1. The Relationship Between Emphasis of Cell-phone Use on Performance and Anxiety: Classroom Implications
Jordan Booth, Leah Cotton, Jeni Dillman, Kealey Mathieson, Rachel Roll, & Nick Sutton
Department of Psychology, Missouri Western State University
Faculty Sponsor: Aron Gerhart
Introduction
Method
Results
Conclusions
PARTICIPANTS
The sample consisted of undergraduate students at a Midwestern university
MATERIALS
Informed Consent and Demographics forms
The VARK questionnaire, which is intended to gauge individual learning styles, was used as a distractor task (The results were not analyzed)
The Coding subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV), which assess–among other constructs–one’s ability to learn an unfamiliar task, working memory, and processing speed (Wechsler, 2008a, 2008b)
The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), which assess one’s state anxiety (Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988)
PROCEDURE (approx. 20 min)
Participants completed the Informed Consent and Demographics forms
The independent variable was introduced: two versions of instructions for the two (randomly assigned) conditions
For the non-emphasis condition, cell- phone use was not addressed
For the other condition, participants were asked to place their cell phones on a desk at the front of the room; they were also informed that cell-phone use was not permitted
The VARK questionnaire (i.e., the distractor task) was administered
The dependent variables were introduced: the WAIS-IV’s Coding subtest and BAI, respectively
PURPOSE OF AND NEED FOR STUDY
To investigate the potential pedagogical implications of cell-phone “policing” (viz., instructors emphasizing cell-phone nonuse vs. non-emphasis on cell phones)
Specifically, participants’ cognitive performance and anxiety levels will be compared across two conditions: one in which cell-phone use is highly discouraged and another in which the use of cell phones is not addressed
PRIMARY LITERATURE REVIEW
Students experienced high test anxiety (e.g., as measured via heartrate) when separated from their cell phones during a cognitive task (Clayton, Leshner, & Almond, 2012)
The mere presence of cell phones was found to be a distraction in task performance (Thornton, Faires, Robbins, & Rollins, 2014)
Participants with increased levels of anxiety did not perform as well on a cognitive task, that, is, in comparison to those who had relatively lower levels of anxiety (Owens, Stevenson, Hadwin, & Norgate, 2014)
“Separation anxiety” appeared to be present when participants were “forced” to part with their cell phones (Dixit et al., 2010)
PREDICTION
Emphasis on cell-phone use will have a significant impact on participants’ cognitive performance and anxiety levels
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
The sample consisted of 56 participants
There were 28 participants per condition
The mean, or average, age was years
In terms of sex/gender, there were 20 males and 36 females
TESTS OF SIGNIFICANCE
A one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was calculated examining the effects of cell-phone emphasis (i.e., non-emphasis vs. emphasis) on performance on the Coding subtest of the WAIS-IV and BAI
No significant effect was found (Lambda(4,51) = .960, p > .05)
Neither Coding subtest nor BAI scores were significantly improved by cell-phone emphasis
N = 56
IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
Emphasizing the use of cell phones in the classroom did not seem to impact performance or anxiety
Therefore, cell-phone emphasis may not matter in a classroom setting
However, per the traditional aphorism, “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”
Despite the insignificant findings, reporting the results of this study helps prevent Rosenthal’s (1979) file-drawer problem
LIMITATIONS
The time spent being separated from cell phones may not have been long enough to have a significant effect
The conditions were tested in groups, and that dynamic could possibly lead to social facilitation
FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS
Future research could use a task that represents the essence of classroom work and different measures of academic performance; alternative measures of anxiety could also be used
Further studies could evaluate if the amount of time separated from cell phones is an important consideration
Future research could use more varied samples (i.e., non-college students)
Further studies could also address the potential long-term effects of cell-phone emphasis (e.g., via a longitudinal study)