Benjamin Keep, PhD, JD | 3 Simple Lessons in Learning and Attention | Cognitive Load, External Focus, Distraction, etc. @benjaminkeep | Uploaded July 2022 | Updated October 2024, 36 minutes ago.
What does attention have to do with learning? A lot. Here's a very short summary of some of the more interesting findings in the research on attention and learning in three simple lessons.
00:00 Lesson one - four stories about attention
2:21 One way of thinking about attention and learning
3:07 Lesson two - what controls attention?
4:06 Lesson three - the roles of students and teachers
Sign up to my email newsletter, Avoiding Folly, here: benjaminkeep.com
The artwork I mentioned in the example comes from:
Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany by Hannah Höch (1919)
The Elephant Celebes by Max Ernst (1921)
Das Undbild by Kurt Schwitters (1919)
The complex scientific figure is kind of a cheat: no one would use that as a powerpoint slide. It's more of an attempt to make a complete map of metabolic pathways in human cells. I found it here: https://faculty.cc.gatech.edu/~turk/bio_sim/articles/metabolic_pathways.png
References:
The "someone else with a laptop distracts you" study is here:
Sana, F., Weston, T., & Cepeda, N. J. (2013). Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers. Computers & Education, 62, 24-31.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254
A good review of internal/external focus in motor learning is here:
Wulf, G. (2013). Attentional focus and motor learning: a review of 15 years. International Review of sport and Exercise psychology, 6(1), 77-104. http://gwulf.faculty.unlv.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Wulf_AF_review_2013.pdf
Seductive details is a large research topic, but here's a recent meta-analysis that tries to synthesize the existing studies:
Sundararajan, N., & Adesope, O. (2020). Keep it coherent: A meta-analysis of the seductive details effect. Educational Psychology Review, 32(3), 707-734. link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-020-09522-4
The "thinking 'are these the same or different'" example I drew from the literature on blocked and interleaved practice, which suggests that paying attention to similarities and paying attention to differences offers different affordances in category learning. See pages 2-3 in the following piece.
Carvalho, P. F., & Goldstone, R. L. (2014). Putting category learning in order: Category structure and temporal arrangement affect the benefit of interleaved over blocked study. Memory & cognition, 42(3), 481-495. https://pcl.sitehost.iu.edu/papers/blockedinterleaved.pdf
Good advice on reducing extraneous cognitive load in undergraduate science courses comes is here (with a couple of other good references in there):
cwsei.ubc.ca/sites/default/files/cwsei/resources/literature/Cognitive-Load_CWSEI.pdf
Some interesting research on cell phones and attention is here:
Thornton, B., Faires, A., Robbins, M., & Rollins, E. (2014). The mere presence of a cell phone may be distracting: Implications for attention and task performance. Social Psychology, 45(6), 479. oarklibrary.com/file/2/0c907a59-76b9-482a-b4a3-1c66294d7048/8d49e16c-14dc-4877-9c64-e75ba9bfdcc2.pdf
On manipulating student attention towards (or away from) deep structure, see (this is also where the clown image comes from):
Schwartz, D. L., Chase, C. C., Oppezzo, M. A., & Chin, D. B. (2011). Practicing versus inventing with contrasting cases: The effects of telling first on learning and transfer. Journal of educational psychology, 103(4), 759. http://ece.neu.edu/edsnu/mcgruer/USC/PracticingVersusInventing2011-edu-103-4-759.pdf
What does attention have to do with learning? A lot. Here's a very short summary of some of the more interesting findings in the research on attention and learning in three simple lessons.
00:00 Lesson one - four stories about attention
2:21 One way of thinking about attention and learning
3:07 Lesson two - what controls attention?
4:06 Lesson three - the roles of students and teachers
Sign up to my email newsletter, Avoiding Folly, here: benjaminkeep.com
The artwork I mentioned in the example comes from:
Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany by Hannah Höch (1919)
The Elephant Celebes by Max Ernst (1921)
Das Undbild by Kurt Schwitters (1919)
The complex scientific figure is kind of a cheat: no one would use that as a powerpoint slide. It's more of an attempt to make a complete map of metabolic pathways in human cells. I found it here: https://faculty.cc.gatech.edu/~turk/bio_sim/articles/metabolic_pathways.png
References:
The "someone else with a laptop distracts you" study is here:
Sana, F., Weston, T., & Cepeda, N. J. (2013). Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers. Computers & Education, 62, 24-31.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254
A good review of internal/external focus in motor learning is here:
Wulf, G. (2013). Attentional focus and motor learning: a review of 15 years. International Review of sport and Exercise psychology, 6(1), 77-104. http://gwulf.faculty.unlv.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Wulf_AF_review_2013.pdf
Seductive details is a large research topic, but here's a recent meta-analysis that tries to synthesize the existing studies:
Sundararajan, N., & Adesope, O. (2020). Keep it coherent: A meta-analysis of the seductive details effect. Educational Psychology Review, 32(3), 707-734. link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-020-09522-4
The "thinking 'are these the same or different'" example I drew from the literature on blocked and interleaved practice, which suggests that paying attention to similarities and paying attention to differences offers different affordances in category learning. See pages 2-3 in the following piece.
Carvalho, P. F., & Goldstone, R. L. (2014). Putting category learning in order: Category structure and temporal arrangement affect the benefit of interleaved over blocked study. Memory & cognition, 42(3), 481-495. https://pcl.sitehost.iu.edu/papers/blockedinterleaved.pdf
Good advice on reducing extraneous cognitive load in undergraduate science courses comes is here (with a couple of other good references in there):
cwsei.ubc.ca/sites/default/files/cwsei/resources/literature/Cognitive-Load_CWSEI.pdf
Some interesting research on cell phones and attention is here:
Thornton, B., Faires, A., Robbins, M., & Rollins, E. (2014). The mere presence of a cell phone may be distracting: Implications for attention and task performance. Social Psychology, 45(6), 479. oarklibrary.com/file/2/0c907a59-76b9-482a-b4a3-1c66294d7048/8d49e16c-14dc-4877-9c64-e75ba9bfdcc2.pdf
On manipulating student attention towards (or away from) deep structure, see (this is also where the clown image comes from):
Schwartz, D. L., Chase, C. C., Oppezzo, M. A., & Chin, D. B. (2011). Practicing versus inventing with contrasting cases: The effects of telling first on learning and transfer. Journal of educational psychology, 103(4), 759. http://ece.neu.edu/edsnu/mcgruer/USC/PracticingVersusInventing2011-edu-103-4-759.pdf
