Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Cody Gough.

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about how smartphones hurt your mental performance even when they're off,

how babies and adults laugh differently,

and a simple change you can make to your laundry routine to cut down on pollution.

Let's save the environment, and also let's satisfy some curiosity.

I'm about to give you a major reason. and also let's satisfy some curiosity.

I'm about to give you a major reason to stop keeping your phone around you all the time.

Smartphones dull your mental performance even when they're off.

I'll say that again.

Your smartphone takes a cognitive toll just by being in the room with you.

It doesn't even need to be powered on to do it.

For a 2017 study, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin had more than 400

undergraduate students take a series of tests. The tests were designed to measure their cognitive

capacity and the students either kept their phones in their pocket,

face down on their desk, or in another room.

And the students with their phones in another room performed significantly better than

those with their phones near them.

The researchers did the same experiment again, but this time half of the participants turned off their phones.

But there was no difference in performance between having a phone turned on and

turned off. Just the presence of it was enough to fog their brains. Okay, but we all

...