The Impact of Screen Time on Working Memory Function of Children and Adolescents

DOI

10.2991/978-2-494069-13-8_30How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Working Memory; Screen Time; Children; Adolescents; Correlation

Abstract

Due to rapid advances in science and technology, there has been an alarming increase in the amount of time people spend in front of screens, including watching television and using smartphones and tablets. The physical and psychological effects of screen use have been well studied, and excessive screen use is often strongly associated with poor physical activity, lack of concentration, and diminished memory function. The public also recognizes that screen time should be limited in order to maintain better health. However, since viewing (passive screen time) and using smart devices (active screen time) are also correlated with exercising cognitive and executive abilities, computer games that enhance working memory skills are associated with better verbal and spatial memory skills. As the development of working memory is often considered crucial during childhood and adolescence, but also in the context of weaker self-regulation (difficulty in controlling the amount of time spent on screens on their own), the purpose of this paper is to review articles that assess whether time spent using screens affects children and adolescents’ working memory performance. The results of this review showed the following finding: screen time, when used properly, has a positive effect on memory (e.g., reading and text comprehension when using educational applications), but memory function can be impaired to varying degrees with prolonged screen use (e.g. impaired active imagery ability).

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Lu Liu
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/11/29
TI  - The Impact of Screen Time on Working Memory Function of Children and Adolescents
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Sport Science, Education and Social Development (SSESD 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 229
EP  - 237
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-494069-13-8_30
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-494069-13-8_30
ID  - Liu2022
ER  -