Constant Distraction: Effects of Texting on Reading Comprehension

Overview

Objectives/Goals Since texting came to the U.S. in 1996 it has grown rapidly. It has grown so much that the average teen sends over 3,000 texts a month. Many students text while doing homework. We wanted to find out how much of an impact it has on homework. Methods/Materials We tested 75 7th and 8th graders using a STAR reading comprehension test. 25 students were randomly selected for each group. The groups included: control, reply, and no-reply. Control had a phone but didn#t receive any texts, reply received and replied to the texts they got, and no-reply received texts but were not allowed to reply. The time it took for students to complete the test and their score were both recorded. Results The control group had a score of 3.64/5 and a time of 186.8 seconds. The reply group#s score was 15% lower (3.08/5) Also 53.7% slower (287.24 seconds). The no-reply group scored 11% lower (3.24/5) and were 21.9% slower (227.8 seconds) than the control. Conclusions/Discussion As expected the control group had the best at score and time. We were surprised when we discovered that no-reply and reply groups had similar effects on scores and times. This shows that just having a phone next to you impacts your score and time negatively. Students who want good grades and more free time should turn off and put away their phones, while doing homework. Our tests and results apply to everyone in the world with a phone and work that needs to get done. If you want to do better work in a shorter amount of time, put down your phone.

Awards (1)

• First Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2013 Cognitive Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0714

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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