Publish at January 29 2025 Updated January 29 2025
Do we have the attention span of a goldfish? We might think so, in a world where a literal market for attention has developed. However, as professor of developmental psychology and educational cognitive neuroscience Grégoire Borst reminds us, this is not the case. It's true that attention is more in demand than ever before, but current neuropsychological tests show that children and adults alike have the same capacity.
First of all, we need to understand how attention works. Attention is the ability to focus on specific information, ignoring all others. This attentional blindness is what enables motorists to concentrate on the road and what's happening on it, for example. For students, it's being able to take note of what the teacher is saying up front. However, this attention can ignore other elements if it is not directed to focus on them.
So, for Professor Borst, the issue of attention in the classroom reveals that for children who are struggling (without a diagnosis of attention disorder of any kind) is that their attention doesn't feel that it's the most relevant information at the moment. Perhaps we need to change the didactic approach so that they understand it better?
Running time: 8min18
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