Does texting make you slower?

• Published in: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) Vol. 41; no. 5; pp. 2980 - 2984
• Main Authors: Ferraro, F. R., Holte, Alex J., Giesen, Desiree
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.05.2022; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Social Sciences; Technology application; Text messaging; Walking; United States; Walking; Speed; College students; Texting
• ISSN: 1046-1310; 1936-4733
• DOI: 10.1007/s12144-020-00821-1

Two studies had undergraduates ( n  = 237) walk a path in a university building which included walking up a set of stairs, through two hallways and walking down a flight of stairs back to the research lab. Subjects responded to text messages with a single word reply or multi-word reply and also served as their own control. Subjects were 5 s slower when texting and walking in Experiment # 1 (multi-word response) and 3 s slower when texting and walking in Experiment # 2 (single word response). No order effects (control condition first, experimental condition first) were observed in either study, ruling this out as a possible confound. While it was expected that texting and walking would impede walking speed when responding with a multi-word response, these results also show that texting disrupts walking even when respoding with a single, less attention demanding, word answer. Thus, even in a condition that requires minimal cognitive effort, walking speed was compromised while texting at the same time. Implications for these results are discussed.