Advertisement

Having your smartphone with you reduces your brain power (even if it’s off)

Those endless beeps, buzzes, notifications and alerts that keep you gripped to your smartphone are seriously distracting – but that’s not all.

New research has found that just having your smartphone with you actually reduces your cognitive capacity (brain power) – even if it’s off.

Researchers from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin conducted experiments with nearly 800 smartphone owners.

MORE: The New York Times has printed every single lie told by Donald Trump since he became president

MORE: Nasa is about to announce that aliens DO exist, says hackers Anonymous

The volunteers completed brain tests – some with a smartphone on the desk face down, some with it in their pocket, and some with their phones in another room.

All the phones were set to silent – and the volunteers with phones in another room significantly outperformed those with phones in their pocket or on the desk.

McCombs Assistant Professor Adrian Ward said, ,’We see a linear trend that suggests that as the smartphone becomes more noticeable, participants’ available cognitive capacity decreases.

‘Your conscious mind isn’t thinking about your smartphone, but that process — the process of requiring yourself to not think about something – uses up some of your limited cognitive resources. It’s a brain drain.

‘It’s not that participants were distracted because they were getting notifications on their phones. The mere presence of their smartphone was enough to reduce their cognitive capacity.’