CATCH THE GHOST®

The research

Thirteen papers, in plain English.

The 13 studies we point to most, each linked to the original, in two parts: what a distracted attention span costs you, and what the app is built from. Every summary ends on what we made of it.

To see which mechanic each finding shaped, read The science behind Catch the Ghost.

Part one

What distraction costs.

Gloria Mark has spent two decades logging how long people stay on one screen, and her book Attention Span has the trend: about 2.5 minutes in 2004, 47 seconds now. The five papers below measure the fallout.

  1. The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress

    In a lab study of 48 people, workers who were interrupted finished the same task faster than those who were not, with no loss of quality, and paid for it in more stress, frustration, time pressure and effort. In earlier fieldwork by the same lab, interrupted work took about 25 minutes to resume, usually after two other tasks came first. So a Deep Focus session is one unbroken block of 25 to 120 minutes, and the break comes after it.

    Read the study

  2. The Welfare Effects of Social Media

    A pre-registered randomized trial of 1,661 Facebook users. Four weeks off Facebook gave a small but real lift in well-being, freed about an hour a day, and several weeks later people were still using Facebook about 22% less. That hour holds two Deep Focus sessions with a break between them, and two chapters.

    Read the study

  3. Feeds, Feelings, and Focus

    A meta-analysis of 71 studies and 98,299 people across TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. Heavier short-form video use went with weaker attention and weaker impulse control. These are correlations, not proof of cause. Each Deep Focus session asks for the opposite habit: one picture, filling in dot by dot, for 25 minutes or more.

    Read the study

  4. The Attentional Cost of Receiving a Cell Phone Notification

    In a lab experiment with 166 people, getting a call or text notification, without touching the phone, raised errors on an attention task, by about as much as other studies link to actually using a phone. The cost of a modern workday isn't checking your phone; it's owning one that can buzz. Tap a notification mid-session and you have left the app, and the clock knows.

    Read the study

  5. The Dark at the End of the Tunnel: Doomscrolling on Social Media Newsfeeds

    A pre-registered study of 903 people that built and validated one of the first scales for doomscrolling. Higher scores went with neuroticism, negativity bias, problematic social media use and fear of missing out, and with lower conscientiousness and self-control. Most of these links were small, and people rated themselves. Our answer to the scroll is a better offer: 25 minutes, phone down, one chapter from history.

    Read the study

Part two

What the app is built from.

Eight papers sit under the mechanics: goals, reminders, chapters, streaks, stakes and rooms. The science page shows which mechanic each one shaped.

  1. Social Facilitation

    This paper pulled decades of mixed results into one rule: the presence of other people strengthens whatever response is already dominant. That helps on simple or well-learned tasks and can hurt on new or complex ones. It is the oldest argument for the study hall, and the reason a Focus Together room fits review and practice best.

    Read the study

  2. Buddy Up: The Köhler Effect Applied to Health Games

    People holding planks in an exercise video game lasted longer with a pre-recorded, slightly stronger virtual partner than they did alone. Making the team score depend on both of them added nothing on top. So this paper makes the case for a partner; the rule that two must finish before anyone earns double is our own design.

    Read the study

  3. Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation

    Thirty-five years and about 400 studies point the same way: specific, hard goals beat vague encouragement to do your best, and performance rises with difficulty until the goal outruns ability. So the app asks for a daily goal in sessions, 1 to 4+, and counts them off as you go.

    Read the study

  4. Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta-analysis of Effects and Processes

    Plans of the form "if it is 9 a.m., then I start a session" made people much more likely to reach their goals than holding the goal alone. This meta-analysis pooled 94 tests and more than 8,000 people. So your daily goal comes with a reminder at a time you pick.

    Read the study

  5. The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation

    A review that proposed the information-gap account: curiosity is the itch of noticing a gap between what you know and what you want to know, and it grows as the gap narrows. A half-finished life story is a much sharper hook than an unopened one, which is why each ghost is told in order, chapter by chapter, and the next chapter is always the one you are missing.

    Read the study

  6. The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives

    Across four experiments, readers who were more absorbed in a story came away holding more of its beliefs and liking its characters more, even when the story was labeled fiction. Narrative is not a decorative wrapper on information. It changes what the information does to you. So a chapter is a quote, a story or an image from one life, read in the order it happened.

    Read the study

  7. How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world

    Ninety-six people each chose one new daily behavior and reported on it for 12 weeks. It took a median of 66 days for the behavior to feel automatic, anywhere from 18 to 254 days (the longest are projections from the model). Missing a single day did not set the process back. That finding is why a broken streak can be bought back for 5,000 coins.

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  8. Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence From a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines

    In a randomized field experiment with a bank in the Philippines, people offered a savings account that locked their money until a goal they set themselves had balances 81 percentage points higher than a control group after 12 months, even though only 28% of those offered opened one. Coin stakes copy the voluntary part: staking is optional, and you pick the amount, from 25 to 500 coins.

    Read the study

Contribute

Did we miss a study?

Know a paper on attention, focus or phones that belongs on this list, or one that challenges a mechanic we built? Send it. We read everything.

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CATCH THE GHOST®

Put your phone down. Pick your brain back up.

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