UWEC CERCA 2025

We are investigating how smartphone presence influences attention-related EEG (electroencephalographic) activity. Participants first perform a task attending and responding to infrequent targets but not frequent nontargets; we find the classic P3 effect (larger attention-related EEG signal evoked by targets) but not the predicted attenuation of this effect in the presence of one’s phone. When participants then engage in passive viewing of their phone (versus a control object), we observe EEG power in the alpha range (8-13 Hz; associated with a relaxed, inwardly-focused state) is decreased over anterior and posterior electrode sites. Meanwhile, posterior electrodes show power in the beta range (13-32 Hz; associated with an externally-oriented state of arousal/attention) that is positively correlated with participants’ daily hours of phone use, phone dependence, and fear of lacking functional access to their phone. We do not, however, find correlations between alpha or beta and self-reported attention difficulties. These findings demonstrate how phones may take up attentional resources, and the beta correlations with phone measures in particular suggest that more (or more problematic) phone use may be associated with a greater impact of phone presence on attention.