ERC Starting Grant · 2025
Testing the Technology Related Attention Decline hypothesis
Is our digital age eroding our ability to concentrate? With email, smartphones, and social media becoming ever more pervasive, concerns are mounting about the impact of constant digital distractions on our attention. Despite widespread speculation—50% of the UK public believes their attention spans are now shorter (The Policy Institute, 2022)—there is a striking lack of empirical evidence to confirm or refute this Technology-Related Attention Decline (TRAD) hypothesis. The TRAD hypothesis posits that increased engagement with internet technologies leads to measurable declines in core cognitive abilities related to attention, such as the capacity to direct, sustain, and control focus. This…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.