 Hi, my name is Tracy Takahama Espinosa and this is a video on attention today We are going to have a look at the different types of attention We're going to review the vocabulary related to attention and then this big question of how Attention and memory systems are true pillars of learning without good or well functioning attention systems You just don't have any learning at all But then we're going to look at where attention is in the brain and how it is that we can enhance those neural networks So related to attentional vocabulary There are some terms that you might have heard before but maybe you don't have a clear definition of how they work together But attention is saliency from a perception perspective is pretty simple It's just when something might just stand out from the group, right? Then we have selective attention, which is when for example You got your kid has a broken hand and you're driving off to the hospital And the only thing you can do is look for the hospital Exit sign, right? And so that's selective attention, which is very different from understanding attention On a continuum of consciousness basically from high alert to board, for example Then we have attention bias, which is the natural way your brain tends to perceive things as being negatively emotionally charged as opposed to positive So it's it's better to be safe than sorry and run away if you think that a face might be looking angry or mean, right? And so we have attention bias, which leans into different types of prejudices We have within our own brain and attention systems Then there's attention deficit disorder, which is a huge other topic Which is not going to be the focus of this talk today But it's definitely worth digging into if you have the chance Then we look at attention spans and how those you know go from very short to very long But they vary depending on what your brain does your brain basically adapts to what it does most, right? Then we'll have a look at attentional networks This is mainly based on michael posnish work Who is one of the first and the most detailed person to define these different attentional networks in the brain And attention blindness, it's basically When something's right in front of us and we just don't even see it You know, why is it that that can occur and how is it that different attention systems can tug At your brain, so you're basically not paying attention to something that's right in front of your face So if we look at attention saliency, um, there's a light going on in the brain But basically based on any sensory perception when it's in vision, you know related to color intensity orientation Those things can change the way our brain will pay attention This involves things like the interior and so on other parts of the brain that work with the visual system to Detect things that stand out From the norm and this can be for example, if you're a graphic artist You know this, you know different types of typeface or the use of colors or color combination Or the way we use things like arrows and circle to hone in on attentional triggers that are in our environment All of these can come from any of our senses, but visual attention saliency is something that's been studied quite a lot And is there a hierarchy in saliency? Well, we know that, you know, your brain looks for what is slightly different That is really definitely what calls out as something that is salient For example, you might have noticed this bigger bowl of bird food It calls our attention more than the smaller ones But also we learn and we train your brain has categorical Separation of information and semantic memories and for those of you old enough to remember Sesame Street had this song, you know, one of these things is not like the other to help train To help train your brain to notice the things that are different and that is really, you know Leaning into the saliency hierarchy in the brain We also in our brain have this really great tendency to look for patterns Your brain does not want to spend energy on things that it doesn't need to so The first thing it does is try to understand is there's something I already know about this information that's coming at me And so pattern recognition is very very typical in the brain as is novelty We do have a lot of things that stand out as we mentioned before things that are salient or things that are different So novelty can be considered that difference And so our brain is really quick to notice the things that are different From the other things that are in the group Unfortunately, this can actually also lead to racism because the face that we're most used to seeing is our own And so anybody who looks different Will be automatically a red flag to the brain It's you know, this is not somebody who looks like me Which is terrible because we know that neural networks for things like empathy are much more complex than just basic saliency networks in the brain often associated with fear Which your brain does tend to look for things that are different and so if you look different from somebody else That's going to stand out to you If you have the opportunity you really want to invite you to look at the selective attention test It is hilarious and it's a real classic. If you have the chance It's only a minute and a half long, but it really illustrates a lot about selective attention There are other videos. This is one from or the who done it series Which you can actually catch yourself Not paying attention to things that are right in front of you. Okay, same thing national geographic has Several of these games that are available online that we'd love to encourage you to watch as well Finally, there are other videos that talk about personal ways that humans pay attention to each other And what does that mean about connecting to other people in the world? So I do have a look at that For now what we want to focus on is this huge idea that the big pillars of attention and of memory Really are fundamental to learning without well functioning attention systems or well functioning memory systems You don't have learning. So this is an oversimplified idea, right? Basically lots of things cause attention lots of things create memories There's lots of ways to forget memories and there's all all kinds of ways that we don't pay attention But the bottom line is that we do need those systems to actually learn things And so keeping that in mind It's really quite important to understand our own personal biases in attention systems And what is that we choose to pay more attention to? What's really funny is that your brain is always paying attention It just might not Be paying attention to what you know the teacher wants it to be paying attention to in that moment But your brain is never not paying attention to the world. It's always taking information And it's always reflecting on internal stimuli as well So how does attention really work in the brain if you'd like and you have the time I would really encourage you to have a look at this video from the University of Oregon Which talks about how childhood brains get habituated into a certain type of attentional Pattern how it does begin to look for certain types of things based on the environment and Wonderful way to look at developmental aspects of attentional networks The big idea here is that there are multiple attention systems There's not just one attention area of your brain. There's multiple networks, right? And attention in the brain is spread out throughout the brain in different parts of the brain Which we're going to look at in just a second and that attention and consciousness are often studied together because we look at this Continuum of consciousness is being related to attention And perhaps like the biggest name in this field is Michael Posner He has been studying attention networks in the brain for you know, 30 40 years He's actually a real genius in this area He pinpoints three main systems the alerting system the orienting system and the executive system of attention Which are quite distinct in the brain and there are different neural networks They involve different hubs and they involve different neural chemicals different neural transmitters And so these alerting networks orienting networks and executive networks serve different functions alerting is you know You hear a loud sound and you are alerted to that Orienting is knowing what from which direction that came right? This is something we rehearse quite a lot with video games or things like that, you know, we're always alerting and orienting What he points out is that for school work, you know having executive networks In control that basically decide I am going to pay attention to this Even if it's not as fun as the video game or whatever it is. I wanted to play I'm going to decide to do this and so um training executive networks to be able to pay attention to what is important in the moment is a key part of development to processes and educational system There's a lot of research on this and we have a bundle on attention that we'd love to invite you to read but there's a lot of It's it's a very new field, but um even in the past 20 25 years of research We can now really document great advances and what we do know about the brain's attentional networks. I'm okay We also want to point out that there's a lot of individual aspects to attentional networks in the brain and that each of us have our own protective factors, but also our own, you know Things that detract roadblocks that keep us from paying attention to the things we need to be paying attention to In the moment that we need to be paying attention. And so there's a couple of things that are pretty common to all To all people so we'll point those out that have to do with um The impact of sleep and how that influences attentional networks and also stress But there's other things that influence our ability to pay attention How much of a priority is the information? Are we interested in what's going on? You know our motivational levels There's a lot of roadblocks to being able to pay optimal attention to be able to learn at our best But as I mentioned before two things um sleep and stress are really common to all human beings And there's a ton of great research looking at the direct correlation of you know insufficient sleep And poor attention So we know that sleep is vital to your body's ability to pay attention What's also very interesting is a sub part of sleep, which is dreaming is really important for consolidating memories So memory and attention. We know that sleep and dreaming are really vital to the learning process We also know that things like stress um really take a toll on emotional regulation That takes a lot of energy, which is why um it depletes our ability to pay attention We can't stay focused or hyper vigilant for a long time. So when we're stressed These increases in cortisol also you know regularly stirb attention networks But it also messes up the ability of the brain to create new synapses and those memories that we need And or the ability to retrieve already existing memories and so selective attention increases when we're stressed like we just focus on one thing at a time And also creates a global inability to pay attention to anything else except that one priority item We have to find this sweet spot, you know You need a little bit of stress use stress positive stress to stay alert But to perform optimally we cannot fall into distress a little bit too much pressure is what tips us into distress But having that optimal level of stress is really great for paying attention. That's high alert state That's really great. Okay. So one last area that's really important to have a look at right now Is that people have always studied consciousness in psychology and neuroscience and education But the really interesting area now is that when you look at neural networks for consciousness It's really about where your brain is paying attention Is it paying attention to the internal voice in your head? Is it paying attention to outside stimuli? So this levels of consciousness and attention are now often looked at at on a continuum Last big idea here. I just really hope none of you believe in this myth of multitasking Multitasking means you can pay attention to lots of different things at the same time And what we know for sure is that your brain can pay attention To only one Heavy cognitive load task at a time Now that means yes, you can do a ton of little things at the same time that are Low cognitive load. So if they're not a lot of high energy invested like you can Cut potatoes talk to your sister on the phone and have the tv going on in the background And that's okay because those are low cognitive load tasks because you've done them a hundred times before So they don't take a lot of cognitive load. They don't take a lot of energy to focus on but any One single heavy cognitive load task like trying to pay attention to the information in this video Or read a scientific article or if your kid comes running in and has a cut finger Any one of those things will need all of your attention Okay, so have a look at these videos on multitasking on the myth of multitasking. They're a lot of fun Last big question that comes out here is, you know Is it true or false can students actually sit for a whole class period? And there's a lot of false information out there saying You know children have the attention span of of of a goldfish and you know only make videos for three or four Minutes long because they can't handle it. It's just not true people's attention spans It really depends on what their brain has been trained to do your brain adapts to what it does most So if you are used to long bouts of concentration, you can pay attention for quite a long time But if you are used to video games and quick changes every few seconds, you can't pay attention for a long time So your brain adapts to what it does most. So do think about that It is not that you know by default all teenagers have short attention spans. Just not true Okay, um, there's a great insight here on this in this video related to um, you know the way we blame technology for people's attention problems So, um, there is some truth to this, you know, if you're only doing video games, of course your brain adapts to what it does most However, um, this is a pretty well rounded, um insight into how technology could actually extend, you know attention spans as well So, uh, do have a look at that if you get the chance. Thank you very much for paying attention to this We looked at attentional vocabulary We looked at this concept of attention and memory systems are vital for learning And we also looked at Pozner's model of attention in the brain I hope you got a lot out of this and I look forward to seeing any reflections that you might have Things that you might have learned through this process Um and information that you'd like to know in the future So if there if you can do a three two one reflection looking forward to receiving it. Thanks