To others interested in attention resource demo's, please see below. I accidentally sent it back only to Nancy, not to the whole listserve. -Mike
Hi Nancy, I've never used these in class, but I've either used them in my research or my colleagues have used them as class projects: 1) Bring a yardstick to class. You hold the yardstick such that the student's thumb and index finger are aligned with the 5" line, for example. Make sure the student's fingers are opened fairly widely. Instruct the student that when you let the stick go, he/she should try to catch it with his/her fingers as quickly as possible. The student's "response time" can then be measured as the number of inches that pass by before the ruler is caught. Have the student practice a number of times to establish a baseline. Then, you start the dual task condition (have the student practice this secondary task by itself first). Name aloud a letter and number (e.g., "J 17") and require the student to count aloud, alternating between letters and numbers. (e.g., "J-17-K-18-L-19-M-20, etc"). Once the student gets the hang of that, put the two tasks together. Get the ruler and the student's hand in position. Then, call out a letter and number to get the student counting. At some point during the counting, drop the ruler. The student should have a slower response time and so more inches should go by before the ruler is caught. You can do this for a number of trials, starting with a new letter-number combo each time. 2) Read aloud a list of 10-15 words, at a 1 sec/word pace. After the list is complete, allow 30 sec for the student to orally recall as many words as he/she can (have another student write these down as they're recalled). You may do this 2 or 3 times to get an average. Then, you start the dual task condition (again, have the student practice this secondary task alone first). The secondary task is a finger-tapping task. Have the student use his/her non-preferred hand, and have them tap the following sequence: index finger => ring finger => middle finger => pinky. Once they get it down, have them practice, cycling thru the sequence repeatedly, for 30 seconds or so. To combine them, get the student started tapping. Then, after 10 sec or so, start reading the words. Make sure to emphasize to the student that he/she MUST keep tapping at the same pace while you read the words. They must not slow down to compensate. After the list, you may allow the student to recall without tapping, or you may require the student to keep on tapping. Either way, his/her recall will be lower under divided than under full attention. Those should get you started, anyway. Best of luck! Mike ***************************************************** Michael J. Kane Psychology Department Georgia State University University Plaza Atlanta, GA 30303-3083 phone: 404-651-0704 fax: 404-651-0753 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have it." -- E.W. Teale
