A phone sound slowed responses by about three milliseconds
Students searched for letters on a screen while phone-like or control tones played. There were no more errors, but a brain signal changed.
The key idea
A tiny delay in responding did not come with more errors or a change in the behavioral measure of cognitive control.
The study, in plain language
A phone sounds, and your mind wanders for a moment. To measure this familiar interruption, students looked at letters and responded to certain shapes while hearing generic phone sounds or an unfamiliar sound.
Responses were slightly slower with the phone sound. No increase in errors was observed, and a behavioral measure of cognitive control also showed no change between sounds. Electrical recordings of the brain did show differences in a signal associated with processing unexpected stimuli.
The result separates three things that often get mixed together when people talk about distractions: response speed, errors, and brain activity. Only the first and last changed, and the study did not measure errors in everyday life.
What they found
- After the phone sound, responses were slightly slower.
- Errors were similar with the phone sound and the control sound.
- The N2 signal, which is linked to cognitive control processes, changed with phone sounds.
How they studied it
Students completed a visual letter task while hearing generic phone sounds or a control sound. Sixty-nine people were analyzed for response times and errors, and 54 for electrical brain recordings. This was a laboratory task with students, not a measure of distraction in real life.
What the study cannot show
- The sample consisted of university students and the study used a single, unfamiliar control sound, with no silent condition. Sounds were not personal notifications or actual messages sent to each participant’s phone.
Something to think about
Feeling interrupted is one thing; making more errors is another. The next time a notification sounds, ask yourself what actually changed in what you were doing.
The original study
The hidden cost of a smartphone: The effects of smartphone notifications on cognitive control from a behavioral and electrophysiological perspective
Source under CC BY 4.0. English adaptation and explanation by PaperFlow, with AI assistance. The text has been reorganized for a general audience; it is not the complete paper and does not imply endorsement by its authors.
One study alone does not represent a field's consensus. Educational content does not replace professional advice. Report a possible error.
