Media-multitasking and attentional control: A theory-driven research agenda

Mobile digital technologies provide ample incentives and opportunities for media-multitasking, and media consumption has become almost synonymous with media-multitasking as a result. Concerns have been raised about the potential sustained impact of media-multitasking on attentional control, and ample empirical studies have been devoted to this topic. However, recent reviews and meta-analyses demonstrate that cross-sectional outcomes on the relationship between media-multitasking and attentional control remain inconsistent and inconclusive. This obstructs theoretical advancement regarding sustained impact and, consequently, hinders clear insight into the question about whether, when, and for whom remedial interventions should be considered. In the current paper, we argue that extant research has suffered from a collective failure to consider relevant intra-individual variation in attentional control. We investigate the theoretical and methodological implications of this neglect for the study of sustained media-multitasking effects on attentional control, outlining the tenets of a theory-driven research agenda to guide a new generation of cross-sectional studies. These will be much needed in providing the evidence base to justify and inform more resource-intensive causal research in this field.