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Cognitive Control in Adolescents and Young Adults with Media Multitasking Experience: a Three-Level Meta-analysis

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Abstract

Media multitasking is an ever-increasing phenomenon whereby different forms of media are used simultaneously. Numerous studies have shown that media multitasking is closely related to an individual’s cognitive control abilities. However, existing evidence remains controversial, making it difficult to draw definitive conclusions. Therefore, to increase the understanding of whether and how frequent media multitasking is associated with cognitive control, a three-level meta-analysis, which included 43 studies and 118 effect sizes, was performed to acquire overall differences between heavy and light media multitaskers and to explore potential moderators that may account for the heterogeneity. The results showed a moderate mean negative association between media multitasking and cognitive control, and this association was moderated by the type of cognitive control. Specifically, heavy media multitaskers showed worse inhibitory control and working memory than light media multitaskers, but there was no significant difference in cognitive flexibility. Moreover, the effect was moderated by the measurement type of the dependent variable. The results of this study enhance our understanding of this issue and pave the way for a more nuanced view of altering experimental designs to investigate cognitive control in educational settings.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Research Program Funds of the Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality at Beijing Normal University (KJ02252019-0801) and the Planning Fund of the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science (2022YJA190006). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education, School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Fanchang Kong, Sujie Meng, Huiying Deng, Meiru Wang & Xiaojun Sun

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FK conceptualized and revisited paper. SM collected and analyzed the data, and modified the paper. HD provided constructive suggestions following the reviewer’s comment. MW and XS commented on previous versions of the manuscript.

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Kong, F., Meng, S., Deng, H. et al. Cognitive Control in Adolescents and Young Adults with Media Multitasking Experience: a Three-Level Meta-analysis. Educ Psychol Rev 35, 22 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09746-0

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