The Relationship Between Media Multitasking Level, Cognitive Control And Academic Achievement Among Junior High School Students And Its Educational Implications

During the epidemic caused by COVID-19,teenagers gradually form the habit of media multitasking.Since studies on the correlation of media multitasking with cognitive control and academic achievement have not reached consistent conclusions,it is impossible to provide an accurate theoretical basis for teenagers' media use.The present study was aimed at examine the relationship between the level of media multitasking and cognitive control and academic performance.A pilot study was conducted to investigate the current situation of teenagers' media multitasking by using Media Use Questionnaire among 600 junior middle school students aged 11?13.The high-level media multitasking group and the low-level media multitasking group were selected on the basis of their media multitasking index.Study 1 examined the individual differences in cognitive control between24 high-and 36 low-level media multitasking group by using the Continuous Pperformance Task and the Switch Task.Study 2 examined the individual differences in academic achievement between 15 high-and 15 low-level media multitasking of teenagers by examining their eye movements in reading task.The pilot study showed that the average media multitasking index of Chinese teenagers is 1.5.The results of Study 1 showed that there were no significant difference on reaction time and accuracy in Continuous Pperformance Task between the two groups.However,in switch task,with similar accuracy,the reaction time of the high-level media multitasking group was significantly shorter than low-level media multitasker.The results of Study 2 showed that there was no significant difference in total reading time,mean fixation duration,number of fixations,forward and backward saccade length,and reading accuracy between the two groups.In conclusion,these findings suggest that,firstly,Chinese teenagers deal with 1?2 media tasks simultaneously.Secondly,media multitasking does not influence the performance of sustained attention and the academic performance indicated by reading comprehension;however,compared to low-level media multitaskers,high-level media multitaskers are highly efficient at switching between tasks.