Teens wrapped up in TV and their phones score lowest in exams
A new study suggests that more time spent multitasking between different types of media is associated with greater impulsivity and a poorer working memory in adolescents.
The study focussed on “media multitasking” which describes the act of using multiple media simultaneously, such as having the television on in the background while texting.
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Hide AdBut while the activity has risen sharply over the past two decades, little is known about what kind of an impact it has on young minds.
Researchers tasked 14-15-year-olds with a questionnaire.
They were asked how many hours per week they spent on various activities including texting, playing video games, reading, listening to music and watching the TV.
The teenagers were also asked how often they combined the various activities.
Next, the participants had their dexterity, vocabulary and memory tested.
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Hide AdResearchers also measured how impulsive and conscientious they were.
The teenagers were also asked whether they believed that their abilities were fixed or whether they could be improved.
Finally they studied the participants’ scores in English and maths, using the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System.
The results showed that the participants watched an average of 12 hours of television per week.
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Hide AdResearchers also found that the teens multi-tasked between mediums around 25 per cent of the time.
The study, published in Springer’s journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, showed teens who spent more time multitasking with their electrical devices fared significantly worse academically than others.
These teenagers also scored lower in certain aspects of their memory, tended to be more impulsive and were more likely to believe that intelligence is not malleable.
The results extended previous findings from adults and suggest that the relationships between ability and media multitasking are already established by mid-teens.
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Hide AdProfessor Amy Finn, from the University of Toronto, said: “We found a link between greater media multitasking and worse academic outcomes in adolescents.
“This relationship may be due to decreased executive functions and increased impulsiveness - both previously associated with both greater media multitasking and worse academic outcomes.”
She added: “The direction of causality is difficult to establish. For example, media multitasking may be a consequence of underlying cognitive differences and not vice versa.”