Justin Edney
Justin Edney is a first-generation college senior at Eastern Washington University (EWU), pursuing a Major in Applied Developmental Psychology. Through determination and resilience, Justin thrives in an academic setting cultivating knowledge with a passion for helping others. His research interests focus on the effects of modern technology on cognition and mental health, as well as research in cognitive-behavioral therapy as a treatment plan for neurodevelopmental disorders. He hopes to build a career in helping professions, using empathy and person-centered approaches to counseling. Justin has experience as a research assistant on two NSF-supported projects on institutional transformation here at EWU. Through the GRANTED project, his main role was data recording, data organization, and quantitative reporting through visual presentations. His efforts in the ADVANCE program were focused on project management ensuring task implementation through a project management site. He will continue his work through the 2025-2026 school year. Justin will be presenting a research study at the Western Psychological Association Conference this May 2025, on phone dependence and anxiety symptoms in college students. In the future, he plans to attend graduate school and earn his PhD in Clinical Psychology.
2025 EWU Faculty Research Mentor: Dr. Jillene Seiver
Can you name the color? Exploring relationship between personality traits, cognitive distraction, and smartphone attachment
Abstract: This study investigates the moderating role of individual personality traits in the relationship
between smartphone-related cognitive distraction and cognitive performance. Drawing upon the
concept of “smartphone-induced brain drain” (Ward et al., 2017), we hypothesize that the mere
presence of a smartphone can impair cognitive function. Currently, 50 students are participating
in this research, and data collection is ongoing and expected to continue through 2025.
Participants are randomly assigned to either an experimental condition (smartphone present on
desk) or a control condition (no smartphone present). All participants complete the Big Five
Inventory to assess conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion,
and a Smartphone Usage Questionnaire as a self-report measure of smartphone distraction and
dependence. Subsequently, participants perform a Stroop task, a measure of cognitive
interference (Clayton et al., 2015). Smartphone distraction is measured using participants’
performance on the Stroop task and through a self-assessment Smartphone Usage Questionnaire
([SUQ] Marty-Dugas & Smilek, 2018). Personality is assessed using the Big Five Factor
Inventory (BFI; John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991; John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008). We predict that
participants in the experimental condition exhibit significantly slower response times on the
Stroop task due to the cognitive demands imposed by smartphone presence. We hypothesize that
individuals scoring higher in neuroticism and extraversion will demonstrate greater smartphone
dependence, increased susceptibility to cognitive distraction, and poorer performance on the
Stroop task which is consistent with emerging research on personality as a mediating factor
(Hadlington, 2015; Marty-Dugas et al., 2018). Conversely, individuals higher in
conscientiousness will exhibit greater self-regulatory smartphone behaviors and superior
cognitive performance. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how individual
differences in personality moderate the impact of smartphone presence on cognitive
performance, addressing a current theoretical gap in the literature (Edwards et al., 2022).
