Attention test

Simons and Chabris

Dangerous

Pain vs. Boredom

(WilsonEtal2014jtc)

Monkey mind

1 minute of following mind

. . .

What of your intention experiment?

Define??

In groups of four: define and give example.

• asynchronous communication
• attention
• multi-tasking
• continuous partial attention

asynchronous communication

sender and receiver accommodate delays between interactions

attention

concentration of mental focus, often limited/exclusionary

multi-tasking

performing 2+ tasks (requiring attention) at a time

continuous partial attention

what people actually do: move attention between tasks

Chayko’s plus and minuses?

. . .

• play
• keeping up with it all
• emergency use
• health and moods

. . .

Is tech a “double-edged sword”?

Discuss

• Is time now “softened” or “porous”?
  • notion of lateness relaxed because of microcoordination
• Can we be “addicted”?
  • dependence is downward spiral of behavior; addiction is disease/chemical
• How does appreciation of social media vary with gender?
  • women report lower stress because of connection to friends & family; also bear “cost of caring”
• What is the “irrationality of rationality”
  • convenience of tools become inconvenient

Other reading response questions?

What is McDonaldization?

Problematic claims

modern brains may be undergoing an evolutionary adaptation to the technology-rich media environment (Chayko 2016, p. 186)

. . .

Natural selection requires: variation, selection, and heredity—over hundreds of generations

Multi-task guess!

How many students can talk on phone and drive safely?

1. <1%
2. <5%
3. <10%
4. <20%

. . .

researchers found that 2.4% of college students can talk on the telephone while operating an automobile simulator without degraded performance (Rheingold 2012, “Net Smart”, p. 37)

Test your multi-tasking

• Can you recite the letters of the alphabet?
• Can you count from 1 to 26?

. . .

• Pair off:
  • first person count:
    • a–1, b–2, c–3, d–4, e–5, etc.
  • other person take a turn.

Marshmallow study

(Mischel & Ebbesen 1970)

Mischel revisited

(KiddPalmeriAslin 2013)

Mischel debunked

A rigorous and pre-registered study (Benjamin et al. 2020) found:

• A self-regulatory competence index done by parents (at 17) and the students (at 27 and 37) moderately predicts many individual outcomes. The marshmallow test added little to nothing.

[Mischel never wavered in] support for teaching kids delay of gratification skills… Anyone can learn this willpower, he contended, even those who just couldn’t resist that first marshmallow. (Gill 2021)

Pomodoro technique

. . .

… and “distraction free” editors.

What do you do?

Wrap-up

Enumerate four of the most important things we know about attention and suggest guidelines on how strengthen our “attention muscles.”

Demonstrative story

• asynchronous communication
• attention
• multi-tasking
• continuous partial attention

One of the benefits of asynchronous communication is …

What did you recommend for strengthening attention muscles?

• What did Simons and Chabris experiment demonstrate?
• What simple tasks did we combine to test our multi-tasking?
• What are some of Chayko’s benefits & hazards of being “connected”?
• What is McDonaldization?
• What would be an incorrect inference about the Marshmallow study? ▶