New Research: Is your smartphone reducing your cognitive ability?

People are becoming increasingly skeptical, distrustful, and suspicious of the role that smartphones play in our daily lives. Many long for the days when true disconnection was possible, and smartphones simply didn't dominate our social, occupational, and family lives.

This shift in public opinion, frankly, is understandable and increasingly justified by the research. The potential negative impacts of social media, in particular, are quite troubling, especially for young people. However, a new body of research seems to suggest that the mere presence of a smartphone could negatively affect our cognitive abilities and executive functions. This is particularly troubling, as cognitive ability is the strongest predictor of job performance known, having significant implications for performance at work.

What the Study Showed

A key paper (Ward et al., 2017) found that physical proximity to a smartphone was enough to significantly reduce performance on cognitive tasks. The largest effect was seen when the smartphone was face up on the desk while the participant completed the assessments, but just having it on their person was enough to reduce this performance.

It is believed that participants unconsciously monitored their smartphones during their tasks, causing a split within their attentional resources. Naturally, the human attention span can only go so far, and if you dedicate a portion of your cognitive faculties to your notifications, this leads to reduced task performance. This effect was strongest when the smartphone was on the desk visible to the participant, but a notable reduction in performance was observed even with their phone in their pocket. It seems that participants were thinking about their phones in the background, even while they were out of sight, reducing cognitive performance. However, when the phone was in another room, performance was maximized, minimizing this interference effect.

Good science relies on repetition and replication, and the conclusions drawn from a single study are always limited. Consequently, many researchers have sought to replicate these findings, as this suggested conclusion represents rather damning implications for smartphone usage. Not only have many researchers replicated the study now, but at least two large meta-analyses have been conducted (Party et al., 2023; Hartanto et al., 2024) clarifying the issue.

What the Wider Research Shows

Contrary to the original study, the first meta-analysis we will discuss did not find a meaningful effect on cognitive performance or executive function on the basis of smartphone proximity. It also found no meaningful covariates or mediators, including smartphone dependency. It simply didn't find anything meaningful. This is an important conclusion, as it throws water on the fire caused by the initial study. However, this certainly doesn't chime with many people's lived experience, who do feel a certain pull when in close proximity to their phones.

Another meta-analysis, however, did find that smartphone proximity had a significant impact on one's working memory specifically. This makes intuitive sense, as working memory is a key executive function and can easily be diverted by the presence of distracting stimuli. Overall, findings weren't as sensational as the original study, but they do at least find something meaningful that people can relate to. Moreover, working memory has been shown to be particularly predictive of overall general cognitive ability (Colom et al., 2004) and could have serious implications for performance at work.

Although these two papers seem to contradict each other, the first meta-analysis was far broader in outcome variables, whereas the second was more granular. If this effect of smartphone proximity is purely limited to working memory, then it makes sense that these effects would be difficult to detect in a broad spectrum. It is also a mystery how the initial study found such large effects, given the relatively limited scope of smartphone interference on executive functioning. Hopefully, future research will give additional clarity and provide more precise answers to this issue.

Conclusions and Final Thoughts

Although strong findings in the area would chime well with people's inherent negative perception of smartphone usage, it does seem that we need to worry less than we initially thought. That being said, there does seem to be an impact on executive functions caused by the mere presence of a smartphone, which may well have implications for performance on a global scale. As I write this, my smartphone is on my desk, albeit face down. I do implicitly feel its pull, with the nagging sense of urgency to check my notifications.

However, given that the trend was either neutral or negative, and the effort involved in putting one's phone in another room is extremely small, putting space between you and your smartphone seems like a logical conclusion. It may not double your performance in the workplace, but we have no reason to believe that it would hurt either, assuming you don't need it specifically for your job. As a result, I think it would be wise to seriously consider disconnecting oneself whenever possible, as the risk-to-reward ratio seems favorable overall.

But what do you think? How distracting do you find your smartphone to be while working, and what are some of the fringe benefits of having your smartphone at your side that people aren't considering?

References

Colom, R., Rebollo, I., Palacios, A., Juan-Espinosa, M., & Kyllonen, P. C. (2004). Working memory is (almost) perfectly predicted by g. Intelligence, 32(3), 277-296.

Hartanto, A., Lua, V. Y., Kasturiratna, K. S., Koh, P. S., Tng, G. Y., Kaur, M., ... & Majeed, N. M. (2024). The effect of mere presence of smartphone on cognitive functions: A four-level meta-analysis.

Parry, D. A. (2023). Does the mere presence of a smartphone impact cognitive performance? A meta-analysis of the “brain drain effect”. Media Psychology, 1-26.

Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain drain: The mere presence of one’s own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity. Journal of the association for consumer research, 2(2), 140-154.