A study suggests smartphones decrease worker concentration 26 percent. The study tested subject performance on a number of tasks, with smartphones available and not available.
The study, conducted by researchers at the Universities of Würzburg and Nottingham-Trent, for Kaspersky Lab, suggests that “it is the absence, rather than the presence, of a smartphone that improves concentration.”
Some will say the results are inconclusive, measuring user separation anxiety, though the researchers say previous studies have shown that separation from one’s smartphone has negative emotional effects such as increased anxiety.
On the other hand, studies have also demonstrated that one’s smartphone may act as an distractor for attention when it is with us.
In other words, both smartphone absence and presence could impair concentration. The new test tried to test concentration.
During the attentional blink procedure participants are confronted with a string of visual stimuli in fast succession at the same spatial location on the computer screen. The task consists of reporting on two targets in this string after each display, the letter X and a letter in a different color, and requires continuous and undistracted attention to the screen.
Simply, subjects performed better when the smartphone was not present, even if the device was not used, or providing a distraction.
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