The effects of attention contagion on task-unrelated thought and learning in a virtual lecture
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Michael W. McHale (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Michael Kane
Abstract: Social contagion has been extensively explored within educational contexts, showing that behaviors spread between students in a classroom. Until recently, however, the cognitive aspects of social contagion (e.g., attention and mind-wandering) have been unstudied. Like other constructs, attention appears to be contagious: Students in the presence of visibly inattentive students also rate themselves as less attentive. These explorations into attention contagion, however, have left open questions regarding the spread of mind-wandering, or task-unrelated thought (TUT), within virtual settings. The current study answers the following questions. First, does TUT spread among students within virtual lectures? Second, do students’ attention states impact virtual classmates’ learning? To address these questions, I conducted a between-subjects online experiment in which 352 participants watched a simulated virtual lecture with either attentive or inattentive confederates on-screen. During the lecture, participants responded to interspersed thought probes to measure TUTs. To create a knowledge baseline, participants completed a pretest assessing general and specific lecture-topic knowledge. Following the lecture, participants completed a postlecture test to assess learning of the lecture material. Results indicated a significant between-condition difference in overall TUT rates, as well as in recalculated TUT rates to exclude environmental distraction or to isolate environmental distraction, with participants in the inattentive condition having a significantly higher TUT rate. In contrast, via a one-way ANCOVA (attentive versus inattentive conditions posttest scores; covariate = pretest scores) participants show no main effect of attention contagion on learning, with both conditions having equivalent posttest performance. Keywords: Attention contagion, mind-wandering, task-unrelated thought, learning
The effects of attention contagion on task-unrelated thought and learning in a virtual lecture
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Created on 12/1/2023
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2023
- Keywords
- Attention contagion, Mind-wandering, Task-unrelated thought, Learning
- Subjects
- Web-based instruction $x Psychological aspects
- Contagion (Social psychology)
- Distraction (Psychology)
- Attention