Beyond the smartphone's mere presence effect: A quantitative mobile eye tracking study on the visual and internal distraction potential of smartphones

Smartphones are a daily companion and ensure users' constant connectedness. In the context of focused work, however, smartphone presence may be problematic. Previous research has shown that even the mere presence of smartphones is distracting. The present study reexamined the smartphone's mere presence effect on performance. In addition, we investigated whether the mere presence of smartphones is visually distracting or creates smartphone-related thoughts. In a laboratory experiment, we compared participants (N = 103) with their smartphone present versus absent. Using mobile eye tracking glasses, we tracked how often people looked at their smartphone while performing cognitive and reading tasks. Our study could not replicate the negative effect of smartphone presence on performance. Results revealed that people rarely looked at their smartphones during the tasks. However, smartphones drew users' visual attention during breaks and transitions between tasks. We also showed that smartphone presence increased smartphone vigilance but had no effect on task performance. Our study contributes to understanding the underlying mechanisms of the smartphone's mere presence effects on performance. With this study, we extend previous research by showing that people can regulate their visual attention to smartphones.