The effects of distraction on learning

Interesting article in The Chronicle ("Divided Attention" by David Glenn) today summarized a number of studies on multi-tasking, attention, and learning. One piece of research by Karin Foerde et al. particularly caught my attention, because of the implications for classroom learning.

As CHE describes it...

"Foerde and her colleagues argue that when the subjects were distracted, they learned the [task] through a half-conscious system of 'habit memory,' and that when they were undistracted, they encoded the [task] rules through what is known as the declarative-memory system. (Indeed, brain imaging suggested that different areas of the subjects' brains were activated during the two conditions.)

That distinction is an important one for educators, Foerde says, because information that is encoded in declarative memory is more flexible—that is, people are more likely to be able to draw analogies and extrapolate from it.

'If you just look at performance on the main task, you might not see these differences,' Foerde says. 'But when you're teaching, you would like to see more than simple retention of the information that you're providing people. You'd like to see some evidence that they can use their information in new ways.'"