SAN FRANCISCO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Allowing students to use electronic devices in class can lead to an at least 5 percent loss in their scores in end-of-term exams, a study conducted by Rutgers University in the United States showed Friday.
The first ever study on actual classroom performance included 118 Rutgers cognitive psychology students during one term of their course, and they were allowed to use laptops, phones and tablets during half of the lectures while those electronic devices were banned during the other half.
The study found that the students who had access to the electronic devices did not get lower scores in comprehension tests within lectures, but they lost at least 5 percent or half a grade on scores in the end-of-term exam.
The findings suggest for the first time that divided attention from the use of electronic devices in the classroom has a significant impact on long-term retention as the students remembered fewer targets of a study task assigned to them.
The study, published in Educational Psychology, found that the use of smartphones or tablets in the classroom may even affect the group learning environment, because students who didn't use electronic devices in class but attended lectures where the use of such devices was permitted also did worse in their final exams.
"Many dedicated students think they can divide their attention in the classroom without harming their academic success, but we found an insidious effect on exam performances and final grades," said Arnold Glass, professor of psychology at Rutgers University, who is the lead author of the study.
These findings alert both students and instructors that dividing attention is having a detrimental effect on students' exam performance and final grades, he said.
"To help manage the use of devices in the classroom, teachers should explain to students the damaging effect of distractions on retention, not only for themselves, but for the whole class," Glass said.
