“A new study published in Computers in Human Behavior suggests that receiving a smartphone notification disrupts a person’s concentration for about seven seconds. The research provides evidence that the frequency of checking a phone and the volume of notifications received are better predictors of this distraction than total daily screen time. These findings indicate that fragmented digital habits play a significant role in how technology affects human attention”
““People receive a very large number of smartphone notifications every day (more than 100 per day on average in our sample). While it is well established that notifications can automatically capture attention, much less is known about the cognitive mechanisms underlying this capture and why some individuals may be more vulnerable than others. Our goal was to better understand both the mechanisms involved and the individual differences that may explain this sensitivity,” said study author Hippolyte Fournier, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Lausanne.”
“The researchers found that a single notification slowed down a participant’s cognitive processing for approximately seven seconds. The delay happened across all groups but was most pronounced in the personal-notification group. This pattern suggests that distraction is driven by a combination of the visual pop-up, learned associations with the phone, and the personal meaning of the alert.”
“Within the personal-notification group, the magnitude of the distraction depended heavily on how relevant the participant felt the notification was. Alerts that triggered a strong emotional response or a high desire to check the content caused a longer delay in reaction time”
“When analyzing daily smartphone habits, the scientists found that total screen time did not strongly predict how distracted a participant would become. Instead, the number of notifications a person typically received each day and how often they checked their phone were much stronger predictors. Participants who tended to have highly fragmented phone habits experienced the most severe attentional disruptions”
““Our findings suggest that notifications can disrupt cognitive processing for about seven seconds and that this disruption reflects multiple mechanisms, including perceptual salience, learned conditioning through repeated exposure, and their potential social relevance,” Fournier told PsyPost.”
““Importantly, beyond total screen time, we found that the number of notifications received and the frequency of smartphone checks were associated with stronger disruption effects. This suggests that fragmented smartphone use, not just overall usage time, may play an important role in how digital technology affects our attention.””