Saturday, January 29, 2011

Attention Span Revisited

There have been numerous formulas proposed for calibrating the attention span of children, adolescents and adults.

Some contemporary researchers advocate gauging children’s attention spans by multiplying chronological age by 3 to 5 minutes for each year of age. Others have set the human attention span at a maximum of 20 - 22 minutes of learning time for upper adolescence and adulthood.

Still other child development researchers have concluded that a child’s attention span is typically equivalent in minutes to the chronological age of that young boy or girl.

However, from working with educators, parents, and children over the past four decades, the following instructional attention spans seem most accurate and useful.

Attention Span: Under Optimal Conditions*
• Between ages 2 and 3 children have an attention span ranging from 3-4 minutes
• When children begin Kindergarten (approximately age 5), attention spans rise to a maximum of 5 to 10 consecutive minutes
• Between ages 6 and 8, the maximum time for focused attention, during instructional time, can stretch to 15-20 minutes when children are engaged in a single learning task.
• From age 9 to 12, the best estimates of an adolescent’s “focused attention” do not exceed 22 to 35 minutes, when they are engaged in learning.

*Caveat: Attention spans for children at play and when socially engaged will often exceed the maximum figures established for formal instruction.

Given today’s technological toys and tools for entertainment and productivity, sizeable increases in attention spans correlate with interactive involvement and far exceed traditional figures for customary instructional time spans. Extensions in attention spans are correlated with children are
• challenged (eustress)
• emotionally engaged (“fun”)
• receiving on-going feedback and support

Anyone with just a modest degree of experience working with children has noticed that when children are fully “immersed in enjoyment,” they frequently lose track of time and our chart-based expectations are repeatedly obliterated.

Technology and the Internet have prompted a new phenomenon referred to as “CPA” -continuous partial attention - where children and adults devote less-concentrated attention to two or more tasks that are attempted simultaneously without one’s full attention committed any single one of those endeavors.

As an expected outcome, the quality of execution in each task frequently suffers significant performance erosion. For example, a five-year-old can talk and he can also tie his shoe, but talking while tying his shoes concurrently can even lead to “performance paralysis.” One of the two tasks must reach the perform threshold of “automaticity” (where one task can be performed without actively and consciously thinking about each step in the process of execution) before we can successfully engage in the second task with some degree of expected roficiency.

Consequently, many American states have recently passed laws intended to curtail the hazardous practice of driving while using a cellular phone (and texting). Even the most reliable statistics on attention spans are meaningless when the brain is distracted. The charts presented here are most applicable under optimal conditions in the learning environment. They become distorted once distractions become a factor whether in a car or in a classroom.

17 comments:

  1. I'm writing a paper and came across this blog. Can you share some of your sources for attention span?

    erin181@gmail.com
    thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am also trying to complete a paper for grad school, and would very much appreciate references.
    alicia.ortega13@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. I, too, am researching attention span for my MA dissertation. Any change I could get the references?

    Thanks,

    Pete

    mrweal@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. A very good day to you,Sir, I would like to ask for the reference of this article. It amazing and made my sight widen up.

    Thanks,

    Steven

    eehnoos1sushi@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. helloo i am also writing a paper about this topic and i would appreciate it if i could get your sources as well.

    Many thanks
    Tobia
    Tob9152@aol.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Will you be posting the references? Thanks. Kim

    ReplyDelete
  7. Would you provide a source for the research arguing that "a child’s attention span is typically equivalent in minutes to the chronological age of that young boy or girl"?

    Many thanks,
    Miranda

    ReplyDelete
  8. any chance of getting the sources for this article ? thanks

    bethanybmoll@googlemail.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi, I am trying to complete a paper for an exam and would like to ask of you to provide me with the reference for this article please.
    Thanks
    jasmine-001@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello. I am writing a paper for my undergraduate. Can I have some of your references for attention span please?
    anisadilahsaffie@yahoo.com
    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  11. Good day to you, Sir! Can I request for the references you used for this article? Thank you!

    maria_aya07@yahoo.com.ph

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi sir, Do you think it is possible if i can get the reference to this article? Thank you very much

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi sir, Do you think it is possible if i can get the reference to this article? Thank you very much

    ReplyDelete