BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF BEHAVIOUR CIA I

HYPER ATTENTION

Tseyang Palzom 1124242 MPCL.1

Submitted to: Nisha Vidyasagar Psychology Department Christ University

Introduction Hyper attention is a cognitive style that is emerging due to a generational shift, wherein the person has short attention span and requires a high level of stimulation to enable the thought process without boredom. This phenomenon is characterized by switching focus rapidly among different tasks, preferring multiple information streams, seeking a high level of stimulation, and having a low tolerance for boredom (Katherine Hayles, 2007). This concept was first brought to light by Katherine Hayles in her article Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes which was published in the Profession, 2007. In her article Hayles speaks of how media has trickled so rapidly and completely into our lives that we are in a state of constant stimulation from various sources. For e.g. a student in class could be simultaneously listening to music from his iPod, texting his girlfriend, and also taking notes at the same time. This is the current generation or Generation M as Katherine Hayles deduces from a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation reported as Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year Olds. Generation M is an age group ranging from 8 to 18 years old. They daily spend an average of 6.5 hours consuming media that are divided into 3.51 hours watching TV and DVD movies, 1.44 hrs listening MP3, music CDs, and radio, 1.02 hrs of Web surfing, 0.49 hrs playing video games, and 0.43 hrs of reading. What Hayles has observed in this research is that we are moving away from a generation of deep attention ,which is the ability to concentrate on a single subject for long periods, toward a generation of hyper attention, the tendency to prefer multitasking and high levels of stimulation.

The report also asked about the way in which young people did their homework. Thirty per cent reported that they did homework while attending to other media like Instant Messaging, TV, and music most of the time, and another thirty-one per cent reported they did so some of the time. So we find that majority of the youngsters are multitasking, alternating doing homework with listening to music (33%), using computers (33%), reading (28%), and watching TV (24%). This strong preference of youngsters to do multitasking could be much more complex than the obvious reason that it saves time. Their preference for multitasking is probably due to a need for high level of stimulation. This need for stimulation is also associated with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Attention Deficit Disorder is a lifelong developmental disability that can first be detected in infancy, early childhood or even in adolescence, and which involves challenges with attention span, impulse control, and the intensity level of activities at school, home or at work. Typical behavior would include such things as distractibility; difficulty with following instructions or in waiting for turns within groups; a difficulty with staying on task with chores or play activities; a difficulty with sitting or playing quietly; inattention; restlessness; and engaging in physically harmful or dangerous activities, without a concern for the resulting consequences for self or others. The generational shift toward hyper attention can be understood as a shift in the mean toward the AD/HD end of the spectrum and this signifies blurring lines between what is considered normal and what is considered abnormal. There is evidence that AD/HD has genetic causes related to dopamine transporters and perhaps to the brains inability to produce dopamine (Swanson et al.).

However, genetic predispositions often express themselves with varying degrees of intensity depending on their interaction with environmental factors, so the role played by increased environmental stimulation remains unclear. Yet, there is little doubt that hyper attention is on the rise and that it correlates with an increasing exposure to, and desire for, stimulation in general and stimulation by media in particular. From a bio psychological perspective, we need to understand the effect of media on the brain through brain plasticity studies. It is well known that the brains plasticity is an inherent biological trait and humans are born with nervous systems ready to be reconfigured in response to the environments. While the number of neurons in the brain remains more or less constant throughout a lifetime, the number of synapses is greatest at birth. Through a process known as synaptogenesis, a new-born infant undergoes a pruning process where the neural connections in the brain that are used, strengthen and grow, while those that are not, decay and disappear (Bear et al.). The evolutionary advantage of this pruning process is clear as it bestows remarkable flexibility, giving humans the power to adapt to widely differing environments. Although synaptogenesis is greatest in infancy, plasticity continues throughout childhood and adolescence, with some degree continuing even into adulthood. In contemporary developed societies, this plasticity implies that the brains synaptic connections are co-evolving with environments in which media consumption is a dominant factor. So, children growing up in media-rich environments have brains wired differently than humans who did not come to maturity in such conditions. Thus, this phenomenon of hyper attention poses a huge challenge to the education systems around the world where the training and imparting of knowledge is largely based on deep attention systems. In this present generation of Face booking, Twitter- friendly youngsters, it

is going to be an immense challenge for teachers to grasp and hold the attention of their students.