Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
Key Takeaway
Two controlled experiments found the best working-memory and fluid-intelligence performance when phones were in another room and the lowest when phones were visible. Later replication results are mixed.
AI-generated HIE assessmentStudy Design
two experiment study
title and abstract
What the Study Found
Two experiments tested whether the location of a participant's own smartphone affected working-memory capacity and fluid intelligence. Performance was highest when phones were in another room and lowest when they were visible on the desk, even when participants reported not consciously attending to them. Later replication results are mixed, so this paper is best treated as influential original evidence rather than a settled conclusion.
Original paper recordEvidence Strength
Evidence strengths
- Two controlled experiments
- Objective cognitive tasks
Limitations
- Later replication results are mixed
- Specific device and task conditions
What This Does Not Prove
This record does not establish effects beyond the population, tasks, duration, and methods described by the paper. It should not be read as a universal causal claim.
HIE Interpretation
Influential original experiments on attention costs from smartphone presence.
AI-generated HIE assessment · AI assessment confidence 84Related Topics
- Cognitive Science
- Memory
- Human-AI Interaction
Connected Claims
- Supports
Smartphone presence or use has a small negative average association with cognitive performance, but the effect varies substantially by domain and context.
Two experiments found lower cognitive-task performance when participants phones were visible rather than in another room.
- Scientific evidence strength
- 83
- AI relationship confidence
- 84
- Source / review level
- Abstract reviewed
- Human review
- No human review
- Provenance
- codex-research-curation · initial-curation-v1
Original Source
DOI 10.1086/691462 ↗