ReviewFrontiers in psychology2021
A Review of Evidence on the Role of Digital Technology in Shaping Attention and Cognitive Control in Children.
Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Individual sedentary activities and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults: A systematic review.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2026Pooled it
- Eye Tracking as a Treatment Monitoring Tool for Autism: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025Pooled it
- The effectiveness of play therapy on depression and anxiety in hospitalized children with cancer: a systematic review.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Pooled it
- Problematic digital use in adolescents with ADHD: impulsivity, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and perceived cognitive flexibility.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Screen Time, Unhealthy Eating Behaviors, and Associated Health Risks in Children: A Narrative Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The impact of a brief digital abstinence intervention on digital distractions and time management among nursing students: a quasi-experimental study.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- Young children's screen time, executive functions, and language development: Longitudinal moderation of parent/child coviewing and media content.Developmental psychology · 2026Article
- Co-Designing a Digital Brain Health Intervention for Chinese Older Adults: A User-Centred Approach.Australasian journal on ageing · 2026Article
- Neural parasitism: could adaptive artificial intelligence systems incrementally reconfigure human neural plasticity and challenge the foundations of cognitive autonomy?Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2026Article
- Digital media use among school-aged dual language learners in Chinese American families: Links to socioecological factors and children's oral language proficiencies.Developmental psychology · 2026Article
- Screen Time, Digital Content Quality, and Parental Mediation as Predictors of Linguistic and Pragmatic Development: Implications for Pediatric and Preventive Health.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Not all digital media use is equal: parental involvement moderates the association between children's digital media use and parental stress.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The Relationship Between Internet Use, Achievement, and Persistence in Digital Tasks.Journal of adolescence · 2025Article
- Online interest in ADHD predicts ADHD medication prescriptions in Australia from 2004 to 2023: A time-series analysis revealing COVID-19-related acceleration.Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists · 2025Article
- Sleep Patterns, Excessive Daytime Sleepiness, and Sleep Disturbance Among First Nations Children in Saskatchewan.Clocks & sleep · 2025Article
- How Is the Digital Age Shaping Young Minds? A Rapid Systematic Review of Executive Functions in Children and Adolescents with Exposure to ICT.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Fast-paced and violent media exposure are positively associated with ADHD and impulsivity in college students.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- A Genetically Informed Study of Digital screen time, Video game play, and Impulsivity in Established Adulthood.Computers in human behavior · 2024Article
- Validation of the Gaming Skills Questionnaire in Adolescence: Effects of Gaming Skills on Cognitive and Affective Functioning.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2024Article
- Intense Short-Video-Based Social Media Use reduces the P300 Event-Related Potential Component in a Visual Oddball Experiment: A Sign for Reduced Attention.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The role of digital technology in shaping attention and cognitive development has been at the centre of public discourse for decades. The current review presents findings from three main bodies of literature on the implications of technology use for attention and cognitive control: television, video games, and digital multitasking. The aim is to identify key lessons from prior research that are relevant for the current generation of digital users. In particular, the lack of scientific consensus on whether digital technologies are good or bad for children reflects that effects depend on users' characteristics, the form digital technologies take, the circumstances in which use occurs and the interaction between the three factors. Some features of digital media may be particularly problematic, but only for certain users and only in certain contexts. Similarly, individual differences mediate how, when and why individuals use technology, as well as how much benefit or harm can be derived from its use. The finding emerging from the review on the large degree of heterogeneity in associations is especially relevant due to the rapid development and diffusion of a large number of different digital technologies and contents, and the increasing variety of user experiences. We discuss the importance of leveraging existing knowledge and integrating past research findings into a broader organizing framework in order to guide emerging technology-based research and practice. We end with a discussion of some of the challenges and unaddressed issues in the literature and propose directions for future research.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.