Stroop effect in smartphone addiction among college students

Smartphone addiction (SPA) affects an increasing number of college students, but it remains poorly understood. This study aimed to explore the psychological mechanism of the decrease in cognitive control ability from cognitive psychology in students with SPA. The smartphone addition tendency scale (MPATS) was used to identify 64 undergraduates with SPA (MPATS > 45) and 64 sex- and age-matched controls (MPATS < 30). The 2 groups were well matched for age and sex distribution. The RT of the SPA group under the conflict state was 628.2±59.2 ms vs 549.4 ± 44.2 ms under the consistent state (P < .005). The RT of the control group under the conflict state was 707.5 ± 66.4 vs 582.0 ± 39.4 ms under the consistent state (P < .005). Under the conflict state, errors made by the SPA group were 8.7 ± 5.4, and that of the control group was 6.6 ± 3.7 (P < .05). The reaction delay of the SPA group was 25.6 ± 49.2 vs 110.0 ± 41.8 ms (P < .05). Correlation analysis showed a clear positive correlation between SPA and the number of mistakes in the conflict state of the Stroop task.