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Field
Trial Status
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Before
completed
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After
in_development
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Field
Abstract
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Before
Nearly half of US smartphone owners make an effort to limit their use, but only 30% succeed in doing so. Studies have linked increased smartphone usage to decreased worker productivity, increased traffic accidents, and reduced student learning. This study presents results from an encouragement design field experiment with Pocket Points, an app that acts as a commitment device and provides tangible incentives for curtailing smartphone usage in the classroom.
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After
Nearly half of US smartphone owners make an effort to limit their use, but only 30% succeed. Usage is particularly high among teens, who spend an average of nine hours per day on their phones. Studies have linked increased smartphone usage to decreased sleep, lower student learning, and negative worker productivity. This study centers on a series of field experiments conducted with Pocket Points, an app that acts as a commitment device and provides tangible incentives to students for curtailing smartphone usage. Students open the app, lock their phone, and start accumulating “points” while the app verifies the student’s location and activity using GPS coordinates. Points can then be used to get discounts at participating businesses. A pilot study found that students randomly encouraged to use Pocket Points at Texas A&M experienced positive academic outcomes, including higher grades and improved in-class focus. In this study, we implement a series of treatment arms across multitude universities to incentivize staying off the phone while in the classroom as well as during sleep hours. Outcomes will be collected through app usage, surveys (e.g. sleep quality), GPS coordinates (e.g. time spent on campus), and transcripts (e.g. course grades).
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Field
Trial End Date
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Before
January 01, 2019
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After
December 31, 2021
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Field
Last Published
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Before
March 09, 2019 06:04 PM
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After
August 27, 2019 04:03 PM
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Field
Intervention (Public)
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Before
Students from Texas A&M will be recruited to participate in an online study. Approximately half will then be encouraged to download and use the Pocket Points app. At the end of the semester, both treatment and control students will complete a survey, and all students upon signing up for the experiment agree to release their academic transcripts.
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After
This study consists of two pilots (one at Texas A&M and another one at University of Hawaii at Manoa). For the pilot studies, students will be recruited to participate in an online study. Approximately half will then be encouraged to download and use the Pocket Points app. At the end of the semester, both treatment and control students will complete a survey, and all students upon signing up for the experiment agree to release their academic transcripts. We will also conduct a large scale expansion of our pilot studies with multiple treatment arms to college students across the US. For the large scale expansion, app users will be randomly assigned to one of the treatment arms: Control group, cash group (receives additional monetary incentives to use the app), information group (receives information about the effectiveness of Pocket Points usage on schooling outcomes from the pilot studies), sleep mode group (receives additional monetary incentives to use the app during sleep hours).
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Field
Intervention End Date
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Before
January 01, 2019
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After
October 04, 2021
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Field
Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
Self-report classroom outcomes, including attendance, focus, and academic satisfaction, as well as academic outcomes collected via transcripts.
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After
Self-reported outcomes (e.g. class attendance, focus in the classroom, sleep behavior, restfulness, anxiety, depression), as well as academic outcomes collected via transcripts.
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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
Randomization will be carried out at the individual student level, with each student being randomized into treatment or control. Treatment students will be nudged to use the Pocket Points app, while control students will receive no intervention.
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After
For the pilot studies, randomization will be carried out at the individual student level, with each student being randomized into treatment or control. Treatment students will be nudged to use the Pocket Points app, while control students will receive no intervention.
For the large scale expansion: app users will be randomly assigned to one of the treatment arms: Control group, cash group (receives additional monetary incentives to use the app), information group (receives information about the effectiveness of Pocket Points usage on schooling outcomes from the pilot studies), sleep mode group (receives additional monetary incentives to use the app during sleep hours).
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Field
Randomization Method
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Before
Electronically on Excel
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After
Electronically on Excel
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Field
Planned Number of Clusters
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Before
2,000 students
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After
2,000 students for TAMU pilot, 1,000 students for Hawaii pilot, and 2,660 for the large scale expansion
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Field
Planned Number of Observations
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Before
2,000 students
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After
3,000 students for the pilots and 2,660 for the expansion
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Field
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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Before
Approximate 1,000 treatment, 1,000 control students
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After
For the pilot studies: approximately 50% n each treatment arm
For the expansion: approximately 25% in each treatment arm
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