Why Tablets in Class Don’t Work

Two psychologists from Rutgers University report in their article “Dividing attention in the classroom reduces exam performance” in Educational Psychology on their experiment on how use of smartphones and tablets impact student performance. They aimed to find a possible causal relation in the earlier demonstrated correlation between the use of such tools in class and poorer exam performance. They explain that divided attention impacts in three ways: *) if you look at your smartphone, you don’t hear the professor, 8) when you switch from the one to the other, you miss both, and *) the fact that you divide your attention weakens your retention on both.