Media Distraction in College Students.

Abstract

Recent development of media technology has greatly changed how students learn. Studying has become increasingly dependent on computer and the Internet, where students have easy access to a world of distractions. This dissertation consists of three studies that observed the amount of media usage during college students’ study activities (Study 1) and investigated the effect of media distraction on their memory (Study 2), reading and quantitative reasoning (Study 3). Results showed that college students from both China and the USA spent a sizable amount of their study time on media activities; lab experiments showed that media activities negatively affected students’ logical memory and reading comprehension, but did not affect performance on a quantitative reasoning task. In addition, the effect of media distraction on reading was negatively related to students’ daily social media usage, suggesting that heavy social media users might have developed adaptations to media distractions. Current college students have grown up with social media websites, and many of them are constantly connected to smart devices. By studying the impact of these technological experiences on their learning and cognition, the dissertation identifies problems of student learning in this digital era, which in turn has implications for educational practices. It also contributes to understanding of the interaction between technological development and changes in human cognition.