The Impact of Attention on Learning

Glenn, D. (2010). Divided attention. The Chronicle Review. Retrieved February 9, 2010 from http://chronicle.com/article/Scholars-Turn-Their-Attention/63746/?sid=cr&utm_source

Can multi-tasking students in the classroom learn as well as those paying closer attention? There has been some debate among colleagues at NDSU as to whether or not a policy should be developed regarding the use of laptop computers by students in class or to include restrictions in the course syllabus. The thought is that many of the students are surfing the web or texting friends on Facebook, buying on e-bay, etc during class. One of my colleagues requires all students with laptops to sit in the front two rows of the room, hoping they will feel more compelled to limit computer activities to those on Blackboard/ in class documents. The other side of the argument is that instructors should just become resigned to the fact that the world has changed and today’s learners come with multitasking skills that allow them to learn while they are doing on-line activities. A recent article in The Chronicle addresses this debate.

Glenn quotes a researcher in psychology at Stanford University, Dr. Nass, “Heavy mulittaskers are often extremely confident in their abilities. But there’s evidence that those people are actually worse at multitasking then most people.” Research has shown that performance on cognitive and memory tasks is much worse in person’s that are self-described multitaskers than individuals who focus on single tasks. Much of the current research on cognitive function supports that attention that focuses on tasks requiring conscious efforts (controlled attention) and attention demanded by outside forces (stimulus-driven attention) are overlapping yet distinctly different neurological processes.

Research on human’s working memory dating back to 1956 by George A. Miller lends further support . He found that the ability to juggle facts and perform mental operations (working-memory capacity) is limited to about seven units e.g. if you asked someone to repeat a sequence of numbers they do well if there are seven or less. To compensate for this if the incoming information exceeds this amount, information is either “chunked” (organized in smaller groups) or unwanted stimuli or information is blocked from the working memory. The bottom line is that people who have higher levels of working member are better able to control their attention, avoiding distractions. “Strong attentional abilities produce stronger fluid intelligence” (p.4).

Furthermore, research by Foerde (2006)has shown that controlled attention improves t the ability to encode information into long term memory where the person is more likely to be able to use it to draw analogies and extrapolate from it. “When you’re teaching, you would like to see more than simple retention of the information that you’re providing people. You’d like to see some evidence that they can use their information in new ways.” (p.5)

Meyer, a professor of psychology, suggests going further than banning laptops in the classroom to refrain from taking notes! Thus, students should focus all attention on the instructor. His rationale is that multitasking degrades performance and that it takes the brain a significant amount of time to switch from the task of note taking to listening alone.

Other scholars retort that today’s media-rich culture has generated learners with “hyper attention” which is different from but not necessarily worse than controlled or deep attention. “Young people’s brains are getting better at making conceptual connections across a wide variety of domains.” They challenge teachers to recognize that hyper attention is not inferior and to focus on meeting the needs of the new learners. Goals should be set to cultivate both the hyper attention and deep attention.

I’m sure this debate is far from over. I tend to agree with the suggestion that multitaskers often over-estimate their ability to juggle all the incoming stimuli and learn at the same time. I often worry that today’s learners are so use to jumping from brief snap shots of information at a quick pace that they are not spending enough time really focusing and absorbing information in an in-depth manner. Are they taking any time to reflect critically? In my mind, a deep level of learning requires patience, real work, and silence … but then my mind may be wired completely different than these younger learners.This is certainly an issue that needs further assessment and research.

Carla