How to improve your sustained attention

Attention levels are seen as to the degree to which students address instructional material. However, like all human attributes there are variances in concentration levels among different people. Epstein (2011) suggest that some people can focus on a task while surrounded by a variety of stimuli, while others struggle to do so. Attention according to Schmidt et al (2009) is a core cognitive function that is linked to academic performance and executive functions. The ability for students to retain information within educational settings is according to the Epstein (2011) is continually being sought after. One such way that education is attempting to tackle this is through the enhancement of student’s attention that an individual gives to a task (Kalechstein, Newton, & van Gorp, 2003Sustained attention is seen as an attentional system that is most dominant form students’ academic performance (Silver and Feldman, 2005). There is a problem however with sustained attention in the classroom and that is that when an individual is fatigued and there is the absence of a break, the ability to maintain sustained attention decreases rapidly (Van Dongen, Belenky, & Krueger, 2011). Stuart and Rutherford’s (1978) study found the greatest level of student attention occurred within the first 10 to 15 minutes of instruction and then it decreased steadily until the end of the lecture. Burns (1985) research found that the lowest level of attention was during the 15-to-20-minute interview. What both of these studies noted was that there was a critical lapse of attention around 15 minutes into a lecture There is however a major issue with sustained attention, which being sustained task led to progressively worse performance over time termed, vigilance decrement (Warm, Dember, & Hancock, 1996). The vigilance decrement has been proposed as the individual’s accuracy to critical signals that require an infrequent response (Finomore et al, 2009) and when an individual is fatigued and faced with monitoring an environment for a prolonged period without a break, the vigilance decrement is particularly severe (Van Dongen, Belenky, & Krueger, (2011). Gunzelmann et al (2010) mentions two theories that explain attention and fatigue those being The Microlapse Theory of Fatigue and Resource Theory of fatigue which suggests that sustained attention tasks are strenuous and cause depletion in resources faster than they can be replaced. Warm, Parasuraman, and Matthews (2008) highlight there is a difference between the Microlapse Theory of Fatigue and the Resource Theory of fatigue and that is the resource that are available in the Microlapse Theory of Fatigue is depleted in more detail when performing sustained attention tasks and how this resource depletion impacts the individual’s cognitive performance. According to the Microlapse Theory of Fatigue central cognition is related to the supervisory attentional network (Stewart, Bekolay, & Eliasmith, 2012) and this is the main resource that becomes depleted during the performance of a sustained attention task (Mallis, Banks, & Dinges, 2007). In direct contrast the Resource Theory of fatigue states that the brain, becomes tired and fatigued when attention is continuously required (Warm, Parasuraman, and Matthews, 2008). Stewart, Bekolay, & Eliasmith (2012) speculate that this loss of attention is due to the basal ganglia becoming taxed due to fatigue or time-on-task and is one where cognitive action cannot be matched, selected, and executed. This then relates directly to a microlapse in attention and then causes vigilance decrement (Gartenberg et al, 2014). This increase in fatigue and time-on-task microlapse in attention increases the longer a break is absent (Gartenberg, 2012) with progressively worse performance over time (Finomore et al, 2009). In opposition to the Microlapse Theory of Fatigue and the Resource Theory of fatigue is the Schema Theory (Manly et al., 1999) who state that any vigilance decrement is due to under-arousal and not through stress and over-arousal (Gartenberg, 2016). The schema theory postulates that well-learned and routine responses are represented as schemas (Manly et al, 1999), however, when there is an elevated level of routine and the routine becomes repetitive, a higher level of attentional control is required to suppress the schema which requires an alternative response (Vorauer and Turpie, 2004). Vorauer and Turpie, 2004) adds to this by suggesting that as the sustained attention task progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult for attentional control to suppress the schema and the vigilance decrement occurs. To improve sustained attention, it has been recommended that those who regularly play action video games have demonstrated improved performance in a range of cognitive areas, especially in the areas of sustained attention and vigilance decrement (Schmidt et al, 2012). Chiappe et al (2013) reports that this improvement in performance occurs by the instant feedback of performance, variability of training, motivation, focused learning, and increasing levels of difficulty. Mirsky et al (1991) also suggested that this loss of attention is linked with rostral midbrain structures, including the reticular formation and midline and reticular thalamic nuclei with this shift being linked with the prefrontal cortex (PFC). There is also a suggestion of medial frontal cortex and anterior cingulate involvement which is linked with the hippocampus and amygdala (Fan et al, 2005). Green and Bavelier (2003) conducted a study and investigated the impact of video games effect on sustained attentional networks. Green and Bavelier (2003) concluded that those participants who had experience playing video games, and who played an action video game at least one hour per day four days per week performed better during visual attentional tasks when compared to participants who had little or no video gameplay. Mayo (2009) highlighted that the use of video games in education can encourage interaction, visualization, experimentation, exploration, randomness, expansion of thought and creativity in the virtual playing environment. Interestingly, Mayo (2009) also suggested that video-based format has many advantages over the traditional school approach in the following ways a) Games can be adapted to the individual pace of the learner. b) Games can give learners immediate and continuous feedback. c) Through games complex tasks can be broken down to guide players through a series of small steps. d) Learners can control navigation. e) Game-based tasks may require learners to formulate hypotheses and to experiment