Boston University freshman Sarah Kamaras said once she misses a phone call, she begins to think her cellphone is vibrating throughout the day and she continually takes it out and checks it. Kamaras, a College of Communication student, does not suffer from this modern-day malady alone.

The term “ringxiety,” coined by California School of Professional Psychology doctoral student David Laramie, is what happens when people think they hear their cellphones ring or vibrate when they are not.

“I think people acquire ringxiety because they’re always waiting for a response to a call or text, and check incessantly to see if they received it,” Kamaras said.

College of Arts and Sciences psychology professor Aaron Seitz said in an email that ringxiety appears to be a “specific example of a fairly common phenomenon.”

“It is very common for people to hear or see things that they expect even when they are not there,” Seitz said. “Misreading signs, mishearing words and even more sophisticated misperceptions are things that most people can relate to.”

COM freshman Haley Stoessl said she hears her phone ring when it does not, but is more likely to think it is ringing in a crowded area where there are many different noises than when she is by herself.

“In cases of ambiguity, our expectations shape what we hear,” Seitz said. “Even simple cloud gazing speaks to our ability to see things that are not defined to be there.”

“While it might be trendy to associate [ringxiety] with a particular device, it is more likely that it is a particular instance of an obsessive-anxious condition that can also manifest in other ways and with other expectation-based misperceptions,” Seitz said.

Seitz said this phenomenon occurs most with students because they use their cellphones more than any other demographic.

College of Engineering professor Jeffrey Carruthers said ringxiety can also be attributed to the interconnectedness of the world resulting in the “general anxiety” of missing a message.

Cellphones’ ringtones may be another contributor to anxiety, he said.

“There are some ringtones that are more like normal sounds, so it can be hard to figure out whether it was actually your cellphone or not,” Carruthers said. “The ringtones are so different whereas the old telephone ring was very standard.”