Efficient, helpful, or distracting? A literature review of media multitasking in relation to academic performance

Laptops and mobile phones are particularly distracting while studying or doing coursework outside of class, as students can easily access alternate media sources such as email, Facebook, or Instant Messaging (IM) on them. Much of the research to date primarily assessed the impact of media multitasking on in-class activities, such as test performance. Few studies have examined the role of media multitasking on assignments outside of class, such as homework or studying. A survey study of 1839 students revealed that using Facebook while doing schoolwork was negatively predictive of overall semester GPA. (Junco, 2012). Junco and Cotten (2012) surmised that Facebook or texting while completing schoolwork may tax students’ capacity for cognitive processing, inhibiting deeper learning. According to one experimental study, the more time participants reported spending on IM in class, the lower self-reported GPA. (Fox, Rosen, & Crawford, 2009).

Outside of the classroom, mobile phone use is negatively associated with academic performance. Texting while studying was significantly and negatively associated with college GPA after controlling for demographic variables, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, self-efficacy for academic achievement, and high school GPA (Junco, 2012; Junco & Cotten, 2012; Lepp, Barkley, & Karpinski, 2015). Amount of texting and texting while multitasking was negatively predictive of overall GPA for U.S. students (Karpinski, Kirschner, Ozer, Mellott, & Ochwo, 2013). Students who did not text while studying had a higher GPA than those who did text. Furthermore, GPA was higher for those who spent fewer minutes texting per day compared to increased levels of texting. Similar effects are elicited by other digital media technologies. Students’ media multitasking with various digital media technologies, including social networking platforms while studying suffer negative consequences. Students who used fewer forms of media multitasking (0–2 mediums) outperformed students who used more forms (7 or more mediums) on exam scores (Patterson, 2017). Yet, the amount of studying time between the two groups of students did not differ.

An experimental paradigm comparing the effect of laptop multitasking on reading comprehension and task performance cited differential effects (Subrahmanyam et al., 2013). The study comprised of two paradigms. In the first, participants read two passages of low and high difficulty on paper, a laptop, or on a tablet, in a multitasking or non-multitasking condition. Similar to the studies discussed above, neither medium nor multitasking condition affected reading comprehension; however, multitaskers demonstrated markedly reduced efficiency. In the second paradigm, participants synthesized multiple materials and wrote a one-page report. Sources were provided either on paper, on a computer screen without Internet or printer access, or on a computer screen with Internet and printer access. Source materials produced no differences in report quality or efficiency, despite students reporting a preference for paper sources. However, report quality was significantly improved when participants had sources on a computer without Internet compared to a computer with Internet access. Furthermore, active use of paper for note-taking greatly reduced the negative impact of Internet access.

Hence, it appears that these effects are not limited to learning while just attending class, but that media multitasking has harmful effects as students engage in learning activities outside the classroom, too. Multitasking outside of class— while completing homework or studying— is similar to multitasking during class; it requires task-switching, may overload students’ capacity for cognitive processing and hence preclude deeper learning. As in bottleneck theory, incoming information arrives at a processing bottleneck, at which only one item can be processed at a time. The consequence of this is diminished performance. According to the scattered attention hypothesis (van dur Schuur et al., 2015) media multitasking negatively affects cognitive control through distraction from the primary activity. Engaging in multiple tasks highly demands attentional capacity, resulting in deficits in performance. Multitasking reduces performance by causing interference, distraction, and errors. Thus, effects of multitasking outside of class parallel those of multitasking within the classroom.

Perceptions of multitasking and self-regulation

One important aspect for understanding multitasking while engaged in learning activities for class is the issue of students’ beliefs and perceptions surrounding multitasking. In Downs et al. (2015) study, participants completed a pre-test examining their perceptions of their multitasking abilities. The same questionnaire was administered following a multiple-choice exam. Participants in various conditions (e.g. distracted by social media and/or taking notes) reported significantly less confidence in their ability to effectively multitask. This is particularly interesting considering students never received their individual scores on the multiple-choice assessment. Students felt less confident in their ability to learn, pointing to the fact that students self assess themselves as less capable when engaged in multitasking.

Multitasking students typically predict lower scores on academic performance than on-task students. Experimental data of 34 students failed to indicate difference in quiz scores of those who used devices while listening to a lecture and those who did not; however, when asked to predict scores prior to taking a comprehension quiz, students who used their cell phones during lecture anticipated lower scores than students who did not (Elder, 2013). A more recent prediction study found similar results. Sixty college students predicted results of media multitasking while completing a homework assignment in various media availability conditions (Calderwood, Green, Joy-Gaba, & Moloney, 2016). Participants received instructions to bring 3 h of homework of different subjects and any media items of their choice to the laboratory. Upon arrival, participants were instructed to complete their homework as they typically would. At the beginning of each hour, participants completed a 34-item measure of state affect, fatigue, self-efficacy, and positive motivation. Students predicted media use to result in lower negative affect and less self-control. While the direction of their predictions was accurate, students underestimated the effect of media multitasking on their performance.

Although students recognize potential negative impact of multitasking with media, they continue to do it. Survey responses assessing frequency and duration of media use in an introductory psychology class indicate that students discount the effect of media on learning over time (Ravizza, Hambrick, & Fenn, 2014). Five-hundred and eight students completed a nine-question survey assessing the frequency and duration of texting, using Facebook, checking email, and non-class related Internet use during lectures. For each media, participants reported how frequently they used the technology and estimated the average amount of time spent on these activities during lecture. The final question examined the degree to which students perceived internet and phone use to affect their learning. Students demonstrate poor awareness of how media multitasking affects their learning. Kraushaar and Novak (2010) reported students underreported email multitasking by 7% and IM by 40%. In Elder’s (2013) study, questionnaire data of 88 college students’ beliefs indicated an acceptance of in-class use and neutral beliefs about whether multitasking affects study time. Similarly, Clayson and Haley (2012) reported that 68% of students believed they could attend to a lecture and text at the same time, yet students who texted received lower grades. This suggests an incapability of students to make accurate and discerning decisions about multitasking while completing academic tasks.

Another study combining survey with experimental methods found that participants predicted losing close to 30% accuracy on a quiz when using cell phones and indeed lost close to 30% when texting (Froese et al., 2010). Non-multitasking students feel more confident in their ability to predict scores accurately. In an experiment asking lecture-only and lecture-texting groups to predict their performance on a quiz assessing lecture content retention, the lecture-only group had higher scores on the quiz and felt more confident in their predictions (Gingerich & Lineweaver, 2014). This, coupled with data regarding multitaskers’ metacognitive beliefs, indicates that students are poor at recognizing and regulating inhibitors of performance.

Self-regulation requires conscious personal management and guiding of one’s thoughts, behaviors, and feelings to achieve goals. Although there is some evidence that students adjust reading time, adolescents do not effectively self-regulate their media multitasking. Despite students readily acknowledging multitasking divides attention, media multitasking persists. Furthermore, students do not accurately predict its impact on task performance. A possible explanation is that multitasking while studying hinders the implementation of an appropriate learning strategy. Thus, media multitasking inhibits metacognition and self-regulation, preventing implementation of the appropriate learning strategy and reducing performance (Lee, Cho, Kim, & Noh, 2015).

Wei, Wang, and Klausner (2012) examined the impact of texting on students’ cognitive learning with surveys of 190 college students. They found that college students’ self-regulation negatively related to text messaging use during class; text messaging use during class negatively related to student sustained attention to classroom learning. Structural equation modeling analysis found texting during class to partially mediate effect of students’ self-regulation on their sustained attention to classroom learning. Moreover, students’ sustained attention fully mediates effect of in-class texting on experience-oriented learning. Thus, college students with high levels of self-regulation are less likely to text during class and more likely to maintain attention to classroom learning.

Multitasking reduces efficiency when performing academic tasks. Survey data of 361 college students who reported texting while doing homework, also reported spending more time studying outside of class, as multitasking contributes to inefficient study habits (Bellur et al., 2015). Participants who IMed while completing a reading task took significantly longer to complete the task (12.56 min compared to 8.23 min by non-multitasking participants; Fox et al., 2009). In a similar study of the same experimental design, participants who IM while reading took 22%–59% longer to complete the task than those who IMed before reading or did not IM at all, even after deducting the time spent on Instant Messaging (Bowman, Levine, Waite, & Gendron, 2010).

Although multitasking reduces efficiency, comprehension is not always affected. Participants may re-read certain parts of the article after interruption; although this increases reading time, it can make up for deficits in comprehension (Bowman et al., 2010; Fox et al., 2009). In both of the aforementioned studies, although statistically significant differences were found in student time to complete the reading passage, comprehension was not harmed. Thus, students who are particularly metacognitive can overcome the effects of media multitasking on comprehension, especially when students control the pace of presented information. Comparisons of various multitasking conditions indicate this (Pashler, Kang, & Ip, 2013). Participants read or listened to several short historical narratives while engaging in five to eight brief conversations simulating Instant Messaging in various conditions: (1) reading narratives; (2) audio narratives paused during message conversing; and (3) audio narratives not paused during message conversing. When reading narratives and attending to messages, multitasking marginally increased reading time but comprehension was not significantly affected. This repeated when narratives were presented in audio format and paused during messaging. However, when audio narratives did not pause, interruptions reduced comprehension performance. This may be suggestive of the trained attention hypothesis, which holds that frequent media multitasking could have a positive effect on cognitive control via eventual training and improvement of control processes.

The role of media multitasking on comprehension is dependent on self-regulation and self-awareness. Students who are particularly metacognitive or self-aware recognized deficits in comprehension upon returning to the primary task and subsequently re-read portions of the article after interruption. Although this increases reading time, it can make up for deficits in comprehension. While this is acceptable for academic tasks which are not completed under time-constraints such as homework assignments, multitasking during time-contingent academic tasks such as an essay or in-class lecture is problematic; the student cannot make up for deficits in comprehension via repeated exposure to the text without costs to performance. Thus, the type of work matters when examining the impact of media multitasking on performance. Some research suggests that regardless of context, whether learning in class, studying outside class, or engaging in homework alone or in collaboration, most students tend to multitask with smartphones (Jacobsen & Forste, 2011; Junco, 2012). Although media, such as smartphones, provide access to educational resources and facilitate collaboration, studies indicate that technology-related distractions are negatively related to homework effort and environment (Chan, Walker, & Gleaves, 2015; Hawi & Samaha, 2016; Xu, 2015).