Lecture 2 - Attention

Question 1

What is Attention?

Answer 1

• Active notice or concentration

- Allocation of cognitive resources

Question 2

What is the result of paying attention to a piece of information coming in from the sensory memory?

Answer 2

• It is encoded to the working memory

- If you don’t pay attention the info is discarded

Question 3

What kinds of stimuli do we intuitively pay attention to?

Answer 3

• Strong stimuli (e.g. loud noises, extreme weather, colourful visuals)
• Novel stimuli (new, interesting or different to what we expect)

Question 4

What is selective attention?

Answer 4

• Concentrating on chosen stimuli (e.g. class activity)

- Ignoring distracters (e.g. friends talking during class)

Question 5

What is inattentional blindness?

Answer 5

• When information is discarded because the stimuli does not reach conscious awareness
• Important to make sure that critical info in classrooms is not outside awareness

Question 6

How does attention develop with age?

Answer 6

• Intention span increases
• Ability to ignore distractions increases
• Ability to guide attention increases

Question 7

What are some ways we can help students maintain attention?

Answer 7

• Vary activities, pitch and tone
• Provide opportunities for students to make choices
• Ensure active processing by encouraging participation
• Ensure appropriate task difficulty

Question 8

What is the Principle of Circularity?

Answer 8

• Explanations are reinforced by returning to the key point time and time again

We can do this through

• Explicit and clear instructions
• State changes
• Mini breaks
• Reminders of what to do

Question 9

What are some classroom implications for attention?

Answer 9

• No attention = No learning
• Make content engaging
• Remove distracters
• Guide attention
• Repeat instructions
• Give lots of reminders