Studying in an age of distraction: an exploratory study by

What is the pomodoro technique?

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How To Actually Get Things Done (implementation intentions)

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Article participants read in the task

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Twenty-five fourth-year psychology students (N = 25, 13 Female 12 male) from IADT participated in this exploratory study.

The participants were divided into two groups: a control group comprising 9 students and an experimental group comprising 16 students.

Both conditions read an article (see under materials) and used the pomodoro timer. The experimental group also set an intention to document distractions and return to reading.

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Although all students benefit from periods of focused attention, there are many who have difficulties in attending to study material.

This has can have a significant impact on learning since sustained attention is a critical cognitive ability for engaging with education.

Materials used

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Distractions recorded

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4 was the mean number of distractions documented on note-paper during task (m=4.2, SD=3.35).

Findings

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How this exploritory study was conducted

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Post feeback, comments, suggestions here ... We would love to hear from you.

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Who we are?

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N Tutorr

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How to use this resource

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This interactive report supports the N-TUTORR showcase poster 17th April 2024

Scroll down through the headed columns to find more detail about the study.

Please leave comments feedback and suggestions on each post or in the last column, we really want to hear from you.

Excessive distraction impacts 88% of students

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Presentation on mindfulness and flow in learning

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This was presented to participants before the study intervention activity.

Why is this important?

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52% of participants rated the material as ‘high’ to ‘very, very high’ mental effort.

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A number of participants were not familar with pomodoro technique

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28% of fourth year psychology students had never used the pomodoro technique for academic reading tasks. Only 20% used it frequently, post intervention 76% are likely to very likely to apply the pomodoro technique in the future.

Coming soon...

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The exploratory study assesses the effectiveness of popular attention-sustaining techniques, currently in use.

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The exploratory study assesses the effectiveness of popular attention-sustaining techniques, currently in use.

Data Collected

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25 Responses Captured

One week later... feedback collected

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Survey Questions and Responses

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References

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Maior, H. A., Wilson, M. L., & Sharples, S. (2018). Workload Alerts—Using Physiological Measures of Mental Workload to Provide Feedback During Tasks. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 25(2), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173380

Seli, P., Schacter, D. L., Risko, E. F., & Smilek, D. (2017). Increasing participant motivation reduces rates of intentional and unintentional mind wandering. Psychological Research, 83(5), 1057–1069. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-017-0914-2

Findings

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Participants were not familar with the Pomodoro Technique

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References

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Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006, January 1). Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes. ScienceDirect; Academic Press. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065260106380021Maior, H. A., Wilson, M. L., & Sharples, S. (2018). Workload Alerts—Using Physiological Measures of Mental Workload to Provide Feedback During Tasks. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 25(2), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173380Seli, P., Schacter, D. L., Risko, E. F., & Smilek, D. (2017). Increasing participant motivation reduces rates of intentional and unintentional mind wandering. Psychological Research, 83(5), 1057–1069. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-017-0914-2