HOW PEOPLE LEARN PANEL:ATTENTION AND SOCIALMEDIA
Susan Ravizza
How does attention improve or worsen recall ofinformation?
Attention and Memory
Two kinds of attention
Voluntary – you decide where you are going toplace your attention
Effortful
Involuntary – your attention is captured by novel orsalient 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 memoryperformance
Involuntary attention
Important information might not get into memory
Might “overwrite” information that is already inmemory
Can it help improve memory if captured byimportant information?
Example: Is your memory better for loud commercials?
My research
Using “tricks” to capture attention to importantinformation can be useful when voluntary attentionmay 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-tasking
The iGeneration
Media multi-tasking
Prevalence of portable iDevices and laptops inclassroom
Students are multi-tasking in class often with socialmedia 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 tweetmoving 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 3times
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 attentionautomatically
Buzzing cell phones
Facebook/twitter alert boxes
Can social media be used effectively inclassroom?
50 ways to use twitter in the classroom
Could help shy students ask questions?
Capture their attention back to class by tweetingmaterial?
May lose control of classroom
More evaluation is needed
Summary
Attention to material is important for committingthat information to memory
Involuntary attention that is drawn to relevantinformation can improve memory
Lots of competing sources of information inclassroom
Best to find a way to work with this technology
