Overcoming the Attention Barrier
Jonathan Firth's Memory & Metacognition Updates #52
Hello! As I said last time, a learner’s ability to focus their attention depends on executive functions (EFs), and is harder when a task is novel.
Attention span depends on a number of factors including prior knowledge, motivation, the novelty and difficulty of the task, and the learner themselves. This complex interaction between task and learner makes it hard to put a simple time limit on how long learners can focus.
All the same, there are cognition-related barriers that can be impactful. Today’s post is about the factors that affect EFs, and how we can stretch this ‘attention barrier’ in the classroom.
Age
Age links closely to EFs. Learners get much better at regulating their thinking and behaviour with age, and this development continues right through to late adolescence (and eventually, in late adulthood, executive functions start to get worse again).
Research with children has suggested that providing more processing time can make a major difference. When presenting new information, for example, a teacher could pause and allow learners to take some notes or think about a question or a related image. Keeping distractions out of sight can also help.
Stress
EFs suffer if you are stressed, unhappy, or tired. This can impact learning to the extent that a learner may appear to have a disorder such as ADHD (Diamond, 2013). There is therefore a close link between student wellbeing and EFs, and if a student seems unusually or uncharacteristically poor at focusing, it could be worth exploring underlying reasons.
Difficulty Level
As Bjork and Bjork (2023) have noted, desirable difficulties which are set at the wrong level cease to be desirable. So we need to ensure that learning features such as spaced practice are challenging but not excessively so. Consider, then, aiming for an 80%+ success rate, and ensuring a ‘low stakes’ approach when quizzing learners or otherwise asking them to do memory tasks.
(The link above is to the book that includes the Bjorks’ chapter, and can be downloaded for free!).
Structure
Providing a lot of new information at once risks cognitive overload. However, human working memory is complex, and it’s generally agreed that it features at minimum a visual and a verbal store, and that these can work in tandem. Therefore, encouraging the use of visual organisers (Venn diagrams, spider diagrams, etc) when listening to an explanation may help learners to focus for longer and make more sense of what they are hearing.
Storytelling approaches
Even very young children can focus on stories with rapt attention for quite a period of time. By weaving new content into a narrative, it will be easier for people to focus for longer (and they might remember it better, too; Arya & Maul, 2014).
Want to learn more about EFs? This review paper by Adele Diamond is very thorough and helpful:
Diamond (2013) Executive Functions
That’s all for now. Enjoy your week! 😎
Jonathan
Last week: Limited Attention Span: Is it Real?
Website: www.jonathanfirth.co.uk
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