The distracted mind
by Adam Gazzaley · first published 2016
100% recommend
Adam Gazzaley and Larry Rosen--a neuroscientist and a psychologist--explain why our brains aren't built for multitasking and suggest better ways to live in a high-tech world without giving up our modern technology. They explain that our brains are limited in their ability to pay attention. We don't really multitask but rather switch rapidly between tasks. Distractions and interruptions, often technology-related--referred to by the authors as interference--collide with our goal-setting abilities.
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This is only tangential, but Adam Gazzaley's The Distracted Mind (2016, MIT Press) provides an excellent anatomy of focus and attention, working memory, goal management and overall cognitive control, then places them in the context of modern technology to discuss how…
on “'Weird and Daunting': 7k Readers Told Us How It Felt to Focus” ↗I play this game. https://www.endeavorotc.com Duke replicated Gazzaley's results. The first section of his book is good at explaining attention: https://www.amazon.com/Distracted-Mind-Ancient-Brains-High-T...
on “FDA Permits Marketing of Digital Game to Improve Attention in ADHD Children (2020)” ↗You could do worse than read "The distracted mind", by neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley. It gave me deeper insight into the human-specific additions to my monkey brain.
on “Digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job” ↗…scattershot reading that happens online. If you're interested in how technology might cause self-interruptions that make things like sitting down with a book more difficult, I recommend checking out "The Distracted Mind". [2] 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book 2: http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/distracted-mind
on “Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction” ↗Just finished reading "The Distracted Mind". Highly recommend it if you're interested in a broad summary of all the research out there on the effects of technology on our cognitive control - executive function, attention, working memory, ability…
on “The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity” ↗…was I spending more time online, I was fragmenting my attention; when I sat down to read a book, I found my brain was pausing for interruptions. I was training myself to self-interrupt. The book, "The Distracted Mind" goes deep into the science behind this phenomena, and is really worth checking out.
on “What we lose by reading 100,000 words every day” ↗There was some interesting research in the book, “The Distracted Mind”, which showed that looking at nature could help relieve a distracted mental state — and that looking at pictures of nature could offer similar restorative benefits. I know for me, personally, that few…
on “Science Begins to Suggests Video Games Can Replace the Outdoors” ↗The book “The Distracted Mind” is a pretty good overview of the science behind this. In terms of how to alleviate distraction, they recommend taking restorative breaks like walking in nature, standing up, making tea, etc. Even looking…
on “Ask HN: How can I restore my concentration when reading?” ↗Evolution. Information == survival. There’s a good scientific overview of how our hunter-gatherer brains evolved to put a huge value on novel bits of information in the book, “The Distracted Mind”.
on “Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?” ↗