Attentional Bias Towards Cues Relaeted On Dependency Of Smartphone Dependence

Smartphone dependence,also known as smartphone addiction or smartphone overuse,likes a kind of "addiction" behavior caused by excesive using smartphone.It can influence users’ psychological functions and normal live.In current researches,scholars have a lot of controversy over the definition of smartphone dependence.Not only that,but current definitions about smartphone dependence can not explain which part(network,function-without network or phone-body)plays the central role in the source of dependence.In addition,smartphone dependence shows some characteristics which are similar to other addictive behaviors,from this aspect,we can study its impact on cognition to partially confirm whether smartphone dependence can be called a kind of “addiction”or“dependence”.First we designed an experiment to deprive the possible sources of dependence(network,function-without network,phone-body)step by step,then observed whether subjects under different conditions will show the core characteristics of addiction(withdrawal symptoms,craving)to confirm the source of smartphone dependence.Second,we selected relev-ant stimulus according to the dependent source,and used the modified stroop paradigm and event related potential technology to explore whether smartphone dependence will show a similar attentional bias as other addictive behaviors.The research includes two parts.In study 1,we surveyed 593 college students by the College Student Smartphone Addiction Questionnaire.Then we selected 117 smartphone dependents and 89 non-smartphone dependents to participate in the experiment.The subjects were randomly divided into four groups: phone-network group(all functions can be used),phone-no-network group(network cannot be used),shutdown group(phone should be shutdown),no-phone group(phone is not around),and the task of subjects are to be alone in a closed room for 15 min.The Withdrawal Symptom Scale was used to measure the withdrawal symptoms twice before and after the task.Smartphone Craving Scale,the smart phone craving task were used to measure the craving twice before and after the task.In addition,we use a camera to record the subjects’ behaviors during the 15 min.In study 2,we selected stimulates related on the source of the smart phone dependence,then used the addiction stroop task to explore the attentional bias towards cues related on the source of smartphone dependence,meanwhile,used event-related potential to record their electroence phalogram(EEG).In study 1 we found that Withdrawal Symptom Scale score and the Smartphone Craving Scale score of smartphone dependents in shutdown group and no-phone group are both significantly higher than other groups in the second measurement.This shows that the source of dependency on smartphones dependence is phone function rather than the phone-body.In study 2 we found that words related phone functions comparing with the neutral words can evoke a higher P300 amplitude among smart phone dependents,while the same results were not found in non-mobile phone dependents.This result indicates smartphone dependents have attentional bias towards the cues related to phone function.The main contribution of this research is that we defined the dependency of smartphone dependence,so that the definition of smartphone dependence is clearer that before.In addition,we explored the attentional bias of smartphone dependence,which could help us understand the relationship between smartphone dependence and addiction.