We are regularly bombarded with information about a steep drop in attention spans. Based on its own data in 2015, Microsoft reported that the average attention span had dropped from about 12 seconds for millennials to eight seconds for gen Z.
Author
- Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian
Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology, University of Cambridge
And as the new Premier League season kicked off, UEFA introduced a new "eight seconds rule" stating a goalkeeper cannot hold the ball for more than eight seconds or the opposing team wins a corner kick. Coincidence? The rule was introduced to avoid time wasting. It may be that the mean length of attention needed to kick the ball is on average eight seconds. And perhaps this is also how long viewers can pay attention when nothing's happening.
But how does attention really work? How can we improve it?
Attention is crucial. Who hasn't experienced getting distracted in the middle of a conversation and suddenly forgot what they were saying. However, what is sometimes missed is that there are many forms of attention, and not all of them are necessarily diminishing.
The football rule is more closely related to a type of attention called visual scanning. For a goalkeeper, this can be scanning the field to work out who to pass the ball to. There are many studies on visual scanning in football, though not so much on goalkeepers.
One paper studied scanning and performance in English Premier League football players. They found using a ten-second scan time gave players a small but positive performance advantage. Other studies have shown that within elite football players, the best players, spend more time scanning than others, unless there is an opponent player in close proximity.
Scanning is a form of attention that allows the footballer to take advantage of a time-limited opportunity, where decisions of who to pass to or where to run to on the field have to be made very rapidly .
This is a type of "hot cognition" - a social and emotional way of thinking, a bit like a gut instinct. It is very different to the "cold" or "rational" cognition involved in the decision making that footballers do with their managers and coaches off the field, where videos of plays are analysed.
In such situations, we are more likely to use "sustained attention", which is paying attention to something for a sustained period of time. This ultimately requires mental concentration.
Similarly there are other forms of attention, for example "divided attention" or "alternating attention" which involve shifting attention between different things over a sustained period of time. These are typically also used for more cold decisions.
Different parts of the brain are at work when we use different kinds of attention. Hot decisions involve a brain network that includes the ventromedial prefrontal or orbitofrontal cortex, which support emotional regulation and decision making. Cold decisions, on the other hand, involves a different neural network that includes dorsolateral prefrontal cortex , supporting executive functions such as controlling or inhibitions or short-term memory.
Another time we make hot, rapid decisions is with first impressions. Again, the attention used is a type of immediate gut instinct. Unsurprisingly therefore, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex is an important brain region associated with first impressions.
When we see or meet someone for the first time, we implicitly form an impression of their attractiveness and possibly other traits as well. We may adjust that initial immediate impression later, using more sustained or divided types of attention, as we learn more about the person.
A great example of this is given by Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, where negative first impressions form immediately. Only later are they corrected to positive impressions as more knowledge is gained about the two protagonists.
Positive first impressions tend to stick with people . Also, if very positive first impressions are accurate, they have been shown to lead long-term relationships, which in some cases may be the "love at first sight" effect .
Motivation improves attention
All this means there isn't a single brain region involved in "attention" in general. It is possible to get better at one form of attention and worse at another.
For example, Gen Z has the highest daily screen time with many spending 2.5 hours per day on social media - which does require some sustained attention. The eight seconds is therefore more likely to be visual scanning or surfing for something interesting. Young people also spend long periods of time listening to podcasts and are increasingly consuming audiobooks , suggesting they can focus for long periods of time, but may prefer outlets that allow them to multitask. So, if the content is interesting, motivation can improve sustained attention.
I have been told several times by mothers of children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that they don't understand why their kids cannot concentrate on their schoolwork when they can spend hours playing computer games. The answer is motivation. When enjoying yourself, time goes by quickly and it is easy to sustain your attention over a long period of time.
This also suggests a solution to improving attention spans. We have to make tasks that require attention more motivating or fun.
Sustained attention
That said, it isn't just scanning attention that appears to be reducing. There have been a number of studies on how sustained attention is decreasing too. Some psychologists therefore argue that lectures to students should be shorter .
However, a study of medical students found that information presented between 15 and 30 minutes was recalled best , whereas material presented during the first 15 min had the worst retention. So it is possible to hack people's attention and design lectures in a way that makes them remember the content better?
Interestingly, where the student sat in the lecture hall also had impact on retention. Tests were given immediately following the lecture to students sitting at the front, middle, and back of the lecture hall. They remembered 80%, 71.6%, and 68.1%, respectively. However, where you chose to sit could also reflect your natural motivation for the lecture topic.
Biophysics researcher Neil Bradbury makes a compelling case that students' motivation and teacher enthusiasm and passion, combined with good quality content and illustrations, are key factors in determining how long a lecturer is able to hold the audience's attention. Perhaps allowing students to shift attention between listening, viewing and writing could also be useful.
Selecting the content should not be all about cold decision making, you also need to consider hot cognition in putting yourself in the minds of the audience and considering what might interest them the most.
Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian receives funding from the Wellcome Trust. Her research work is conducted within the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Mental Health and Neurodegeneration Themes.
