Phone calls, emails, notifications…: How does the brain react to digital distractions?
Today, screens and notifications dominate our daily lives. We’re all familiar with these digital distractions that pull us away from our thoughts or our work. From an important email from a supervisor to a call from school that forces us to leave work, putting off the task at hand, interruptions are an integral part of our lives—and seem destined to become even more prevalent with the proliferation of connected devices in future “smart homes.”
Sibylle Turo, University of Montpellier and Anne-Sophie Cases, University of Montpellier
However, they do have an impact on our ability to complete tasks, our self-confidence, and our health. For example, interruptions are said to increase the time required to complete a task by 27%.
As a researcher in cognitive psychology, I study the cognitive costs of these digital interruptions: increased stress levels, heightened feelings of mental and physical exhaustion, and fatigue, all of which can contribute tothe emergence of psychosocial risks and even burnout. In my work, I have drawn on theories about how the human cognitive system functions, which help us better understand these cognitive costs and their impact on our behavior. This type of research highlights that it is becoming crucial to find a balance between our use of technology and our ability to concentrate, for our own well-being.
Why worry about digital disruptions?
The integration of connected devices into our lives can give us greater control over various aspects of our environment—for example, managing our schedules, remembering birthdays, or controlling our heating remotely. In 2021, the penetration rates for smart homes (i.e., the number of households equipped with at least one connected home device, including those that have only a smart plug or light bulb) were approximately 13% in the European Union and 17% in France (up from 10.7% in 2018).
While the ease of use and perceived usefulness of connected devices influence their acceptance among a large segment of the population, the digital interruptions often associated with them hinder our cognitive functions—that is, the processes involved in perception, attention, memory, comprehension, and so on.
The impact of digital interruptions can be seen in both personal and professional settings. In fact, it takes the average person more than a minute to get back to work after checking their email. Studies thus show that employees regularly spend more than 1 hour and 30 minutes a day recovering from email-related interruptions. This leads to an increase in perceived workload and stress levels, as well as a sense of frustration—or even burnout—associated with a feeling of losing control over events.
These effects are also evident in the educational sphere. For example, in a 2015 study of 349 students, 60% reported that the sounds emitted by cell phones (clicks, beeps, button sounds, etc.) distracted them. Thus, digital interruptions have far more profound consequences than one might think.
Gaining a Better Understanding of the Cognitive Cost of Digital Interruptions
To understand why digital interruptions disrupt our train of thought so much, we need to take a look at how our brain works. When we’re performing a task, the brain is constantly making predictions about what’s going to happen. This allows us to adapt our behavior and take the appropriate action: the brain sets up predictive and anticipatory loops.
Thus, our brain functions like a prediction machine. In this theory, a concept that is crucial for understanding the processes of attention and concentration emerges: that of processing fluency. This refers to the ease or difficulty with which we process information. This assessment occurs unconsciously and results in a subjective, non-conscious experience of the information-processing process.
The concept of fluency formalizes something we intuitively understand: our cognitive system does everything it can to ensure that our activities proceed as smoothly as possible. It is important to note that our cognition is “driven” by a prior belief regarding the ease or difficulty of a task and the possibility of making accurate predictions. This allows it to adapt as effectively as possible to its environment and ensure the smooth execution of the task at hand.
Our attention is drawn to simple, predictable information
The easier information seems to be processed—or the more our brain perceives it as such—the more it captures our attention. For example, an easy-to-read word catches our eye more than a difficult one. This reaction is automatic, almost instinctive. In one experiment, researchers demonstrated that people’s attention could be involuntarily captured by the presence of real words as opposed to pseudowords—words invented by scientists, such as HENSION—especially when they were asked not to read the words displayed on the screen.
For example, one of our studies showed that fluency—the perceived ease of a task—guides participants’ attention toward what their brains predict. The study aimed to understand how the predictability of words would influence participants’ attention. Participants were asked to read incomplete sentences and then identify a target word from among a word that fit the sentence and a word that did not. The results showed that words that fit the sentence—and were therefore predictable—attracted more of the participants’ attention than words that did not.
It appears that an event consistent with the current situation attracts more attention and may potentially enhance concentration. To our knowledge, our study is one of the first to show that processing fluency has an effect on attention. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings. This work was initiated but could not be completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unexpected events cause a "fluence break"
As we have seen, our cognitive system is constantly making predictions about future events. If the environment does not match what our brain had anticipated, we must first adjust our actions (often even though we had already set everything in motion to act in accordance with our prediction), and then try to understand the unexpected event in order to adapt our predictive model for next time.
For example, imagine you’re picking up your cup to drink your coffee. As you grasp it, you naturally expect it to be rigid and perhaps a little warm. Your brain therefore makes a prediction and adjusts your actions accordingly (opening your hand, grabbing the cup more toward the top). Now imagine that when you grab it, it isn’t a rigid cup, but a more fragile plastic cup. You’ll be surprised and try to adjust your movements so that your coffee doesn’t slip through your fingers. The fact that the cup bends between your fingers creates a discrepancy between what your cognitive system predicted and your actual experience: this is called a fluency break.
Digital disruptions are disrupting our predictive system
Interruptions, whether digital or not, are, by their very nature, unpredictable. Thus, an unexpected phone call disrupts the flow of speech—that is, it contradicts what the brain had anticipated and prepared for.
Interruptions have behavioral and cognitive consequences: a halt in the main activity, increased stress levels, time needed to resume the task at hand, loss of focus, etc.
A disruption in flow automatically triggers the implementation of adaptive strategies. We focus our attention and, depending on the situation at hand, modify our actions, update our knowledge, revise our beliefs, and adjust our predictions.
A disruption in flow refocuses attention and triggers a process of searching for the cause of the disruption. During a digital interruption, the unpredictable nature of this alert prevents the brain from anticipating or minimizing the sense of surprise that follows the disruption in flow: the (re)mobilization of attention is thus disrupted. In fact, we do not know where the interruption will come from (the phone in our pocket or the email inbox on the computer) or what the content of the information will be (the children’s school, a telemarketing call…).
Strategies for a Healthier Digital Life
Finding a balance between the benefits of technology and our ability to stay focused is becoming crucial. We can develop strategies to minimize digital interruptions, use technology mindfully, and preserve our ability to stay engaged in our tasks.
This could involve creating distraction-free work zones (such as reintroducing traditional individual offices), temporarily disabling notifications during periods of intense concentration (such as putting phones on silent mode or using the “focus” mode in word processing software), or even adopting smart technologies that actively promote concentration by minimizing distractions in the environment.
Ultimately, the shift toward an increasingly smart—or at least connected—environment requires careful consideration of how we interact with technology and how it affects our cognitive processes and behaviors. The transition from the traditional home to the connected home is central to the HUT project, on which I worked during my postdoctoral fellowship. Numerous researchers (in management sciences, law, architecture, movement sciences, etc.) have explored issues related to the hyperconnectivity of homes, usage patterns, and well-being within a hyperconnected observatory apartment. This allowed us to collectively determine the ideal conditions for the home of the future, as well as to identify the impact of technologies within a connected home in order to prevent potential abuses.
Sibylle Turo, Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and Postdoctoral Researcher on the HUT project, University of Montpellier and Anne-Sophie Cases, Professor, MRM Laboratory, University of Montpellier, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.