Tip of the Month: June 2007
From Mastery of Learning
Pay Attention!
Researchers noticed that paying close attention is essential to creating long-term changes in the brain. They noticed long-term plastic change occurred only when the subjects paid close attention to what they were doing. When tasks were performed automatically without paying close attention, the changes in the brain did not last.
We tend to brag about our ability to multi-task. When we multi-task, our attention is divided, and there are cognitive dues we pay for that. You can’t learn when your attention is divided, and that divided attention does not lead to lasting changes in you brain.
You need to be present and attend closely to what you are doing and learning for lasting changes to occur in your brain.
