A Systematic Review of Short-Form Video Effects on Attention, Memory, and Emotional Regulation

This review synthesizes evidence from 47 empirical studies (2019–2026) on the effects of short-form video consumption on sustained attention, working memory, deep processing, and affective regulation. We identify four mechanisms: dopaminergic reward prediction error exploitation, attentional fragmentation, displacement of effortful cognition, and social comparison amplification. We propose the Attentional Fragmentation–Reward Habituation (AFRH) framework distinguishing passive scrolling from active engagement, and argue that the passive pathway drives the majority of observed cognitive costs.