HOW PEOPLE LEARN PANEL: ATTENTION AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Susan Ravizza

How does attention improve or worsen recall of information?

Attention and Memory

Two kinds of attention

Voluntary – you decide where you are going to place your attention Effortful

Involuntary – your attention is captured by novel or salient information Automatic

Voluntary attention

Selection of important information Ignoring distracting information

Involuntary attention

You just won 5 million dollars!

If drawn to irrelevant information, can hurt memory performance

Involuntary attention

Important information might not get into memory

Might “overwrite” information that is already in memory

Can it help improve memory if captured by important information? Example: Is your memory better for loud

commercials?

My research

Using “tricks” to capture attention to important information can be useful when voluntary attention may be diminished Recall improves for items at the end of a

list when: Presented at a surprising location Presented in an “important” color

Social media & Multi-taskingThe iGeneration

Media multi-tasking

Prevalence of portable iDevices and laptops in classroom

Students are multi-tasking in class often with social media like Facebook, texting, IM, Twitter

845 million monthly active users of Facebook

483 million daily active users of Facebook

Voluntary attention

Students can decide to check facebook or tweet moving their attention away from class material

Effect in classroom

A study of texting in class (Ellis, Daniels, Jauregui, 2010) Undergrads in their first accounting class Lecture followed by unexpected quiz Half of the students asked to text their

professor 3 times Other half, no texting Quiz scores of texters are lower than non-

texters Not dependent on GPA

Involuntary attention

Many social media tools draw our attention automatically Buzzing cell phones Facebook/twitter alert boxes

Can social media be used effectively in classroom?

50 ways to use twitter in the classroom Could help shy students ask questions? Capture their attention back to class by

tweeting material?

May lose control of classroom

More evaluation is needed

Summary

Attention to material is important for committing that information to memory

Involuntary attention that is drawn to relevant information can improve memory

Lots of competing sources of information in classroom

Best to find a way to work with this technology