Abstract
Previous research (Ophir et al. in Proc Natl Acad Sci 106(37):15583–15587, 10.1073/pnas.0903620106, 2009; Uncapher and Wagner in Proc Natl Acad Sci 115(40):9889-9896, 10.1073/pnas.1611612115, 2018; Wiradhany and Koerts in Media Psychol 24(2):276–303, 10.1080/15213269.2019.1685393, 2021) suggested that different groups (high, low, and moderate) of habitual media multitaskers process information differently. Most of these studies focused on comprehending the cognitive differences among them. But there is considerably less information on their differences in processing emotional stimuli. In this article, using self-referential emotional stimuli (‘positive/likeable’ and ‘negative/dislikeable’ words), we aim to examine whether there is any difference in the self-referential emotional memory among different groups of media multitaskers (HMM, MMM, and LMM) using a recall and recognition paradigm. We also investigate whether HMM, MMM, and LMM vary in an emotional categorization task. A total of 120 students (mean age = 20.9 years; males = 84) voluntarily participated and self-reported their preferences for media multitasking using a questionnaire (Ophir et al. 2009). A total of 50 self-referenced words (positive/likeable and negative/dislikeable) were presented to them on a computerized screen for an emotional categorization task. Afterward, they performed a surprise free recall and a recognition task of the same words. Results suggested that HMM were faster in liking ‘positive/likeable’ words over ‘negative/dislikeable’ words in emotional categorization tasks in comparison with LMM and MMM. HMM and MMM performed poorly in both the recall and recognition of ‘positive/likeable’ emotional words compared to LMM. No significant difference was observed in recall and recognition between HMM and MMM. The three groups did not differ significantly in the recall and recognition tasks related to ‘negative/dislikeable’ emotional words. These findings help understand the differences in processing self-related emotional stimuli among different groups of media multitaskers.
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In the current study, participants were instructed to imagine themselves overhearing someone describing them using each of the words used. Their task was to respond, as quickly and accurately as possible, whether they would like or dislike to be described by each of the personality words.
The study was a part of big study. During 15–20 min gap, participants performed some tasks with pictographic stimuli, and no words were involved in those tasks. Also, the experiment was held in a strict laboratory environment in a one-to-one setting to avoid any distraction. This ensured that the recognition/recall tasks were not influenced by other external factors.
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The author thanks the University Grants Commission, the Government of India and the Indian Institute of Technology Indore for the financial and technical resources.
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Shukla, S. High media multitasking habit influences self-referential emotional memory. Cogn Process 24, 71–81 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-022-01119-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-022-01119-9
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