Research

Twenge, J. M. (2017). iGen: Why today's super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy — and completely unprepared for adulthood. Atria Books.

Relevant for generational attention data. Twenge's methods are disputed — Odgers (2018) offers a direct critique we're taking seriously. We're using this as background context, not as primary evidence.

Zajonc, R. B. (1965). Social facilitation. Science, 149(3681), 269–274.

The foundational paper on social facilitation. Zajonc shows that the presence of others improves performance on simple tasks and impairs it on novel/complex ones. We're thinking about where exam studying falls on that spectrum and how it affects our hypothesis.

Kirschner, P. A., & De Bruyckere, P. (2017). The myths of the digital native and the multitasker. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 135–142.

Argues that digital natives don't multitask more effectively than older generations — they just do it more. Directly relevant to our framing around phone use and study performance.

Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(2), 64–70.

Useful background on self-regulated learning theory. Drawing on this for the interview instrument, specifically questions about how students monitor their own focus states.

Odgers, C. L., & Jensen, M. R. (2020). Annual research review: Adolescent mental health in the digital age. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61(3), 336–348.

A measured counterweight to some of the stronger causal claims in the smartphones-and-adolescents literature. Useful for keeping our own claims appropriately hedged.