Big themes at the Learning and the Brain conference were multitasking, ADD/ADHD, and the neuroscience of learning and memory enhancement. Interesting stuff that I’m still thinking about as I get back into my regular routine.
As far as multitasking is concerned, brain research shows that multitasking is impossible. You cannot pay simultaneous attention to two cognitively demanding tasks. What you can do is switch your attention from one task to the next in rapid succession, and infer what you missed. As you multitask, your power of concentration suffers, and you forget what you were working on. Concentration, focus, and active working memory all suffer.
If you are washing dishes and watching reality TV, you can effectively multitask -- your hands can be on “autopilot” while you watch Gerry and Terry bicker over the stuffed koala at the yard sale. But as soon as something actively demands your attention, you are likely to lose details of the fight -- or you’ll end up with spotty glassware.
I think we intuitively realize this. When I am driving, and have to follow some tricky directions, I will often reach over and turn down the radio, saying, “I have to focus.” Or when I’m on the phone with someone, I will sometimes find myself saying, “Can you hang on for a sec? I have to concentrate on this.”
One study showed that workers worked an average of 11 minutes before being interrupted. The work they were doing was subdivided into 3-minute sub-tasks. On average, it took 25 minutes to get back into the same cognitive state. Often they never got back to task.
If you ask people where they do their best thinking, the answer is usually not “at work”. In fact, the number one place most people say they do their best thinking is “in the shower.” Talk about one place you’re unlikely to ever get interrupted!
I have students who insist they can listen to music and do their homework at the same time. Perhaps this is a statement not so much of their ability to multitask, but rather, of the cognitive demand (or lack thereof) of the homework? One of the other themes at the conference was the relationship of engagement to learning. If learners see the context and relevance of what they are learning, and if the task is sufficiently demanding, they are much more likely to retain what they are learning.
I hope that we can get kids to the point where they can self-regulate their distractions -- if we engage them sufficiently in the task, they will choose to “turn down the radio” or close the laptop in order to focus on the cognitively demanding task that takes precedence. Of course, to get to that point I think we need to train kids and give them the skills to manage their own distractions.
I have this dream that kids will always be able to have their laptops open in my class, as a sort of “ready reference” so they can look up things I am referring to, or bookmark content online for future review. That’s how I learned in graduate school lectures; I always had my laptop open, to do fact-checking, or fill in background knowledge, etc.
I always felt I could multitask by following the lecture and reading through a related web site at the same time. Now, as I look back with a more critical eye, I am sure I missed some important parts of the lectures, or at least the funny bits -- I remember a number of occasions where I was interrupted by everyone in the room laughing, and realizing that although I thought I had been paying attention with “one ear open,” that I had completely missed something good!
As far as multitasking is concerned, brain research shows that multitasking is impossible. You cannot pay simultaneous attention to two cognitively demanding tasks. What you can do is switch your attention from one task to the next in rapid succession, and infer what you missed. As you multitask, your power of concentration suffers, and you forget what you were working on. Concentration, focus, and active working memory all suffer.
If you are washing dishes and watching reality TV, you can effectively multitask -- your hands can be on “autopilot” while you watch Gerry and Terry bicker over the stuffed koala at the yard sale. But as soon as something actively demands your attention, you are likely to lose details of the fight -- or you’ll end up with spotty glassware.
I think we intuitively realize this. When I am driving, and have to follow some tricky directions, I will often reach over and turn down the radio, saying, “I have to focus.” Or when I’m on the phone with someone, I will sometimes find myself saying, “Can you hang on for a sec? I have to concentrate on this.”
One study showed that workers worked an average of 11 minutes before being interrupted. The work they were doing was subdivided into 3-minute sub-tasks. On average, it took 25 minutes to get back into the same cognitive state. Often they never got back to task.
If you ask people where they do their best thinking, the answer is usually not “at work”. In fact, the number one place most people say they do their best thinking is “in the shower.” Talk about one place you’re unlikely to ever get interrupted!
I have students who insist they can listen to music and do their homework at the same time. Perhaps this is a statement not so much of their ability to multitask, but rather, of the cognitive demand (or lack thereof) of the homework? One of the other themes at the conference was the relationship of engagement to learning. If learners see the context and relevance of what they are learning, and if the task is sufficiently demanding, they are much more likely to retain what they are learning.
I hope that we can get kids to the point where they can self-regulate their distractions -- if we engage them sufficiently in the task, they will choose to “turn down the radio” or close the laptop in order to focus on the cognitively demanding task that takes precedence. Of course, to get to that point I think we need to train kids and give them the skills to manage their own distractions.
I have this dream that kids will always be able to have their laptops open in my class, as a sort of “ready reference” so they can look up things I am referring to, or bookmark content online for future review. That’s how I learned in graduate school lectures; I always had my laptop open, to do fact-checking, or fill in background knowledge, etc.
I always felt I could multitask by following the lecture and reading through a related web site at the same time. Now, as I look back with a more critical eye, I am sure I missed some important parts of the lectures, or at least the funny bits -- I remember a number of occasions where I was interrupted by everyone in the room laughing, and realizing that although I thought I had been paying attention with “one ear open,” that I had completely missed something good!
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