Information processing on smartphones in public versus
private

Information processing on smartphones in public versus
private

mobile devices, visual attention, news learning, public setting, mobile eye-tracking

People increasingly turn to news on mobile devices, often while out and about, attending to daily tasks. Yet, we know little about whether atten-
tion to and learning from information on a mobile differs by the setting of use. This study builds on Multiple Resource Theory (Wickens, 1984)

and the Resource Competition Framework (Oulasvirta et al., 2005) to compare visual attention to a dynamic newsfeed, varying only the setting:
private or public. We use mobile eye-tracking to evaluate the effects of setting on attention and assess correspondent learning differences after

exposure to the feed, which allows us to uncover a relationship between attention and learning. Findings indicate higher visual attention to mo-
bile newsfeed posts in public, relative to a private setting. Moreover, scrolling through news on a smartphone in public attenuates some knowl-
edge gain but is beneficial for other learning outcomes.

Jakob Ohme, Kathleen Searles, Claes H. de Vreese2

https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmac022

9 September 2022

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