Adjust the Focus: Sharpen Your Attention
Counseling & Disability Services
Part of the Mendenhall Achievement Center
You Can’t Have one Without the
Other!
• Attention
• Concentration
• Memory
What is Your Attention Span?
• The length of time you can focus before you
become bored/over-loaded
– Varies from person-to-person
– Varies with type of activity
Concentration
• Ability to focus the attention on a single
thought, subject or object while ignoring
distractions
• A state of sustained focus
• Keeps you on track towards your goals
• One of the most important skills a student
needs
How long can you concentrate?
10 minutes? 30 minutes? 2 hours?
Concentration peak
Initial
distractions
Concentration
break
The Relationship Between Attention
and Memory
• Many memory complaints have nothing to do
with memory!
• The problem is a failure to attend to the
information in the first place.
What is short-term memory?
• Stores limited information for a limited amount of time
• Storing capacity – five (5) to nine (9) ideas
• CHUNKING (grouping ideas) can increase storage
capacity
• Stores information according to sensory images
• Must be kept alive through maintenance rehearsal
(mentally repeating information to be recalled)
What is long-term memory?
• Stores unlimited information for
unlimited amount of time
• Stores many types of information – facts,
events, beliefs, etc.
• Stores information according to meaning
• Elaborative rehearsal (associate new
information with prior learning)
necessary for encoding
• Must use CUES to recall information
How to Reclaim Your Attention Span
1) Admit your problem.
2) Unplug.
3) Practice concentrating despite distractions.
How to Reclaim Your Attention Span,
Continued
4) Do not double task.
5) Build up your mental endurance.
6) Make your learning active.
Concentration Exercises
• counting words
• count backwards 100 to 1
• count backwards from 100 to 1, skipping 3
numbers (100, 97, 94)
• choose and inspiring word and repeat it for 5
minutes
• examine and describe a fruit
• visualize a fruit
Pillars of Brain Health and
Maintenance
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Balanced diet
Physical exercise
Cognitive stimulation
Stress management
Practice positive, future-oriented thinking
Social engagement
Meditation
How to Improve Memory
•
Pay attention and
concentrate
•
Relate
•
Repeat
•
Elaborate
Four Steps for Memorization:
• Organize it. Organized information is easier to find.
• Use your body. Learning is an active process; get your
senses involved.
• Use your brain. Work with your memory; not against it.
• Recall it. This is easier when you use the other principles
to store information.
Organize It
1. Categorize from the general to the
specific.
2. Make it meaningful.
3. Create associations.
Use Your Body
1. Learn it actively.
2. Relax.
3. Create pictures.
4. Recite and repeat.
5. Write it down.
Use Your Brain
1. Reduce interference
4. Distribute learning
2. Over-learn
5. Check your attitude
3. Escape the short-term
memory trap
6. Choose what not to
store in memory
The 4 Rs
• Recitation
– Repeat the concept, idea, word, etc. over and over.
• Rehearsal
– Relate the concept or idea or word to:
• Some other concept or idea you already know
• A picture
• Parts within the whole-analyze the concept and see how
it all fits together.
Source: Shepherd, James. (1994). College Study Skills. 5th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
The 4 Rs
• Retrieve
– Have a clue or an association that will help you recall the
concept.
• Review
– Review your notes and other material. The sooner you
review it after class, the easier it is to remember.
Source: Shepherd, James. (1994). College Study Skills. 5th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Each time you study, use your body to
help you concentrate.
•
Choose or create a study environment.
•
Study according to your biorhythms: Schedule your most difficult
subjects when you are at peak mental efficiency (after 9 pm? early
morning?).
•
Complete easier tasks, like compiling a bibliography at the library,
when you are mentally at low efficiency.
•
Respect your concentration span.
Know your learning style
• Visual learner
• Auditory learner
• Kinesthetic learner
Visual learner
Visual learners are those who learn through seeing
things.
• A visual learner:
√ Needs quiet study time.
√ Understands/likes charts.
√ Looks for pictures and diagrams.
√ Remembers faces.
Auditory learner
Auditory learners are those who learn best
through hearing things.
• An auditory learner:
√
√
√
√
Likes to read to self out loud.
Remembers names well.
Follows spoken directions well.
Does well in lectures and class discussions.
Kinesthetic learner
Kinesthetic learners are those who learn through
experiencing/doing things.
• A kinesthetic learner:
√ Can’t sit still for long.
√ Prefers role playing.
√ Builds models or enjoys art projects.
√ Does well when given opportunity to do something
themselves.
Study tips for the visual learner
• Draw a map of events in history
or draw scientific process.
• Make outlines in your own
words.
• Copy what’s on the board.
– Take notes, make lists.
• Color code words and phrases.
• Use highlighters, circle words,
underline.
• Make flashcards.
Study tips for the auditory learner
• Use word association to
remember facts and lines.
• Record lectures and then listen to
them.
• Participate in group discussions.
• Use audio-recording for language
practice.
• Study out loud.
• Make a chant to help you
remember important
information.
Study tips for the kinesthetic learner
• Keep yourself active!
• Shift your activity level to something else when
distracted.
– When studying take short breaks to keep you on track.
• Take lab classes to enhance hands-on learning.
• Study with others.
• Devise an activity for review (ex: for vocabulary, make
a matching game).
• Use the CD if the text book comes with one.
Source: www.about.com
Want more information?
Call Counseling and Disability Services
(713) 525-2169 or 6953
www.stthom.edu/counseling