Focus Magazine - Winter 2014 - 27

FEATURESTORY

scanning for cars, but don't necessarily
expect a motorcycle.
So, people generally may not be
great at noticing or remembering the
details of things that occurred.

The Recall Challenge

Focus Strategies

find out with these two tests:

There are many techniques that can
enhance focus in the learning
environment.
Grab the attentional spotlight right
off the bat. Novelties capture attention,
like a magic effect, a joke, etc. You can
also eliminate the four tensions:
1. Facilitator/participant tension can
be cut by introducing yourself.
2. Participant/participant tension can
be eliminated by getting everyone to
introduce each other.
3. Participant/room tension can be
diffused by asking participants if
they are comfortable with their
surroundings, should the
temperature be adjusted, etc.
the video clip, you likely realized that
because you were watching one thing,
you didn't notice what else changed
before your eyes.
In this example, you just
experienced change blindness. This
neurological phenomenon refers to our
failure to detect changes in a scene that
should have been obvious but were not.
It's interesting to think about how
important a detail must be to register
in our memory, isn't it? Harvard
University Psychologist Dan Simons
and his colleague Daniel Levin created
videos to demonstrate change blindness
that occurs in real-world common
situations, validating the importance
and vulnerability of the attentional
spotlight.
Inattentional blindness is the failure
to detect an unexpected stimulus fully
visible in a single display. An often
cited example of inattentional
blindness is a car accident because of
not seeing a motorcycle try to pass on
the left blind spot. We are constantly
FOCUS | WINTER 2014 | www.spbt.org

4. Participant/handouts tension can be
lessened by asking them to write
their name on the materials. As a
result, they are psychologically more
disposed to open and use them. Try
it!
Pivot participants' spotlight to your
key points. Unlike magicians who
misdirect or pivot that spotlight toward
the wrong place at the right time,
trainers must consciously pivot
participants' attention to the most
important learning points at the right
times.

Student-centered learning
This approach is designed to
overcome the challenges of
inattentional blindness. Participants are
asked to sit in groups at round tables to
solve a series of challenges or role-play
then provide feedback to learn by
doing. This technique leverages group
heterogeneity or "collaboration by
difference" by allowing peers with
different listening habits and varied
experiences to fill in the blanks for
other peers. Collaboration by

How good are you at
remembering an item you've
viewed a thousand times? Let's

* According to a recent
study, the average
person looks at his
or her cell phone 110
times a day.
Question #1:
Without looking at
your phone, can you
remember what the icon is in
the bottom right corner of
your phone? Try to. Now,
bring it out of your pocket to
see how accurate you were.
Put your phone away again.
Question #2: Every cell
phone shows the time in
upper middle of the screen.
What time was it when you
just looked it a moment ago?
* How about an
American Penny.
Could you draw
one? If you didn't
remember key details
like "In God We Trust," "One
Cent" and Lincoln's head
orientation, that doesn't
mean you have a bad
memory. It just means you
have not stored all that
extraneous detail, which is a
good thing, as you want
room to remember more
important things.

27
http://www.spbt.org
Focus Magazine - Winter 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Focus Magazine - Winter 2014
