A study from the University of Missouri found that a user's separation from his iPhone can result in "poor cognitive performance" and "physiological anxiety."
Dubbed "The Extended iSelf: The Impact of iPhone Separation on Cognition, Emotion and Physiology," the study surveyed 40 subjects with their iPhones while they accomplished a word search puzzle.
Russell Clayton, the paper's lead author and a doctoral school attendee in the School of Journalism, along with Anthony Almond of Indiana University-Bloomington's doctoral school and Glenn Leshner of the University of Oklahoma, learned that when iPhone users are unable to get hold of their ringing iPhones while they are in the middle of solving simple word search puzzles, they tend to have an increased level of heart rates and blood pressure.
There are also feelings of anxiety and unpleasantness. Moreover, their performance in solving the puzzle decreased, a sharp contrast to instances when they were solving the puzzle with the iPhones in their possession.
"The results from our study suggest that iPhones are capable of becoming an extension of our selves such that when separated, we experience a lessening of self and a negative physiological state," said Clayton.
Prior to conducting the study, the participants were told that the purpose of the experiment was to test a new wireless blood pressure cuff and its measure of reliability. At the first round of testing, the participants were given a word search puzzle to solve while their iPhone was in their possession.
The second round of testing asked the participants to solve another word search puzzle with the iPhone beyond their reach. In both rounds, the researchers monitored the participants' heart rates and levels of blood pressure.
While the participants were completing their answers to the first puzzle, their heart rate and blood pressure responses were recorded by the researchers. The record was able to provide some information on the participants' anxiety levels and feelings of "pleasantness" and "non-pleasantness" while solving the puzzle.
After a while, the participants, who still had their iPhones with them, were told that their devices' Bluetooth was interfering with the signals from the wireless blood pressure cuff. Their iPhones were taken away from them and placed somewhere else in the room while they solved the remaining parts of the puzzle.
The researchers then provided them a second word search puzzle.
While the participants were solving the puzzle, the researchers called their iPhones, which obviously kept ringing in the room. When the devices stopped ringing, the researchers took note of the participants' blood pressure and heart rate responses. They found a significant rise in the level of anxiety, blood pressure and heart rate, along with a notable decrease in puzzle performance, among the participants while they were separated from their iPhones.
"Our advice would be to carry your iPhone with you but to silence your phone during cognitively demanding tasks in order to avoid any potential distractions that may reduce your attention throughout the day," said Clayton.
The study was published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication and earned the Top Paper Award in August 2014 at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication by the Communication Technology Division in Montreal, Canada.
