-mail: michael.scharkow@zu.de RELIABILITY AND STABILITY OF MEDIA EXPOSURE 2 Scharkow, 2016;Wonneberger & Irazoqui, 2017). These studies often found low convergent validity and frequent misreporting. This paper follows a third strand of research which investigates the reliability and temporal stability of media exposure self-reports (Allen, 1981;Allen & Taylor, 1985;Lee, Hornik, & Hennessy, 2008). These two aspects are central to communication research for several reasons: (1) If self-reported media exposure is not reliable, the estimated media effects will likely be biased (Bartels, 1993;Scharkow & Bachl, 2017), and predictive or explanatory analyses of media exposure will be highly uncertain. (2) The temporal stability of media exposure is relevant both theoretically and empirically in order to understand media exposure and effects. If media exposure is exceedingly stable, there is little hope for experimental or sho...

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“…Future studies should address these limitations and further examine individual and situational differences in MM behavior. For example, some adolescents may be predisposed to engage in higher levels of MM and this behavior may make them more sensitive to distracting or irrelevant information (Baumgartner, van der Schuur, Lemmens, & te Poel, ). Previous cross‐sectional work suggests that young drivers with executive functioning difficulties and poorer speed of processing abilities are at risk for negative driving outcomes (McManus et al, ; Pope, Ross, & Stavrinos, ).…”

Section: Future Opportunities and Challenges In Media Multitasking Rementioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of adolescent media multitasking on cognition and driving safety

Stavrinos

McManus

Underhill

et al. 2019

Human Behav and Emerg Tech

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Adolescence is a critical period in brain development particularly in regions related to attention and executive function (EF). As the use of electronics and media in daily activities increases, one essential question is how adolescent attention development and related executive and speed processes are impacted by media multitasking (MM), or the simultaneous use of media (e.g., text messaging while watching television). This review examines current literature concerning (a) the prevalence of MM during adolescence; (b) relations between MM and adolescent cognitive development, specifically attention, speed of processing, and EF; and (c) real‐world implications of MM including adolescents and driver distraction. Finally, future challenges and opportunities in MM research are explored with special attention given to overcoming the limitations of current research in this area and the critical need to advance our understanding of the impact of MM on adolescent driver safety.

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The Relationship Between Media Multitasking and Attention Problems in Adolescents: Results of Two Longitudinal Studies

Cited by 56 publications

References 50 publications

The “online brain”: how the Internet may be changing our cognition

The “online brain”: how the Internet may be changing our cognition

The reliability and temporal stability of self-reported media exposure - a meta-analysis

Impact of adolescent media multitasking on cognition and driving safety

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