Mobile phone distraction and its effects on academic performance of Israeli college students

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on evaluating the connection between academic achievements and the receipt of text messages. A total of 106 students with ADHD were randomly divided into groups: the ‘Turned off’ (1) (phone is turned off completely); the ‘Enabled & Mute’ (2) (phone is on and the ‘silent mode’ has been activated); the ‘Enabled and Sound’ (3) (phone is on and sound is on). It was found that students’ achievements are affected by the sound mode of the mobile phone; that turning off the phone significantly increases the number of correct answers; and that students with ADHD tend to be more easily distracted by the sound than their peers. Within this framework, participants in group 1 scored a significantly higher number of correct answers and were more successful in answering complex questions compared to the participants in group 3.KEYWORDS: IsraelstudentsADHDdistractionmobile phoneperformancesound mode Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. Vincent, “Mobile Phone”; Van Deursen et al., “Habitual Addictive Smartphone Behavior”; Gökçearslan et al., “Modelling Smartphone Addiction”; Elhai et al., “Problematic Smartphone Use”; Panova and Carbonell, “Smartphone Addiction?”; Fu, Jin, and Guo, “Mobile Phone Addiction”; and Barnes, Pressey, and Scornavacca, “Mobile Ubiquity.”2. Drews et al., “Text Messaging during Simulated Driving”; and Haque and Washington, “Parametric Duration Reaction Times.”3. Albert and Lotan, “Young Drivers Touch Smartphone”; Asbridge, Brubacher, and Chan, “Cell Phone Traffic Crash”; Caird et al., “Effects of Texting on Driving”; Caird et al., “Effects Cellphones Driver Performance”; Fitch et al., Hand-Held and Hands-Free Driving Performance; Handel et al., “Smartphone-Based Measurement Systems”; Klauer et al., “Distracted Driving”; Strayer et al., Measuring Cognitive Distraction; Carney, Harland and McGehee, “Teen Driver Crashes”; and Hill, Sullman, and Stephens, “Mobile Phone Involvement.”4. Hamilton, Arnold, and Tefft, “Teen Driver Crashes”; Albert and Lotan, “Impact of ‘Soft Blocking’”; Musicant, Lotan, and Albert, “Really Need Smartphones”; and Albert et al., “Smartphone Apps Road Safety?”5. Kuznekoff and Titsworth, “Mobile Phone Usage”; Wei, Wang, and Klausner, “College Students’ Self-Regulation”; Wood et al., “Off-task Multi-Tasking”; Rosen, Carrier, and Cheever, “Facebook and Texting”; Beland and Murphy, “Ill-Communication”; and Kraushaar and Novak, “Student Multitasking with Laptops,” 11.6. Felisoni and Godoi, “Cell Phone Usage and Academic Performance.”7. Oswald, Tremblay, and Jones, “Disruption of Comprehension.”8. Ransdell and Gilroy, “Background Music.”9. Klatte, Bergström, and Lachmann, “Noise Affect Learning.”10. De Coensel et al., “Perception of Environmental Sound.”11. Jones, “Objects, Streams, and Threads of Auditory Attention”; and Macken, Phelps, and Jones, “Auditory Distraction.”12. Hancock and Warm, “Dynamic Model of Stress”; and Hockey, “Compensatory Control.”13. Furnham and Strbac, “Music is Distracting as Noise.”14. Hambleton, Swaminathan, and Rogers, Fundamentals of Item Response Theory.15. Embretson and Reise, Item Response Theory.16. Burns and Lohenry, “Cellular Phone Use in Class”; Flanigan and Babchuk, “Social Media as Academic Quicksand”; McCoy, “Digital Distractions in the Classroom”; and van Deursen et al., “Habitual Addictive Smartphone Behavior.”17. Chen and Yan, “Multitasking with Mobile Phones.”18. Amez and Baert, “Smartphone Use and Academic Performance,” 10168.19. See note 6 above.20. van Mourik et al., “When Distraction is not Distracting”; Polderman et al, “Attention Problems”; and Becker and Barkley, “Sluggish Cognitive Tempo.”21. Connors, Connolly, and Toplak, “Self-Reported Inattention in Early Adolescence.”22. Reimer et al., “Impact of Distractions on Young Adult Drivers”; and Stavrinos et al, “Distracted Driving in Teens.”23. Gao et al., “To Ban or Not to Ban?”; Gao et al, “Three Different Roles”; Chen and Yan, “Multitasking with Mobile Phones”; Albert and Lotan, “Impact of ‘Soft Blocking’”; and Hill, Sullman, and Stephens, “Mobile Phone Involvement.”24. Beland and Murphy, “Ill Communication.”25. Gao et al., “Three Different Roles.”26. Tabachnick and Fidell, Using Multivariate Analysis.27. van Mourik et al., “When Distraction Is Not Distracting”; Polderman et al., “Attention Problems and Academic Achievement”; and Becker and Barkley, “Sluggish Cognitive Tempo.”28. De Coensel et al., “Perception of Environmental Sound”; Furnham and Strbac, “Music Is Distracting”; Hancock and Warm, “Dynamic Model of Stress”; Hockey, “Compensatory Control”; Klatte, Bergström, and Lachmann, “Noise Affect Learning?”; Macken, Phelps, and Jones, “Auditory Distraction”; Oswald, Tremblay, and Jones, “Disruption of Comprehension”; and Ransdell and Gilroy, “Background Music.”29. See note 21 above.30. Gao et al., “To Ban or Not To Ban?”; Gao et al., “Three Different Roles”; Chen and Yan, “Multitasking with Mobile Phones”; Albert and Lotan, “Impact of ‘Soft Blocking’”; Hill, Sullman, and Stephens, “Mobile Phone Involvement”; and Beland and Murphy, “Ill-Communication.”Additional informationNotes on contributorsShimon FridkinGila Albert is a lecturer and researcher at Holon Institute of Technology (HIT), Israel. Shimon Fridkin is a Lecturer and Research Associate at HIT. Or Delevski is a graduate of HIT.