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To what extent is technology having a negative effect on cognitive…
To what extent is technology having a negative effect on cognitive processes?
Studies that have found negative impacts of technology on cognitive processes
Christakis et al (2004)
A longitudinal study with over 1,000 American children which aimed to see "if watching TV as a young child (ages one and three) would increase the chances of having attentional problems when they got older (at age seven)."
Results:
Main predictor of attention problems = hours watching TV at the ages 1 to 3
Findings:
For every hour of TV watched on average at age 3, the participant was 10% more likely to have attentional problems at the age of 7.
Problems with the study:
All participants were American, therefore the study was not representative of children between the ages 1 and 7.
Susan Greenfield
Argued that the increased use of technology may impact the increase the amount of prescriptions for drugs for ADHD in recent years
Also may have caused an increase in diagnosis of autism
Other factors beyond genetics may cause this such as lack of social interaction, the inability of physical contact and the inability to look at someone in the eyes
The extreme use of technology creates a barrier that disables these things from happening
Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014)
Researchers used a volunteer sample of 109 UCLA undergraduate students, 27 of which were male to test weather taking notes on laptop is beneficial or detrimental to a pupils performance in test.
Findings:
Pupils who took notes by hand scored significantly better than those who typed
Problems
: Sampling bias, only students were utilized. The test was about a topic in which students had little to no exposure to, no relevant information
Positive Effects as counterclaims
Bavelier et al (2011)
The studies aim was to investigate the connection action games and decision making. Researchers separated two groups, group one was asked to play action video games for a total of 50 hours. The other was asked to play a simulation game for the same amount of time.
Findings:
Both groups could accomplish the task, those who had played the action video did the task faster and with fewer errors - that is, they were able to decipher a large amount of information more quickly and come to a decision.
Neuroplasticity
Kuhn et al (2013)
The aim of this study was to determine the effects of prolonged video game playing on the brains of young adults. The 48 participants played Super Mario 64 for 30 minutes every day for two months. The researchers used an MRI scan to analyze brain activity before and after the study. The MRIs were compared to a control group that did not play video games.
Results:
The volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum of those who played the videogame had increased largely compared to the control group.
Problems with study:
There were 17 females and 6 males in the training group. This is a nonrepresentative sample. Also the sample size of the study was very small, therefore, again, this was not a representative sample.
Findings:
This means that the strategic planning, decision making, memory formation and motor function had increased with playing video games.
Discussion
The true effects of technology on our brain are fairly recent, therefore cant be truly measured
Issues of each study: confirmation bias, sampling bias
Most studies pointing that technology has a negative impact had confounding variables in them
Studies can be easily replicable
Conclusion
When discussing the extent to which technology has a negative effect on cognitive processes, it is possible to argue that technology has a negative effect on cognitive processes to some extent.
Even though, technology has brought to us a few positive effects, such as
neuroplasticity*
, quick and wise decision making, we would argue that the negative effects outweigh the positives.
*Neuroplasticity is the "ability of the brain to change continuously throughout an individual's life..." (Online Dictionary)
Studies like the Kuhn et al may have proven that technology or specifically video games can develop cognitive processes, although that does not alter the fact that teenagers are unable to concentrate in class, are unable to remember class content or unable to process and analyze information or facts shared with them
Technology has negative effects to some extent and not to a great extent because as explored in our counterclaims, when used wisely, technology can benefit our cognitive processes.
Technology may be the fast track to the future, but if our brains/cognitive processes are beginning to be impacted negatively the human race might not be able to evolve.
Based on the studies previously explored, it is possible to see that technology is degrading our cognitive processes. Like Susan Greenfield argued, knowledge can not be defined the same way it was 30 years ago. Are schools actually giving students knowledge or just blank facts?