LSU Memory Expert Breaks Down Student Attention Spans

As students head back to school, the topic of attention spans is in the spotlight. With debates around phone bans and the work ethics of students, LSU psychology professor Emily Elliott shares insight into the inner workings of children’s minds.

Q&A

What large changes have schools seen over the past few years regarding attention spans?

Being distracted by something in nature when trying to do a task may have been the first type of distraction, along with internal distractions, such as thinking about something else when you are trying to complete a task. Thus, distraction is not new.

What’s new today is that the types of distractions are more complex and can even be individually tailored to capture someone’s attention, which can lead to more temptations to shift our attention off of one task and over to something else.

What are innocuous ways students can harm their attention spans? What effect do phones have on retention ability?

One way I think that students can harm their own task progress is to believe that they can truly multitask or do more than one thing at one time. If you are completing a homework assignment and you are tempted to check your social media feed, you are causing a switch of your attentional focus.

It may seem quick and somewhat harmless, but numerous studies have indicated that trying to switch back and forth between two tasks results in more errors and has the overall effect of taking longer to complete the main task. Thus, put simply, do not multitask. Set aside a time limit, say 20 or 30 minutes, to solely focus on one assignment or one study guide. Then take a break.

How can a depleted attention span affect general physical and mental health in children?

Mental effort can be as tiring as physical efforts. As a field, we now understand the importance of sleep and overall health for our cognitive systems.

To support the efforts of sustained attention, it is important to recognize that learning takes time and it takes energy. In terms of young children, the many processes involved in the development of the body and the mind require more sleep than older children and adults.

How may fixing a memory deficit look different in a teen versus a child?

Younger children need more breaks than older children, as well as needing more sleep. However, younger children are able to maintain their focus of attention. They may need more guidance and something we call “scaffolding."

This term is used to indicate that the older learners may already have a framework to use to build their knowledge, whereas younger learners are starting from scratch. Providing extra support that is relative to their age and ability helps children to perform at their maximum level.

Are schools set up to most efficiently stimulate students' minds?

When I think about the classrooms of early childhood settings, such as pre-K and lower elementary schools, the classrooms are set up to encourage learning. There are brightly colored pictures and words on the walls; there are reading nooks that are comfortable and easy to reach for smaller learners; there are spaces to move the desks around the room to allow for different configurations of the space; and so forth.

As children get older, the classroom spaces start to reflect these changes and allow for different interactions between the students and the material. I think about a high school science lab with tables and equipment, as compared to a history classroom with classical book titles and historical figures displayed on the walls.

I believe the physical spaces of many classrooms are well-suited to match the skills and capabilities of the children as they grow, because they are designed to meet the children where they are.

What tools would you recommend teachers use to help students strengthen their learning skills?

As I mentioned earlier, learning new material takes time and effort. It is important for children and adults to realize this and to allow time and space for learning.

Sometimes adults can forget what it was like to learn something new for the first time, because they already have a foundation for their knowledge. Children are acquiring new information, new skills, and making new connections in their neural networks every day.

We learn by associating information with things we already know, and also by making new connections. I mean this in a figurative sense, such as thinking about how one vocabulary word may relate to another one, as well as in a literal neural sense. Our brains work by making connections between neurons to create neural networks.

Does knowing what kind of learner you are (audio, visual, or descriptive) help you improve your memory?

In terms of learning styles, this has been a pervasive but misleading concept. I believe it has stuck around because it is also intuitive. People have preferences. We know this, and it is very apparent in almost all aspects of life (our fashion, our food choices, etc). However, having a preference is not the same thing as being limited to learning in only one modality. In fact, research has shown that teaching new information in more than one modality is the most effective way.

What has been the most surprising result from your research?

Children are incredibly capable of vast amounts of learning. I do not think we give children enough credit for the acquisition of so many skills in a relatively short amount of time.

As just one example, if an adult learner has ever tried to become proficient in a second language, they will realize that it is a difficult task. However, young children can pick up a second language in a manner that seems almost effortless. This is just one example of the fantastic capabilities and flexibilities of the young mind.

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