The positive and negative effects of digital technologies

• Rosen conducted a field experiment to examine the direct impact of text message interruptions on memory recall in a classroom environment. 
• Rosen - Procedure

  • College students were asked to watch a 30 minute lecture.
  • During that, researchers would text ppts and were told to respond to them as promptly as possible.
  • Participants were informed they would be tested on the information later
  • Participants in each classroom were randomly divided into 3 groups: a no text group, a low-text group and a high-text group. 
• Rosen - Findings

  Rosen found that there was a negative correlation between the test score and the total number of words sent and received. 

  Participants who chose to wait more than 4-5 minutes to respond to a text message performed substantially better than those who responded instantly.
• Rosen - Strengths

  P: There are a variety of strengths to Rosen’s experiment.

  E: The study was a Field Experiment.

  A: This allowed participants to be in a familiar and similar situation, and therefore increases ecological validity in the results. 
• Rosen - Weaknesses

  P: However, there are also various weaknesses.

  E: There was a gender imbalance in the sample, with 80% females. 

  A: This means the study cannot be generalised widely

  E: Along with the texts the researchers sent, there were also personal texts that were sent by other people. 

  A: This may have interfered with their responses to the texts sent by the researchers, and is a confounding variable that should have been controlled
• Gong - Aim

  Gong conducted a study to investigate and compare the differences between an expert gamer’s brain activity with the brain activity of people who don’t usually play these games. The study uses a fMRI scanner, meaning there is a biological approach that is not in Rosen’s study.
• Gong - Sample

  Gong used fMRI scans to analyse the brains of 27 gamers who have achieved professional levels of playing action video games, having won regional and national championships in League of Legends or DOTA 2.
• Gong - Procedure

  • They compared the scans of these expert gamers’ brains with the brain activity of people who don’t usually play these types of games.
  • The fMRI scans focused on the brain's insular cortex region, which is associated with 'higher' cognitive functions that are often only seen in humans and great apes, such as language processing, empathy, and compassion.
  • It’s also associated with the ability to focus attention on a task, and motor control tasks such as hand-and-eye motor movement, and speech articulation.
• Gong - Findings

  He found that there was a heightened connectivity between certain subregions in the insular cortex, and increased thickness, surface area, and volume of grey matter, which is responsible for muscle control and sensory perception.
• Gong - Strengths:

  P: There are some strengths to Gong’s study. 

  E: The study used scientific equipment, the fMRI scanner to obtain the brain scans of the participants.  

  A:This makes the findings objective as there is a biological approach and therefore makes the results more valid. 

   
• Gong - Weaknesses (1)

  P: There are some methodological weaknesses to the study.

  E:There was a small sample size and the sample size was only collected based on them playing 2 games.

  A:This means that the results of this study are not generalisable. Because the sample was restricted to only people who play 2 games the results cannot be generalised to any gamer that doesn't only play these games 
• Gong - Weaknesses (2)

  E: The study is hard to replicate 

  A: This is because the study used highly skilled gamers and it could take years to get to a professional level, and it also may be hard to find other gamers with the same ability as them.
• Areas of uncertainty

  The results of these experiments are conflicting - Why?

  • Different types of digital technologies (Texting and Games)
  • Different Research methods (Field and Lab)
  • This shows that the effects of Digital technology are complex, and that there are a wide range of both positive and negative results. 
• Conclusion

  On the one hand, it can be claimed that the positives of digital/modern technologies are that it can increase the amount of grey matter in the brain, which also strengthens muscle control and sensory perception. Conversely, the negatives of digital/modern technologies are that it may negatively impact learning and can pose as a distraction.
• Introduction - What are digital technologies?

  Modern technologies are everyday devices that make our lives more efficient. Most often they are digital, such as phones or laptops. Digital technologies are electronic tools, systems, devices and resources that generate, store or process data.
• Introduction - What is cognitive processing?

  • memory or thinking and decision making
• Claim 1:

  • The internet is affecting the mind’s ability to concentrate
  • Internet is activating the dopamine reward pathway so we are encouraged to seek new information and are constantly distracted
  • This distraction reducing the ability to consolidate memories.  Information is staying in our STM rather than transferring to LTM because we are unable to pay attention for long enough for the consolidation process to occur.