College Students' Cell Phone Use, Beliefs, and Effects on Their Learning.

The purpose of this study is to explore college students' self-reported cell phone use and beliefs and investigate the effect on student learning. Eighty-eight college students responded to a questionnaire about their use of cell phones during classes, studying, and driving and about their beliefs about how cell phones impact their schoolwork. In addition, a subset (n= 34) participated in an experimental study in which half the students listened to a novel lecture without cell phones and half were told to use cell phones (e.g. play games, text) during the lecture. Descriptive results indicated that there is an acceptance of use in class; students' beliefs were neutral about whether they felt distracted or if time spent using devices affected their study time. Experimental results failed to indicate any difference in quiz scores between those using devices while listening to a lecture and those who did not. Yet, those who used their cell phones did anticipate lower scores than students who did not, indicating students may intuit its distracting nature for learning. ********** Cell phones have become a ubiquitous presence on college campuses and are arguably considered distractions. Recent research has been devoted to better understanding the perceptions of cell phone use among college level faculty and students as well as the consequences of cell phones in classrooms. This work along with related research has shed light on explaining how and why cell phones are distracting and thus potentially detrimental to students' learning. Cell phones have become capable of and used as mobile devices to access internet, communicate with friends, and play games. Instructors have questioned whether the effects of such frequent use pose potential harm to students. This study aims to document students' beliefs about their use of phones and experimentally test the impact of using cell phones while listening to a lecture. Recent work has sought to investigate beliefs about use of cell phones in classrooms. In one study of students' perceptions, 65% of students report refraining from utilizing them in the classroom, yet 53% report using them for text purposes in courses (Burns & Lohenry, 2010). Perceptions of cell phone use among faculty are consistent with students' beliefs. In one study of university faculty and students, both were equal in their reporting that cell phones were distracting (85%) and noticed that vibrating phones in a classroom (49%) were problematic (Burns & Lohenry, 2010). In addition, Campbell (2006) found that although students and faculty consider ringing phones highly distracting, the younger participants expressed attitudes that were more tolerant of a ringing cell phone in class and were less supportive of restrictive policies. In fact, they found that age rather than faculty vs. student status explained these attitudes. Even though youth may be more accepting of cell phone use in class, studies regarding the distracting nature of simultaneous technology, such as that offered by cell phone use in courses, point to the detrimental nature of such activity. The impact of a ringing cell phone during class activities (lecture, taking notes during a video) has been shown to be detrimental to later retention (Shelton, Elliot, Eaves, & Exner, 2009; End, Wothman, Mathews, & Wetterau, 2010). Furthermore, their negative impact has been acknowledged in other areas, such as driving. In simulation experiments, drivers were slower to brake and had more traffic accidents while conversing on either handheld or hands-free cell phones compared to drivers not using a cell phone (Strayer, Drews, & Crouch, 2006). Additional work on fine motor tasks (related to driving skills) indicates the same pattern students using a cell phone were significantly slower in performing the task over those without it (Bourgeois, Dilks, Bartling, Libersat, White, Bourassa, Martin, & Dilks, 2007). …