The Feasibility of Attention Training for Reducing Mind-Wandering and Digital Multitasking in High Schools
During academic activities, adolescents must manage both the internal distraction of mind-wandering and the external distraction of digital media. Attention training has emerged as a promising strategy for minimizing these distractions, but scalable interventions that can deliver effective attention...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Book |
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MDPI AG,
2020-08-01T00:00:00Z.
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| Online Access: | Connect to this object online. |
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| Summary: | During academic activities, adolescents must manage both the internal distraction of mind-wandering and the external distraction of digital media. Attention training has emerged as a promising strategy for minimizing these distractions, but scalable interventions that can deliver effective attention training in high schools are still needed. The present investigation used a one-group pre-post design to examine the feasibility and outcomes of a digital attention training course at a public high school. The intervention was delivered with reasonably strong fidelity of implementation, with students completing 92% of the lessons and 79% of the daily exercises. At baseline, students reported mind-wandering more frequently during class than they multitasked, and mind-wandering was more negatively correlated with classroom focus. From pre-test to post-test (<i>n</i> = 229), students reported improved emotional regulation and reduced mind-wandering during daily life. Among the 76% of students who felt they paid attention in class less than they should, classroom focus improved significantly. During class, these students reported significantly less mind-wandering but slightly greater digital multitasking. During homework, they reported significantly less digital multitasking but only marginally reduced mind-wandering. Collectively, these results suggest that online interventions could be a scalable way of providing attention training in high schools, but that future work must consider the role of both mind-wandering and digital multitasking. |
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| Item Description: | 10.3390/educsci10080201 2227-7102 |