Accepted author manuscript, 60.5 KB, Word document
Rights statement: © 2015 Andrews et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Final published version, 591 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Other version, 32.9 KB, PDF document
Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Beyond self report
T2 - tools to compare estimated and real-world smartphone use
AU - Andrews, Sally
AU - Ellis, David Alexander
AU - Shaw, Heather
AU - Piwek, Lukasz
PY - 2015/10/28
Y1 - 2015/10/28
N2 - Psychologists typically rely on self-report data when quantifying mobile phone usage, despite little evidence of its validity. In this paper we explore the accuracy of using self-reported estimates when compared with actual smartphone use. We also include source code to process and visualise these data. We compared 23 participants’ actual smartphone use over a two-week period with self-reported estimates and the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale. Our results indicate that estimated time spent using a smartphone may be an adequate measure of use, unless a greater resolution of data are required. Estimates concerning the number of times an individual used their phone across a typical day did not correlate with actual smartphone use. Neither estimated duration nor number of uses correlated with the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale. We conclude that estimated smartphone use should be interpreted with caution in psychological research.
AB - Psychologists typically rely on self-report data when quantifying mobile phone usage, despite little evidence of its validity. In this paper we explore the accuracy of using self-reported estimates when compared with actual smartphone use. We also include source code to process and visualise these data. We compared 23 participants’ actual smartphone use over a two-week period with self-reported estimates and the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale. Our results indicate that estimated time spent using a smartphone may be an adequate measure of use, unless a greater resolution of data are required. Estimates concerning the number of times an individual used their phone across a typical day did not correlate with actual smartphone use. Neither estimated duration nor number of uses correlated with the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale. We conclude that estimated smartphone use should be interpreted with caution in psychological research.
KW - smartphones
KW - time perception
KW - habit formation
KW - checking behaviours
KW - ambulatory assessment
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0139004
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0139004
M3 - Journal article
VL - 10
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 10
M1 - e0139004
ER -