Hot on the heels of Sunday’s School of Life sermon by Baroness Susan Greenfield (the media’s go-to scientist for scaremongering soundbites about the affects of technologies on our neurologies, our cognitions and our attentions), I spoke with Dr Vaughan Bell, the neuropsychologist who testified the opposing view to Greenfield in the 2010 House of Lords debate.
I asked him a few clarifying questions to see how things have moved on.
What evidence is there to suggest that our interactions with the web - search, networking, gaming, publishing, reading content - are affecting our attentions?
The first place I’d point you to is a presentation (ppt) I did to an interest group at the House of Lords debating The Baroness which contains a brief overview.
However, I’d also refer you to a recent article in Nature Reviews Neuroscience by Daphne Bavelier & C. Shawn Green (its worth reading in full) on the neuroscience research on video games. It starts with a very good point, applicable to all of the things you mention.
Does playing video or computer games have beneficial effects on brain and behaviour? If so, does the evidence point to general improvements in cognitive function?”
Although the popular media has a strong tendency to produce breathless headlines about the effects (or lack of effects) of video games, it is worth noting that the term ‘video games’ is far from a single construct and thus, has almost no scientific predictive power. One can no more say what the effects of video games are, than one can say what the effects of food are.
In other words, we can really say very little about the impact of the digital technology without thinking about which behaviours are involved. Someone listening to GrooveShark while they paint the house is clearly not comparable to someone playing Unreal Tournament across the net.
With regard to use of the internet and attention per se, I know of very few studies. There have been many from the ergonomics points of view to understand usability (e.g. on web page elements and its interaction with information absorption and visual scanning) but as far as I know none of whether high web users have poorer attentional abilities compared to low web users. Also, attention is a many faceted thing - sustained attention, divided attention, inhibition, spatial attention, visual attention, auditory attention etc.
What evidence is there to suggest that the way the web is structured might affect our attentions and our cognitive sense-making?
I’m afraid I’m no expert on the ergonomics, but as far as I know, there are no studies on the impact of web use on general cognitive function. I’d be happy to hear otherwise.
Where are the areas in cognition and technology that haven’t yet been addressed by the research, but should be top priorities for researchers and funders in this area?
Games are very well studied but general internet use is not, as highlighted above. To be honest, I would say the top research priorities would not be to study the general cognitive impact of internet technology, but to study how it can be usefully applied to solve clinical problems. For example, access to health care, psychological interventions and accurate health advice is a problem that the internet could help with. These health problems are clear, urgent and far outweigh any possible and clearly slight changes in how we might process information due to the use of a widespread and inevitable technology that comes in thousands of forms.
In your opinion, what are the most robust methods for assessing the relationship between cognition and technology?
Epidemiological studies (cross-sectional and longitudinal) plus controlled lab studies plus RCTs where applicable.
Why do you think cognition and technology is such a low-hanging fruit for public debate?
Because new technology causes anxiety and new behaviours which are often pathologised by those who are anxious (see my Slate article, “History of Media Technology Scares”). This has been the case for thousands of years, regardless of actual verified risks.
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