Written by Abigail Koetting Testing, a method to find out what students know or what they don’t know, plays an important role in measuring academic success. Children enter the world of testing as young as pre-k, with assessments on what they have been formally taught, such as their colors or shapes. At more advanced levels,... Continue Reading →
Where is your focus?
Written by Abigail Koetting Cell phones often pose as distractions to our every day lives, especially when we are trying to focus on completing a task and a notification goes off to distract us. Cell phone notifications are meant to get our attention, so their tone will break our focus on purpose. Most ringtones... Continue Reading →
Keeping Focus in Focus
Written by Dr. Althea Bauernschmidt This month CALM will be focusing on selective attention. Selective attention is the skill of ignoring distracting stimuli. In other words, selective attention is your ability to focus on one task and ignore things not related to that task. Last month we talked about a related concept, multitasking. The better... Continue Reading →
Cell Phones and Attention: Outcomes that affect learning both in the classroom and at home
Written by Dr. Althea Bauernschmidt and Dr. Adam Brown Cell phones are one of the biggest contributors to multitasking. Those fantastic devices that allow you to connect with the world are excellent at distracting you from the task at hand. From our previous posts, you'll already know that multitasking does not allow you to complete... Continue Reading →
Negative Effects of Cell Phone Use on Attention and Memory
With increasing use of cell phones, society has grown attached to these mobile devices and our attention and memory have been strongly affected. In a recent article, Galván, Vessal, and Golly (2013) examine the effects of one-sided and two-sided conversations on attention and memory of bystanders. In this experiment, researchers led participants to believe that... Continue Reading →