The Cognitive Economy Phenomenon and the Degradation of Attentional Focus in Digital Information Environments

This article examines what the evidence actually supports when digital environments are said to degrade attention. It argues that two claims should be kept apart: that the environment alters the cost of switching between tasks, and that the capacity for sustained attention has itself declined. Based on a narrative review of cognitive psychology, human-computer interaction and reading research, the paper finds partial support for the first claim, namely in studies of notification and interruption costs and in a meta-analysis of 54 studies showing modestly lower comprehension when expository texts are read on screen. Support for the second claim is limited. Two widely cited experiments, the “Google effect” and the “brain drain” effect, failed in direct replication attempts, recent meta-analyses of the latter are mixed, and the association with media multitasking is small. A self-reinforcing cycle model is proposed as a testable hypothesis, and practical recommendations are graded by the strength of the evidence behind them.