This result could mean that people with poor analytical thinking are also prone to overestimating the time they spend using smartphones, so the researchers conducted a follow-up study. A similar survey, with 208 Mechanical Turk participants, collected additional results on computer use and computer-based search engine use. To isolate the use of smartphones, particularly to find information rather than just general use, they also collected data on use of entertainment and social media, as well as data on general cognitive ability.
The results showed again that the high-usage group of smartphone owners scored lower on cognitive ability and analytical thinking. This group didn’t report spending more time doing computer searches than the other groups, so over-estimation wasn’t a concern.
But non-smartphone owners who reported high usage of computer-based search engines also scored lower on analytical thinking. “Although it appears that the use of [smartphones] as informational sources has much to do with proximity and ease of use, offloading thinking by relying on external information sources may extend past [smartphones] as well,” write the authors.
The results suggest that people with a less analytical thinking style are more likely to use smartphones to look up information that could easily be learned or remembered, the authors say. However, “the results are purely correlational,” emphasize Golonka and Wilson. There’s no way to tell whether an over-reliance on smartphones decreases analytical thinking or whether lower analytical thinking ability results in a heavier reliance on smartphones, they explain.
The authors of the papers acknowledge this limitation and suggest the possibility of a third factor influencing both analytical thinking and smartphone use. Given that heavy reliance on search engines is a very indirect measure of analytical thinking, it’s entirely possible that this third factor is the real explanation for the results.
Also important to consider is evidence that higher order reasoning doesn’t seem to change much with training or intervention. If this finding is applicable to analytical and intuitive thinking, it means that there’s probably no reason to be worried about smartphones changing how we think.
In fact, the paper’s results could suggest that “people with an intuitive cognitive style might actually benefit from access to a smartphone,” note Golonka and Wilson. “This would be an example of a biological system making up for a weakness by relying on the reliable presence of a technological helper.”
Computers in Human Behavior, 2015. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.029 (About DOIs).