Peter Familari
August 05, 2009 05:00pm
A NEW study suggests young heavy mobile phone users have poorer memory, slower reaction times and make more mistakes. A recent study of 300 students aged 12 to 14 from 20 Melbourne private and state schools shows children who use their mobile a lot may be sacrificing accuracy for speed.
The study by researchers from Monash University shows kids regarded as heavy mobile phone users were likely to have poorer memory, react slower to set tasks and made more mistakes than students who used their mobiles a lot less.
"We took into account age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status in our research," one of the report's authors, Dr Geza Benke, said.
"But simply put, mobile phones may be teaching kids to go for speed rather than accuracy."
The Monash University report found that overall mobile phone use was associated with faster and less accurate responses to high level cognitive tests.
The good news is the students' error rate was unlikely to be linked to mobile phone radiation.