Background: Previous studies have shown that dynamic illustrations, as compared to their static counterparts, lead to higher achievement levels, especially for hand-based procedures. Other researchers have investigated how the presence of seductive details (i.e., appealing but irrelevant adjunct displays) influences students' interest positively…

Increasing evidence has shown that implicit learning shapes visuospatial attention, yet how such learning interacts with top-down, goal-driven attention remains unclear. This study investigated the relationship between task goals and selection history using a location probability learning (LPL) paradigm. We tested whether a top-down spatial cue…

Interruptions are already ubiquitous throughout society, and the attention-driven economy may be training us to constantly switch tasks and refocus our attention without ever lingering on one activity. Previous studies of interruptions during work have found many negative outcomes (e.g., more errors, higher workload, slower task time) and some…

Change has been described as detrimental for later memory for the original event in research on retroactive interference. Popular accounts of retroactive interference treat learning as the formation of simple associations and explain interference as due to response competition, perhaps along with unlearning or inhibition of the original response.…

As young people are buffeted by one new communications technology after another, their ability to focus on the present and to learn has been eroding. But taking away their phones only makes them anxious which also impedes their learning. The author suggests a series of strategies that educators can employ to deepen their focus and improve their…