Jennifer Trujillo¹ (), Isabella F. Avalos², Bo-Yeong Won¹; ¹California State University, Chico, ²University of California, Riverside

Our environment is saturated with different types of distractions, yet digital distractions have emerged as some of the most prevalent in modern education, particularly for college students who are constantly interrupted by digital distractions while trying to focus on their academic workload. These distractions, ranging from smartphone notifications to multitasking on multiple devices, can detract from academic pursuits and lead to decreased academic performance. Our attention is limited and scarce, so the ability to suppress such distractions is crucial for academic success. This study aims to investigate the relationship between individual differences in engagement with digital distractions and performance on an attentional suppression task, as well as their impact on grade point average (GPA). Specifically, we assessed whether engaging in digital distractions, as measured by the Smartphone Distraction Scale (SDS), along with the ability to ignore distractors in favor of target stimuli, affect academic outcomes like GPA. We hypothesized that individuals who were more susceptible to digital distractions and who were less efficient in attentional suppression tasks would exhibit lower GPAs compared to their counterparts who manage distractions better. The analysis investigated how SDS scores and performance on an attentional suppression task collectively predict GPA among college students. Surprisingly, there was no significant relationship between SDS scores and performance on the attentional suppression task, but there was a significant result with SDS scores and GPA. While this study contributes to the growing literature on how digital distractions influence students’ academic focus and offers guidance for supporting academic performance in the face of widespread digital interruptions, the findings also suggest that real-world distraction may be driven by more complex mechanisms than cognitive distractor suppression alone.