Mobile Phone Multitasking and Academic Performance

This paper reviews the emerging literature on mobile phone multitasking by focusing on three questions concerning the influence of mobile phone multitasking on academic performance:

(a) How does mobile phone multitasking impair learning?

(b) Why does mobile phone use impair learning?

(c) How to prevent from mobile phone distraction?

Findings show that mobile phone multitasking is prevalent among learners, multitasking with mobile phone distracts learning via different ways and mechanisms, and that the effect of multitasking varies on different mobile phone uses, learning tasks, and learners.

Chen, Q. & Yan, Z. (2015). Who multi-tasks and why? Multi-tasking ability, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 34-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.047