Smartphone Usage : Associations with Attention, Sleep, and Impulsiveness

Abstract

College students’ smartphone use presents concerns with academic dishonesty, distraction, sleep disturbances, and social withdrawal. We of the CHEEZ (Cognition and Human Electroencephalography Zone) conducted a survey to focus on the relationship between phone use/attitudes, attention, and impulsiveness. We assessed how much students use their phone, how reliant they are on their phone, and their concerns about not having access to their phone. Regarding attention, we asked them about their difficulties with attention and focusing on the present moment, i.e., mindfulness. We also asked about their inability to focus or concentrate which could lead to impulsiveness. We predicted a positive relationship between smartphone use/problems and ADHD-related difficulties. We also predicted correlations to other attention-related measures, showing positive relationships for impulsiveness and negative relationships for mindfulness, which is inversely related to attention.