Phoning it in on exams

Even in a crowded lecture hall your professors know when you are using your smartphone during class.

Some instructors ignore this, some punish this, but most of them do not like it.

Although students might think that class rules limiting or banning the use of mobile phones are cruel, in truth they come from a good place: most faculty believe that your phones will hurt your grades by stealing your attention. A basic idea from cognitive psychology is that you have to pay attention to something if you want to commit it to memory or be able to use the idea effectively.

A study done by Bjornsen and Archer (2015) further supports this argument. These professors spent two semesters in their psychology classes surveying a total of 218 college students about their in-class cell phone use. At the end of each class the students answered a questionnaire about the number of times that they looked at their phones for: social networking (texting, email, social network apps like Facebook and Instagram); getting information (Googling, checking the online syllabus, checking a website related to class); organizing their lives (personal calendar); or playing a game. The students were assured that their answers would not influence how the professor graded their work, so the assumption is that these self-reports were honest.

The authors compared the amount of each type of mobile phone use to test scores in these classes. They found that both social media use and gaming during class were associated with lower test scores, with playing games being much worse than using social media. Because social media use was more common than playing games, Bjornsen and Archer looked at these data in a more detailed way. They divided the students who used social media during class into high (5x per class), medium (2.4x per class), and low (1x per class) then looked at average test scores for each group. Across five exams the high in-class social media users scored an average of 74% and the low social media users scored an average of a 76%. These scores are close but they could be the difference between getting a C or a C+ in a class.

However, one of these effects changed when Bjornsen and Archer controlled for overall GPAs (grade point averages). As you might guess the students with the worst GPAs were more likely to play games in class, so the relationship between game playing and low test scores was likely influenced by this third variable: it disappeared once GPA was factored in. On the other hand, even when overall GPA was included as a factor, the relationship between in-class social media use and lower exam scores remained significant.

This implies that even students who have higher GPAs still score lower on exams when they use social media during those classes! From past research on college students we know that more than 90% admit to using cellphones during class and that 77% do not believe that this would cause problems with their learning. Bjornsen and Archer's results suggest that students, especially students who do well in school, may not be aware that their tests scores might be a bit higher if they reduced or stopped using social media during class time.

Before you worry that this study will drive professors to ban cell phones, the authors suggest that this is not sensible given that today's university students are used to having their smartphones as constant companions. They cite past research about this population: college students spend 5-9 hours a day on their phones which includes: 95 minutes of texting; 95 minutes on social networking apps; 49 minutes emailing; 34 minutes surfing the Web. Based on this Bjornsen and Archer suggest some integration of phones into the classroom. For example, I will ask students to put away their phones if they are not participating or are distracting other in the class, but I don't mind if student take pictures of notes and images that I project onto the screen at the front of the room (even though there is good research behind the idea that taking notes through handwriting increases your memory and understanding of those notes).

 
Ultimately university students are adults who should weigh the benefits and costs of using their phones in class. For some, being connected to friends and family will be more important that scoring a few points higher on exams. For others, every point matters because their grades are crucial for getting into programs like Nursing, keeping scholarships, or having good GPAs for graduate school applications. If you aren't sure which group you fall into...ask Siri?

Further Reading:

The Bjornsen and Archer (2015) article can be accessed through your local college library.

There's an app for that! In 2014 college students Mitch Gardner and Rob Richardson created Pocket Points, an app that rewards students for not checking their phones during class. Find out if your university uses this system - if so you can get discounts at stores and restaurants. As if scoring 2% higher on average exam scores was not enough!

Cell or mobile phone addiction is addressed by Web MD. Find out the symptoms and suggestions for managing your smartphone time.

Would the Hulk plagiarize?

When I first started teaching I was surprised to find that about a third of my students would turn in papers containing quotations without citation - not in APA style as directed, not in MLA style (staunch English major?), or not even in some LMAO style (just making it up as you go along).  Nothing.  Not even a quotation mark.

When I informed them that this is plagiarism, they were shocked!  They knew that they had been a little lazy or careless but they didn't realize that this is a form of cheating.  From then on, I have emphasized APA style in-text citation as a main goal of my upper level courses. And I believe that in this week's meme I have found an ally in my citation obsession:

Click here for a more modern image of the Hulk keeping it real with his citation of sources.

Apparently Marvel's anti-hero, the Incredible Hulk, has read the APA's Publication Manual.  He may have a habit of breaking things and poor anger management but he does not plagiarize!  The Hulk also understands that if you want to strengthen your ideas, citing good sources is a great way to be convincing.

So if my students were plagiarizing by accident and the Hulk always cites his sources, who plagiarizes on purpose?  In 2010, Williams, Nathanson, and Paulhus conducted three related studies to answer this question (and that raise some questions about the Hulk part!).

In the first study, they wanted to know what type of person has a history of cheating.  Out of the 249 college students who completed their questionnaire, 73% admitted to cheating at some point in high school.  The questionnaire also included items that tapped into their personalities and dispositions: Williams et al. found that students who admitted to cheating were more likely to score high on a measure of psychopathy.  Now, to be clear, this does not mean that those students are actual psychopaths, instead it means that they were slightly more likely to demonstrate traits like, "...erratic lifestyle[s], manipulation, callousness, and antisocial tendencies" (p. 295).

To get a clearer picture of college students' current behavior the authors conducted a second study.  This time 107 students completed personality tests, general ability tests, and wrote two essays for their college psychology class.  Included in the assignment directions were clear instructions for citing quotations in APA style, a definition of plagiarism, and a warning that the essays would be screened by Turn-It-In.  Turn-It-In uses an algorithm to compare submitted papers to web pages, books, and a bank of student papers: if a student plagiarizes a source, the paper will get flagged.  Using this method, Williams et al. found about 15% of the students plagiarized on at least one of their essays.  The students who plagiarized scored higher on psychopathy or lower on verbal ability.  This suggests that some students cheat out of a devious mindset, but others may cheat because their writing skills are particularly poor.

In the final study, 223 college students reported their cheating histories, completed personality tests, and answered questions designed to reveal the factors that led them to cheat or to avoid cheating.  For the third time, high scores on psychopathy were related to cheating.  These students also revealed that they were motivated to cheat because a) they will do anything to get good grades and b) they do not believe that it is immoral to cheat.

Thus, the majority of students who do plagiarize are likely to hold attitudes and values are different from most of their peers'.  A small subset of students may use plagiarism to make up for their lack of writing ability.  What stands out to me as a teacher is that the most college students do not fit these criteria and would be unlikely to plagiarize.

Ironically, from Williams et al.'s results, we can question this week's meme.  The Hulk has unpredictable behavior, isn't particularly careful with others' feelings, and engages in some "antisocial" acts (like throwing cars at people).  The Hulk also demonstrates very low verbal skills: he mostly grunts and yells; and speaks like Cookie Monster on steroids.  (If you need evidence of these claims, check out this Hulk clip.).  We would associate these factors with a higher risk of plagiarism!

So always cite your sources in APA style if you want to be credible, but if the Hulk gets a higher grade than you do, you should be a bit incredulous!

Further Reading:

You can access a pdf of the Williams et. al (2010) paper on Craig Nathanson's Mendeley page.  You can also obtain a copy of the published article through your local college library.

A tutorial on the basics of APA style and good hints about in-text citation of quotations from the APA.  Don't risk plagiarism!

An NPR broadcast about Turn-It-In that raises some interesting questions about its use.

The history of the Incredible Hulk from Marvel.