Selective Attention

I really enjoyed Zadina’s chapter on attention and memory. As an educator, I have always known that it is very easy for smaller students to lose focus in class. I was not fully aware of the affect it could have on their long-term memory. After reading about the difference between working and long-term memory, I am now reflecting on how I have conducted lessons in my class. In order for students to focus on important information, and move it from working memory to long-term memory, Zadina stated, “Spaced repetition has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to encode information into long-term memory” (2014, p.129). So from what I get out of this, repetition of information is important for students, but they must know what they need to focus on, and how often. So, teachers should not drill the information for the duration of the lesson, then stop reviewing the information altogether. The information has to be repeated, with space between repetitions. For example, if you are teaching students about plant life, you may review important vocabulary or cycles, extensively, over the course of the lesson. Once, the lesson is over, and the class moves on to a new concept, the repetition for that information should not stop. It should be integrated into the students’ daily routine. As the students are walking to a destination, they could look for plants along the way. The teacher could then review terms and plant life cycles with the class while the students are in line for the restroom or lunch. This would not be done every day, maybe just once a week. This way the concepts would make their way from the working memory to long-term memory. Spacing out the repetition allows students an opportunity to focus on information that is important enough to store in their long-term memory.

Fun Videos on Selective Attention:

http://pumaattack.blogspot.com/2010/11/selective-attention-video-demos.html