Chapter 7 – Attention and Distraction Online
Chapter Summary
Many students now study in a multitasking environment, where the goal of study is one option amongst many: listening to music, responding to texts, watching videos, and talking online. This chapter examines the prevalence and effects of such media multitasking with regard to the influence on attention, learning, and emotional states. The psychology of attention, multitasking, and self-control are brought to bear on the issue. Finally, some strategies for effectively managing technological distractions while learning are introduced.
Studying in a Multitasking Environment
- Students who more consciously applied study strategies while studying at home (such as self-testing to check their learning) were more likely to remain focused on-task than those who did not.
- Using technology during class time has been found to have a negative impact on test performance, reading comprehension, note-taking, efficiency, and self-regulation among university students. These negative effects on learning can also extend to the habits of classmates.
- Many university students engage in media multitasking out of habit and boredom, but also in the belief that they could obtain more knowledge and achieve as much as possible within a short time frame.
High Multitaskers versus Light Multitaskers
- Academic attention problems are associated with high levels of media multitasking.
- High-media multitaskers perform worse than light-media multitaskers on tests of working memory capacity and logical reasoning.
- Light media multitaskers perform better than high media multitaskers when it comes to task-switching.
- High-media multitaskers perform worse on several measures of handling information – in essence, they are worse at multitasking.
- Light-media multitaskers are often better at ignoring irrelevant information, show higher working memory capacity, and a better ability to switch focus.
- Multitasking may also influence the depth of learning.
Attention
- Attention is ‘the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought’ (James 1890, 403–404).
- Attention capacity has limits and we are regularly torn between a multitude of stimuli that require us to switch our attention from one item to another.
- People may feel they are taking in everything but large changes can happen without being noticed.
- Attention consists of distinct but overlapping systems — alerting, orienting, and executive control.
- Researchers have put forward the idea that attention is trainable.
- Fan et al. (2002) developed the Attention Network Test (ANT), a computer-based measure of efficiency in each of these three networks (alerting, orienting, and executive control).
Training Attention
- Research suggests that it is possible to train attention skills even at a young age.
- For example, Posner et al. (2013) found that after seven half-hour sessions of training in attention skills, six-year-olds showed brain wave activity patterns similar to that of adults and had significant, and increases in executive attention.
- Mindfulness training appears to encourage significant improvements in terms of orienting and alerting attention.
- Meditation also appears to improve participants’ performance in relation to executive control.
Strategies for Improving Focus and Handling Distraction
- There are several research-based approaches that people can employ to stay focused when faced with tempting options close at hand.
- ‘Gamification’ of academic work can present a fun and engaging way to encourage students to engage in ‘productive’ as opposed to ‘unproductive’ multitasking.
- Technology breaks are designed to address the ‘separation anxiety’ that may be felt by someone used to routinely check their smartphone or computer throughout the day.
- A large number of programs have been developed that allow a person to block the Internet (or specific websites or apps) for set periods of time and to track time spent on apps.
- Listening to familiar music while studying is one option that may have a positive impact on learning for some individuals.
- There are significant positive cognitive effects of interacting with nature, especially in relation to attention.
- Research has highlighted how the importance of taking breaks from online screen-based interaction may be more important than previously realised.
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Chapter 7 – Useful Websites
Headspace is a course of guided mindfulness meditations delivered via an app:
Here is a link to the Invisible Gorilla selective awareness test from Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris:
The website of Dr. Larry Rosen has many interesting articles, blog posts, and videos of speeches on the topic of attention, distraction, and the role of technology:
RescueTime automatically keeps track as you work on your computer and has time management software that provides a personal daily Focus Work goal:
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Chapter 7 – Further Reading
This ‘digital detox’ workbook provides a hands-on guide for de-stressing, cultivating mindfulness, improving mood and health, and finding balance in your daily life:
- Bowles, M. & Williams Rikard, E. (2019). Life Unplugged: A Digital Detox Workbook. New York: Rock Point.
This book examines the effects the Internet is having on our brains, including how smartphones and social media are influencing our thoughts and emotions:
- Carr, N. (2010). The shallows: How the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember. Atlantic Books Ltd.
This book puts forth the argument that our brains aren’t naturally good at media multitasking and examines how we can learn to live with technology in a balanced way. It includes dual points of view from a psychologist and a neuroscientist and provides scientific foundations and real-world examples of people addressing their own distracted minds:
- Gazzaley, A., and Rosen, L. D. (2016). The distracted mind: Ancient brains in a high-tech world. Mit Press.
This paper by Wood and Muñoz examines the effect of a ‘digital detox’ on student learning:
- Wood, N. T., & Muñoz, C. (2021). Unplugged: Digital detox enhances student learning. Marketing Education Review, 31(1), 14-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10528008.2020.1836973
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Chapter 7 – Audio and Video links
Check out the Invisible Gorilla selective awareness test from Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris:
This three-minute animated video-based on the work of author Nicolas Carr gives a humourous overview of how the Internet is shaping our brains:
https://www.diygenius.com/the-internet-is-changing-our-brains
Design thinker Tristan Harris discusses new ideas for technology that create more meaningful interactions in this TED talk ‘How better tech could protect us from distraction’. He asks us to think about how often technology interrupts us from what we really mean to be doing and how instead of helping us spend our time well, it often feels like our tech is stealing it away from us.
Dr. J-P. Lachaux works in Lyon Neuroscience Research Center and Labex CORTEX. He has been working for more than 20 years at solving the mysteries of the brain, focusing mainly on the dynamic interactions between distributed neural processes and complex cognitive tasks, especially visual cognition, attention, reading, and memory. In this TEDx talk ‘Attention, distraction and the war in our brain’, Dr. Lachaux emphasizes the importance of attention in one’s day-to-day existence and explains that learning how to reach the state of full attention will save half of the time in an individual’s life.
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Chapter 7 – Essay questions
- William James thought that attention could not be highly trained ‘by any amount of drill or discipline’. Posner would disagree. Do you think attention can be trained? Why/why not?
- ‘We can no longer afford to indulge our automatic desires for mental distraction’. Discuss.
- Which strategies do you think would be most effective at training your attention? Why?
- Do you think that having grown up with the Internet gives individuals multitasking skills? Explain.
- ‘The bottom line is that our students are multitasking and we cannot stop them without placing them in a boring, un-motivating environment. The trick is to develop educational models that allow for appropriate multitasking and that improve learning’ (Rosen et al., 2010, p. 95). Do you agree with the statement? If so, why?