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

Media multitasking is detrimental to academic capacities of college learners. Cognitive effects of media multitasking were found to be negative across a range of outcomes (see Table 1). Inside of the classroom, media multitasking is negatively associated with GPA, test performance, information recall, comprehension, and note-taking, especially when students multitask to engage in off task activities. These effects are not mediated by achievement level and negatively impact non-multitasking peers. Outside of the classroom, media multitasking is also tied to poorer classroom performance along with students predicting less confidence and lower scores. Furthermore, media multitasking is negatively associated with efficiency and reading comprehension. These effects are mediated by self-regulation and metacognition; students may account for deficits in comprehension by rereading, thus improving comprehension but diminishing efficiency. This is indicative of information processing theory, because attention is a limited resource, media multitasking hastens depletion of attentional resources, thus diminishing performance on the primary task.

One primary differential distinguishing the influence of media multitasking on academic performance out of class versus in-class is that the lack of time contingencies or instructional proctorship heighten the mediating influence of metacognition and self-awareness. As seen in research examining the effect of media multitasking on reading comprehension, students can account for deficits in performance by re-reading or re-doing a task when working outside of the classroom. This cannot occur in the classroom due to time constraints, especially when the instructor controls the pace of instruction and under largely lecture format contexts. This suggests the need for further research examining the role of various educational contexts to understand more fully the effects of media multitasking on academic performance. Most existing research was accomplished in college classes utilizing a traditional, lecture format. These teacher- directed instructional contexts do not allow the student to control the rate nor amount of incoming information. Whether nontraditional methods of instruction such as flipped classrooms, collaborative learning, or participatory learning exhibit different relationships with media multitasking is largely unexplored to date. These nontraditional formats are increasingly popular and may be more conducive to successful media multitasking in academic arenas since students can direct and regulate their attention as they control the amount and pace of incoming information. Conversely, media multitasking while engaging in these alternate instructional structures may reveal a lack of depth of student thinking and understanding since they require them to synthesize information from discussions. Thus, further research in this area is needed to fully investigate effects of media multitasking in a variety of instructional formats.

In addition to types of instructional contexts, further research examining the types of academic tasks and assessments, including assignment formats, levels of difficulty, and interest level, is warranted, especially when students are studying on their own. These may be factors that account for variations in the relationship between students’ sustained attention, multitasking behaviors, and measured academic performance. Students pay attention, potentially engage in multitasking, and study differently depending on nature of tasks demanded of them and their motivations and perceived ability in completing them. The frequency, duration, and conditions under which students choose to multitask or not are important issues to ponder. Hence, to gain a better understanding of the effects of multitasking for college students, additional investigations of types of tasks and motivation are required.

Research on the relationship of metacognition and the effects of multitasking on reading comprehension illustrate the intersection of self-regulation and working memory. Visual working memory theories examine the role of self-regulation in selecting and maintaining task-relevant visual targets. Thus, self-awareness is critical in mitigating the effects of media multitasking. Yet, students do not effectively self-regulate their media multitasking and are poor at recognizing and regulating inhibitors of performance. While students recognize that multitasking divides their attention, media multitasking reduces both accuracy and confidence in predicting impact on task performance. Self-regulation is an important skill in addressing multitasking and is an area of interest for future research, as students are not successful in managing their multitasking to avoid inhibiting performance or efficiency. Research on methods to foster student recognition of the deleterious effects of media multitasking, as well as development of self-regulation skills, can offer insight to classroom technology policy and instruction.

Implications

Technology does offer benefits to the educational experience. In balancing these benefits with the negative effects of media multitasking, the issue becomes one of appropriate implementation of technology in the classroom. Fostering development of self-monitoring skills in students thus becomes critical. Research on laptop use in the classroom reveals effects dependent upon classroom environment (i.e., structured vs. unstructured use of technology) and the way in which the laptop was used (i.e., on-task vs. off-task multitasking). Structured tasks with specific and clearly indicated requirements for technology usage are less likely to catalyze off-task multitasking than unstructured tasks. Complex tasks emphasizing project-based, constructivist learning encouraged on-task laptop use, as opposed to recitation or drill-and-practice tasks that led to off-task usage (Mouza, 2008). As demonstrated by Judd and Kennedy (2011), a student with a specific goal and sufficient motivation, such as studying for an upcoming exam in a difficult class, is less likely to multitask. On the other hand, students with less consequential goals, such as communicating with friends for leisure via Facebook or email, are more likely to multitask. Thus, complex activities will promote task-relevant technology usage,employing the many benefits technology offers, while diminishing opportunities to multitask. Class observation indicated that laptops may enhance student-centered, hands-on, and exploratory learning, as well as increase student-to-student and student-to-instructor interactions (Barak, Lipson, & Lerman, 2006). Clearly stated mobile phone policy on a syllabus can decrease phone use in the classroom (Chen & Yan, 2016). Suggested methods include employing classroom curriculum in which laptops are incorporated strategically with a pedagogy to maximize potential benefits and minimize distractions. With careful implementation, these methods potentially harness the positive effects of educational technology while diminishing the negative effects of media multitasking.

For the most part, students do not recognize the extent of the negative consequences of media multitasking on academic performance. College students commonly report that multitasking increases productivity (Lin et al., 2015). Because research indicates that student media multitasking extends to outside of the classroom, and because studies establish the negative impact of multitasking on academic performance, students should be advised to carefully monitor their technology use when working on school assignments. Requiring schoolwork to be complete before using technology, keeping technology in communal areas, or providing other measures to discourage off-task multitasking help facilitate learning and efficient studying. Likewise, choosing to study in communal areas, such as the library, may facilitate on-task engagement. Students are not particularly metacognitive in relation to their abilities to multitask, nor to the effects of media multitasking. There is a tendency of students to overestimate their multitasking ability. This indicates the need for educators and parents to encourage students’ self-regulation of laptop and cell phone multitasking behaviors, and the importance of fostering student self-efficacy and learning motivations.

Though educators promote productive use of classroom technology with policies limiting off-task media multitasking, the collegiate education system relies on the increasing independence and self-regulation on the part of students. Educating students about the impacts of media multitasking on academic performance will potentially foster self-awareness, and perhaps self-regulation of multitasking habits. Self-regulation of multitasking habits is a necessary skillset for the modern student, and upon graduation, the modern professional. Developing self-regulation skills and positive technology habits while in school prepares the student for balancing the modern workplace. This may redefine the problematic variables of the educational technology debate, shifting the criticism from technology implementation to the manner in which usage is monitored.