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Sunday, February 20, 2011

Your Attention Please - Is the ability to focus overrated?

I was reading a Wall Street Journal article in their Life and Culture section about attention and distractibality.  The article presented infomation from several studies that support there are perhaps benefits to be associated with distractability.

So all those times I was caught daydreaming in class... was that really such a bad thing?

...scientists have begun to outline the surprising benefits of not paying attention. Sometimes, too much focus can backfire; all that caffeine gets in the way. For instance, researchers have found a surprising link between daydreaming and creativity—people who daydream more are also better at generating new ideas. Other studies have found that employees are more productive when they're allowed to engage in "Internet leisure browsing" and that people unable to concentrate due to severe brain damage actually score above average on various problem-solving tasks.
The aeticle points out that the studies (and there were several mentioned) all involve college students and while they are revealing, they do not taken into account the challenges children facing ADHD experiance in school or the impact upon those who fail to graduate from high school.


Does distraction provide positive opportunities and lead to greater open-mindedness? What do you think?
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2 comments:

  1. Charlie6:35 PM

    Ive always wondered why i was more analytical while on adderal and more creative when i was hyperactive. i think the issues ADHD kids experience in high school are more a product of an outdated teaching method. and not entirely issues with the student.

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  2. Michael A. Wells7:21 PM

    Charlie-

    I was not diagnosed with attention deficit disorder until I was of adult age. I do not have a particularly strong hyperactivity component of it but the diagnosis explained a lot of learning issues dating back to grade school.

    I have been exposed to a good number of individuals that have suffered more then I have and one thing I’ve noticed is that those with the more severe hyperactivity issues were often times not just having trouble following material in class, but were often reprimanded and sent outside the class for periods of time because of behavioral issues. If you are sitting in the principal’s office or in a desk in the hall by yourself, I don’t care how focused you are, you are going to miss valuable class instruction. Of course these types of approach may no longer be the norm in classroom – given my age, what I am referring to would have been experiences from the 60’s and 70’s.

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