Olga Yarmolyuk 3/3/15
Psychology 103
Research Report

Primary Source

Citation:
Froese, D., Carpenter, N., Inman, A., Schooley, R., Barnes, B., Brecht, W., & Chacon, D. (2012). Effects of classroom cell phone use on expected and actual learning. College Student Journal, 46(2), (323-332).

Purpose of Study:
The purpose of the study was to determine student expectations about actual performance under cell phone conditions.

Literature Review:
The National Safety Council (2010) published a literature review explaining why cognitive load from cell phones produces inattention blindness for drivers. This relates to the topic because classroom texting effects students’ ability to learn. If texting increases accident risks for drivers, it will increase errors on tests of lesson presented to students.

Research Method:
A.) Subjects- For the first study, they collected surveys from 693 students at seven colleges and universities across the U.S. Participants’ average age was 20.5 years. Ninety percent owned cell phones, had owned cell phones on average of 5.4 years and used texting functions an average of 4.1 years. For the second study, 82 participants form a college student list were randomly selected. 40 of these students agreed to participate. They were 21 men and 19 women.

B.) Procedure- For study one, instructors gave students the option of not completing the survey. Students were given six minutes to complete the survey and the surveys were confidential. For study two, participants were all tested twice, once while texting and once while not texting. Each of the participants sat on different sides of the room to reduce distraction. Participants were told to watch a presentation and try to retain the information for a quiz. The texting participants were told to put their phones on vibrate and were allowed to respond to any text messages. The non-texting participants turned off the vibrate and put their phones out of sight. After the first quiz, the participants switched conditions for the second presentation. The experimenter told co-experimenters to text the participants. When the texting participants received the message, the experimenter started presentation. Throughout the presentation, co-experimenters and participants exchanged messages.

C.) Data Collection- For the first study, participants were given a survey that requested demographic information from students. Questions that were asked were, “How would you describe yourself as a text user?”, “How often do you carry your phone around?”, and “If you were listening to information, and someone asks you 10 factual questions about that information, estimate the number of questions you might be able to answer correctly?” Results from these question were taken. For the second study, the data that was collected was quiz scores from the presentation from texting and non-texting students.

D.) Results- In the first experiment, more than half of the participants described themselves as avid users, and 90% described themselves as moderate or avid users. Most students carry their phone to class. 75% reported carrying their phone always and 16.4% said most of the time. These carrying frequencies were lower