Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40169525›Full record

ArticleAttention, perception & psychophysics2025

Changed detection: No relationship between working memory and media usage in Covid-era and contemporary young adults.

Jenna N Pablo, Jorja Shires, Joseph Castellanos, Muskan Kapila, Lena L Kemmelmeier, Marian E Berryhill

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Attention, perception & psychophysics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Jenna N PabloProgram in Cognitive and Brain Science, Program in Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia St., MS 296, Reno, NV, 89557, USA. jpablo@unr.edu.
Jorja ShiresProgram in Cognitive and Brain Science, Program in Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia St., MS 296, Reno, NV, 89557, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4700-6050
Joseph CastellanosProgram in Cognitive and Brain Science, Program in Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia St., MS 296, Reno, NV, 89557, USA.
Muskan KapilaProgram in Cognitive and Brain Science, Program in Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia St., MS 296, Reno, NV, 89557, USA.
Lena L KemmelmeierProgram in Cognitive and Brain Science, Program in Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia St., MS 296, Reno, NV, 89557, USA.
Marian E BerryhillProgram in Cognitive and Brain Science, Program in Integrative Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia St., MS 296, Reno, NV, 89557, USA. mberryhill@unr.edu.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A decade ago, the widespread adoption of smartphones prompted research assessing the effects of media multitasking on cognitive performance. Early findings showed that high media multitasking imposed a significant cost to attention and executive function. Here, we revisited whether the harmful effects of media multitasking persist in digital native undergraduates, in whom nearly all media usage involves multitasking. We investigated the relationship between media usage and working memory (WM) performance. Across six experiments, we conducted online and in-person testing, using simultaneous or sequentially presented visual or auditory stimuli in tasks with and without distractors to test for attentional filtering. We verified media usage data from participants' devices. In addition, because we previously observed WM deficits in undergraduates with a self-reported history of mild traumatic brain injury (hmTBI; > 1 year prior), we tested whether hmTBI participants were more sensitive to high media usage. In contrast to prominent earlier findings, the current results identified no significant relationship between media usage and WM performance for hmTBI or control participants. Bayes factors support the null hypothesis: in these undergraduates, media usage does not affect WM performance. The one positive finding showed that hmTBI participants exhibit less media usage. We speculate that early results captured effects in the "transitional generation," and these effects are now resolved earlier in development. Alternatively, the brief engagement required by various media notifications may benefit WM, in particular. More research, including various cohorts, is needed to understand the long-term effects of media integration across cognitive domains.

Indexed as

AttentionCOVID-19Memory, Short-TermMultitasking BehaviorSmartphoneAdolescentAdultBrain ConcussionExecutive FunctionFemaleHumansMaleYoung AdultHistory of mTBIMediaMTBIVisual working memoryWorking memory

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.