Database: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collections
- Search: ‘attention span’ or ‘television’ or ‘phone’
- Results: 13, 575
- Search: ‘attention span’ or ‘television’
- Results: 5,584
- Search: ‘attention span’ or ‘phone’
- Results: 3,405
- Search: ‘concentration’ and ‘phone’
- Results: 18
Database: Academic Search Premier
- Search: ‘attention span’ and ‘technology’
- Search Results: 1,235
- Search: ‘attention span’ and ‘technology’ and ‘short’
- Search Results: 136
- Search: ‘attention span’ and ‘social media’
- Search Results: 116
- Search: ‘attention span’ and ‘cell phone’
- Search Results: 67
- Search: ‘attention span’ and ‘television’ and ‘short’
- Search Results: 10
Limiters include: Peer-Reviewed, Dates from 2014 – Current
As far as my search terms go, I find that I must include attention span. Otherwise, the articles aren’t relevant. The other words that I can include though to help narrow this down include social media, phones, technology, and television. Technology is sometimes too broad of a search term, so I must categorize it into a specific technology. I was able to find some really good articles especially by using a second database.
Article: The effect of cellphones on attention and learning: The influences of time, distraction, and nomophobia.
This article discusses how excessive cellphone use impacts attention and learning in classrooms. To do the study they used two experiments where the 20-min lecture was either given while cell phones were present or completely removed. It’s shown that students are more likely to browse social media and online shop when they have access to their phones in the classroom. Other distractions include phone calls and text messages. At the end of the study, the students were then given a quiz to see how well they performed. Those who didn’t have a cell phone during the class retained the information, scoring higher on the quiz.
References
Foster, E. M., & Watkins, S. (2010). The Value of Reanalysis: TV Viewing and Attention Problems. Child Development, 81(1), 368–375. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01400.x
Mendoza, J. S., Pody, B. C., Lee, S., Kim, M., & McDonough, I. M. (2018). The effect of cellphones on attention and learning: The influences of time, distraction, and nomophobia. Computers in Human Behavior, 86, 52–60. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/10.1016/j.chb.2018.04.027
Sörqvist, P., & Marsh, J. E. (2015). How Concentration Shields Against Distraction. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(4), 267–272. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/10.1177/0963721415577356