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Students have finite cognitive resources, or a mental load (called ‘cognitive load’). However, they’re operating in a world with infinite technological distractions.  Persistent notifications and alerts have the potential to incessantly distract students. In addition, the online world offers a sensory smorgasbord (animations, videos, sound effects, graphics) that have the potential to constantly distract learners. If our students are to thrive in the digital world they’ll inherit, they need to learn how to manage and control their attention, by learning how to avoid external distractions (like social media alerts, the background sound effects or animations in a book app and constant SMS alerts). However, they also need how to manage internal (self-generated) distractions (such as thinking about the number of likes their Instagram post will receive, or how many un-read SMS messages they will have when the return from school and plug back in). This is one of the reasons that phone bans are often ineffective, because although the external distractions are physically removed, the internal distractions persist.

Are students’ attention spans under threat in the digital age?

87% of teachers believe new technologies are creating an “easily distracted generation with short attention spans”, and 64 % agreed that digital technologies “do more to distract students than to help them academically” (p.2)1. While this does not prove that technology is the root cause of changes in attention, it provides evidence that educators are noticing a deterioration in students’ attention spans.

57% of teens agreed that social media distracts them when they should be doing their homework 2. 71% of teachers believed that digital media had ‘hurt’ students’ attention spans and compromised their academic performance3. Anecdotally, Australian teachers are reporting a decline in students’ capacity to pay attention and many cite the increased use of digital technologies, as a contributing factors (it’s important to note, that it’s unlikely to be the sole causal factor).

A study revealed that students averaged less than six minutes on a task before succumbing to other digital distractions4. Most students started to lose focus after an average of three minutes and spent about 65% of the allocated 15-minute period to actually studying.

Digitally Distracted

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A Keynote Summary by Dr Kristy Goodwin

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1. Tech preys on their psychological vulnerabilities

Self-determination theory suggests that we have three fundamental human needs:CONNECTION- we’re biologically wired for relational connection. We want to feel like we belong. Technology caters for this need.COMPETENCE- as humans we seek to control the outcome and we want to experience mastery. Digital devices cater for this need.CONTROL- as humans we want to self-initiate and self- regulate our own actions and students can have this need met with technology.

Technology also results in:

BAD FORECASTING- students often under-estimate how long tasks will take to complete.

LOSS AVERSION- kids and teens don’t want to miss out, so they often suffer from FOMO. This keeps them in a cycle of constantly checking in (social media) and playing (gaming). Hence, making it difficult to sustain their attention in class.

INTERMITTENT VARIABLE REWARDS- like poker machines, many games and social media platforms offer variable rewards, and these can cause users to become obsessed or dependent. Social media sites withhold likes and comments to get users hooked into intermittently checking in to see how many likes and comments they’re received.

ALTERED STATES- technology often alters kids’ and teens’ physical states (increased heart rates, hits of adrenaline etc) and this activates the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight mode of thinking) which makes it more challenging for students to pay attention.

2. Developing prefrontal cortex

Managing attention requires impulse control which occurs in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain (often referred to as the ‘frontal lobe’). However, neuroscience confirms that this part of the brain isn’t fully developed until early twenties for females (21-23 years) and late twenties for males (27-29 years). This part of the brain has not been myelinated (this is a fatty white substance coats the neural pathways to allow for speedy transmission between neuronal axons), meaning that young people are still developing their executive function skills such as impulse control, working memory and mental flexibility. Students will become seduced by the screen as their brain is incapable of managing their impulses (this also explains a lot of online behaviour kids and teens engage in, including cyber-bullying, looking up pornography and interacting with predators, as they’re wired to be impulsive).

Why do students succumb to digital distractions?

There are three broad reasons that explain why young people are finding it challenging to sustain their attention in the digital age// Technology preys on their psychological vulnerabilities;// Their pre-frontal cortex (the logical part of their brain responsible for several higher-order

thinking skills such as impulse control) is still developing; and// Technology causes neurobiological changes in the brain making it hard for kids and teens to

digitally disconnect.

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3. Screens can cause neurobiological changes in the brain

One of the reasons young people gravitate towards digital distractions, is that most of the time, using screens and digital devices is a pleasurable activity. Their brains release the neurotransmitter dopamine. Therefore, it’s logical that they want to spend more time experiencing this pleasurable state, so they can easily become distracted by technology. Neuroscientists also know that the pre-frontal cortex has a reciprocal relationship with the nucleus accumbens (the reward centre of the brain, driven by dopamine). They balance each other out. Stress, which is often caused by technology as it overloads the sensory and nervous systems and multi-tasking reduces the function of pre-frontal cortex and as a result the reward centre of brain takes over. This can lead to patterns of unhealthy consumption and possibly addiction.

VESTIBULAR AND PROPRIOCEPTION SKILLS UNDERDEVELOPED- an under-developed vestibular system (sense of balance) means that all other senses will struggle to function properly. This results in students often fidgeting and fiddling and explains why many find it hard to pay attention. Poor proprioception skills help students make sense of gravity and tells them where their body parts are (without having to look at them). Therefore, if either or both of these systems are under-developed.

ACADEMIC PUSHDOWN- the current curriculum expectations and formal learning in preschool is at the expense of fundamental movement and play experiences.

PLAY UNDER-VALUED- through play students learn an array of essential skills and one of them is self-control.

SEDENTARY LIFESTYLES- kids need physical movement to help sustain focus and to help with self-regulation, particularly boys. Research has shown light physical activity will improve mood (it boosts dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain) and cognitive performance.

POOR SLEEP QUALITY AND QUANTITY- many primary and secondary students are not getting sufficient sleep each night. The prefrontal cortex (logical part of the brain responsible for managing impulses and working memory) doesn’t work effectively when students are tired.

ABSENCE OF BOREDOM- students need white space and boredom to enter what neuroscientists call ‘mind-wandering’ or the ‘default mode’ of thinking (i.e. daydreaming). When they’re bored students learn how to direct and control their attention. There are also other benefits such as creative thinking and solving problems. If students self-soothe with technology and rely on screens to fill their white space, they don’t get to experience boredom.

INFOBESITY- “When information is cheap, attention becomes expensive.” | James Gleick, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood5. Today’s students are living and learning in a period of information overload and in a tsunami of screens.

PREFRONTAL CORTEX STILL DEVELOPING- The prefrontal cortex in reciprocal relationship with the nucleus accumbens (reward centre driven which is by dopamine). They balance each other out. However, any form of stress (emotional, technology or tension with parents) reduces function of prefrontal cortex and the reward centre of brain takes over. Dopamine literally hijacks the operation of the prefrontal cortex.

DIGITAL DESIGN PRINCIPLES- the use of alerts and notifications, red icons, auto-play videos, clickbait headlines are some of the deliberate ways that technology has been designed to prey on students’ psychological weaknesses.

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Myth of Multi-Tasking

Many students today cannot resist multi-tasking and it’s impairing their learning. They may listen to music, reply to a message on their phone, complete their online homework on one browser and have fifteen other browsers simultaneously open. Despite what many students believe, their brain is incapable of multi-tasking. Whilst they may think they can listen to the teacher and reply to a social media alert the reality is that their brain simply cannot simultaneously complete the two tasks. What students are actually doing in such instance is task switching or engaging in continuous partial attention (CPA)6. They’re actually paying attention, at a superficial level, to multiple streams of information and this disrupts the encoding of the information and impairs subsequent retrieval.

MULTI-TASKING COSTS-

Evidence from cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience suggests that when students multi task while engaging in school work, their learning is compromised: it is shallower than if the work had their full attention and is often not able to be later retrieved. They tend to understand and remember less and they ability to transfer their learning to new contexts is poorer. When students’ attention is divided during encoding, the information is not retained. 

The research on multi-tasking reveals:

IMPAIRED PERFORMANCE- Digital interruptions disrupt attention, result in increased error rates, and decrease academic performance because learners cannot commit information to memory and therefore, are unable to later recall it7.

CORTISOL DUMP- The brain releases cortisol, the stress hormone, when multi-tasking, which inhibits neural pathways from forming. Put simply, stressed brains cannot learn.

GLUCOSE DEPLETION- The brain uses glucose when multi-tasking which explains why students (and adults too) often report feeling tired or ‘foggy’ after engaging in multi-tasking.

INCORRECT BRAIN REGIONS ACTIVATED FOR MEMORY RETRIEVAL- Information goes to the striatum (useful for procedural information) and not the hippocampus (the memory centre of the brain).

MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES- Frequent multi-tasking can be a predictor of depression and social anxiety8. It’s important to note that the research has not yet shown if this is a causal relationship (the research proves correlation only at this stage).

RESUMPTION LAG- Students need to re-orient their attention after they’ve been distracted by another task, referred to as the ‘resumption lag’. A study showed that the average adult takes 23 minutes to resume their attention after a distraction9.

Strategies to Tame Students’ Attention

We need to teach students to build a fortress around their focus.

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BOUNDARIES- establish rules around when and where students can use tech in the classroom. Do you provide tech check-in times for mobile phones?

ESTABLISH TECH-FREE ZONES- nominate specific places in the school or classroom where digital devices aren’t used. These spaces can allow students to have opportunities for uninterrupted learning time, free from the invasion of digital distractions.

MONO-TASK- teach students why it’s important to do one task, as opposed to multi-tasking. Explain what’s happening in their brain when they task switch and explore the costs (see the previous section for background information). Use experiments to highlight the point that multi-tasking isn’t helpful for learners, results in increased errors and stresses the brain. Use the sentence multi-tasking experiment demonstrated in the webinar, or a simultaneous game of scissor-paper-rock and a thumb war to demonstrate.

MINIMISE DIGITAL DISTRACTIONS- encourage students to turn off alerts and notifications or even turn their device to greyscale to minimise its psychological appeal, when they need to learn new content or revise content.

PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS- using techniques such as the Pomodoro technique, where students work for 25 minutes on a task and then take a five-minute break, can boost productivity and reduce levels of distraction (as students have the peace of mind that they’re only ever 25 minutes away from a brain break). Periodic resting can also restore students’ attention and increase the chances of them being able to sustain their attention.

MINDFULNESS- there’s increasing research evidence to support the use of mindfulness techniques to assist learners manage their attention (and also promote general wellbeing too)10.

DO NOT DISTURB- many students find it challenging to not look at their devices if they receive an alert or phone call, even if they’re aware they should be studying or sustaining their attention. Turning on do not disturb options, prevents these distractions from occurring in the first place.

PROXIMITY- encourage students to hide their digital weaknesses (i.e. apps they can’t resist) off the home screen of their mobile phone or tablet device (preferably on the fifth screen, tucked in a folder that’s a little bit more time-consuming to access). Also, having digital distractions out of eye-sight will also help to minimise distractions. Keep digital distractions away from learners when they need to sustain their attention. For example, keep phones or gaming consoles in another room when undivided attention is required. It’s the old ‘out of sight, out of mind’ strategy, where students are unlikely to yearn for the device if they cannot see it.

USE INTERNET-FILTERING TOOLS- Tools such as the Family Zone allow parents to set ‘study’ and ‘sleep’ times on their children’s Internet-connected devices (they also offer a School Package- contact me for more information). If students lack the self-discipline to avoid digital distractions, these tools can assist in enforcing some boundaries around digital use at home or school. For example, you could prohibit your teen from using social media between set hours, when you want them to study and sustain their focus. Technology is here to stay, so it’s imperative that we teach today’s students how to use it effectively and minimise distractions. Paradoxically, technological tools can be one of the ways that we can help students manage and sustain their attention. There are also a host of alternative strategies that teachers and parents can implement to minimise the risk of digital temptations in students’ lives. Learning to be in control of technology and not the converse situation, where technology controls them, is of vital importance.

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References 1. Purcell, K, Rainie, L, Heaps, A, Buchanan, J, Friedrich, L, Jacklin, A, & Zickuhr, K, 2012, How teens do research in the digital world, Pew Internet & American Life Project.

2. Rideout, V, and Robb, MB, 2018, Social media, social life: Teens reveal their experiences. Common Sense Media, San Francisco.

3. Rideout V. ‘Children, teens, and entertainment media: The view from the classroom.’ Common Sense Media, https://www.commonsensemedia. org/research/children-teens-and-entertainment-media-the-view-from-the-classroom/ accessed 14th September 2018.

4. Rosen, L. D., Carrier, L.M., & Cheever, N. A. (2013). ‘Facebook and texting made me do it: Media-induced task-switching while studying’, Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), pp. 948-958.

5. Rosen, L. D., Carrier, L.M., & Cheever, N. A. (2013). ‘Facebook and texting made me do it: Media-induced task-switching while studying’, Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), pp. 948-958.

6. Gleick, J, 2012, The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, Pantheon Books, Boston.

7. Rosen, L, 2010, ‘Welcome to the iGeneration!’ Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 75(8), pp. 8-12.

8. Becker MW, Alzahabi R, Hopwood CJ, ‘Media multitasking is associated with symptoms of depression and social anxiety’, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16(2), pp. 132-135.

9. Mark G, Gudith D, Klocke U. The cost of interrupted work: more speed and stress. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2008 Apr 6 (pp. 107-110). ACM.

10. Davis, D, Daphne M, Hayes, D & Jeffrey A., (2012) ‘What are the benefits of mindfulness: A wealth of new research has explored this age old  practice. Here’s a look at its benefits for both clients and psychologists‘, American Psychological Association, 43 (7), pp. 64-68.

Chiesa, A, Serretti, A, Jakobsen, JC, 2013, ‘Mindfulness: Top–down or bottom–up emotion regulation strategy?’, Clinical Psychology Review, 33, pp. 82–96.

Hölzel, C J, Vangel M, Congleton C, Yerramsetti SM, Gard T & Lazar SW, 2011, ‘Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density’ Psychiatry Research, 191(1), pp.36–43.