Abstract
The present study examined whether the attitude toward texting in the classroom moderates the relation between delay discounting and frequency of texting in the classroom. College students completed a survey to assess their attitude and frequency of texting in the classroom. Based on this information, students were stratified into four groups: Appropriate-Frequent, Appropriate-Infrequent, Inappropriate-Frequent, and Inappropriate-Infrequent. The groups were then compared on the degree of delay discounting of hypothetical monetary reinforcers. In the delay-discounting task, participants made repeated choices between $1,000 available after a delay and an equal or lesser amount of money available immediately. The results showed that the attitude toward texting in the classroom moderates the relation between the degree of delay discounting and the frequency of texting in the classroom. Among students who perceive texting in the classroom as inappropriate, those who frequently text in the classroom showed greater rates of delay discounting than those who infrequently text in the classroom, whereas there was no difference in students who perceive texting in the classroom as appropriate. Impulsive characteristics of texting in the classroom from a behavioral economic perspective are discussed.
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Data Availability
The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.
Notes
According to Iacobucci, Posavac, Kardes, Schneider, and Popovich (2015), the use of a median-split procedure can be justified if there is no multicollinearity between independent variables and a study focuses on group differences (p. 662). Because the point-biserial correlation coefficient between the frequency and the attitude of TIC (upper and lower halves were coded as 1 and 0, respectively, for both frequency and attitude data) is nonsignificant (r = -.13, p = .20) and the primary focus of the present study is the difference among groups (in particular the comparison between the Inappropriate-Frequent group and the other groups), a median-split procedure should be justifiable in the present study. To illustrate the details about the frequency and attitude data, however, the descriptive statistics that indicate the distributions are provided for both frequency and attitude data, respectively: skewness: .43 (SE = .20) and -.22 (SE = .20); kurtosis: -.85 (SE = .40) and -.63 (SE = .40); and range: 1–5 and 1–5.
It is important to note that the conventional AUC (Myerson et al., 2001) emphasizes the indifference points at larger delays, whereas AUClogd (Borges et al., 2016) emphasizes those at smaller delays. If an AUC measure is used as a nontheoretical, descriptive measure of discounting (e.g., regardless of its relation to the k value of the hyperbolic equation), the choice between conventional AUC and AUClogd should essentially be a matter of preference, in particular if conventional AUC and AUClogd produce the same results. If, however, the two AUC measures produce different results (as in the case of the present data set), the best approach would be to present both results and leave the interpretation to the readers.
According to Faraway (2014), running simple main effects even when the interaction is not statistically significant is justifiable because a nonsignificant interaction does not exclude the possibility that an interaction effect exists in the population. This may be particularly important given the power to detect interactions is generally low (Aiken & West, 1991).
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Hayashi, Y. Attitude Moderates the Relation between Frequency of Media Multitasking in the Classroom and Delay Discounting. Psychol Rec 71, 211–218 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-020-00443-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-020-00443-w