Sensorimotor integration

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2 The Attention Filter

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Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

• Explain sustained (or focused) attention.

• Describe the difference between bottom-up processing and top-down processing.

• Understand how the reticular activating system (RAS) works.

• Analyze how changes in patterns, threats, and novelty influence the RAS.

• Assess how the classroom climate can influence learning.

• Discuss the importance of building respectful, trusting relationships with and among students, and detail strategies for doing so.

• Evaluate different strategies that can be used in the classroom to promote student attention and activate the RAS.

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Section 2.1 Rewind—Fast Forward

It was one of the hottest days of early summer, and I was in a stuffy, ancient classroom with steep, elevated levels of seating. Also in the room were about another hundred college stu- dents. We were all there for the first day of Physics 101–102, the introductory college physics course offered in an intensive six-week summer program as an alternative to the usual full- year course.

We did not know one another, but had in common fairly low interest in the study of physics. Almost all of us were taking the class for the same reason: It was a prerequisite for medical school. I sat there dreading the hours of listening, reading, and irrelevant problem solving that would begin momentarily. What happened next was so powerful that more than three decades later I remember not only the events of that class opening, but also the physics for- mula and principles that Professor Baez presented so powerfully that morning.

The doors to the lecturer’s level below opened and a man wearing a wizard’s hat and holding a fire extinguisher was pushed into the room, compressed into a toy red wagon. Professor Baez then activated the fire extinguisher so its contents shot against the now closed door from which he’d entered. I stared open mouthed as he and his wagon were rapidly propelled backward across the lecture floor. His words resonate to this day: “As you see and is stated in Newton’s Third Law, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Professor Baez captivated my attention to such an extent that the memory of his lesson remains vivid 40 years later.

2.1 Rewind—Fast Forward In the last chapter we looked at the reasons indicating that a better understanding of neuro- science and the brain can lead to more effective teaching strategies and consequently better learning outcomes. We started to become more familiar with the general anatomy of the brain and the way the brain functions. In this chapter we will look more closely at one particular function of the brain—how it processes information to focus our attention.

All learning begins with sensory information, but not all the sensory information available to the brain is accepted for admission. Every second, millions of bits of sensory information from the eyes, ears, nose, taste buds, internal organs, skin, muscles, and other sensors are generated and travel to the brain. The brain cannot process more than a few thousand of the millions of bits of sensory information available each second.

The brain has filters that determine which sensory information gets admitted and allowed to proceed to the highest areas of the brain. Often this determination is made in relation to pat- terns and potential pleasure or threat. You’ll discover that attention is a process by which the sensory intake filter “selects” which information gains access at the primary intake region of the brain.

When you understand what criteria for selection are, you’ll be at a prime position to guide your students’ attention filters to give admission to the things they need to learn.

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Section 2.2 What Gets Our Attention

2.2 What Gets Our Attention Scientists in anthropology and related fields usually describe evolutionary adaptations as changes that take place in animals and species that proved beneficial to the survival of the animal and the species. This is a central tenet of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, and it proves a useful framework for understanding how the mammalian brain evolved. In order to survive in harsh and at times dangerous environments, the mammalian brain needed to filter sensory information in terms of priority—some sensory information would need to take pre- cedence over other, less important information. Here we have the seeds of the brain’s atten- tion filter.

Attention can be thought of as the brain’s spotlight. As we scan our environment, we are taking in various types of information. However, the brain selectively processes information in the environment to bring it to our attention or to focus a spotlight on it. The process- ing of information can be both conscious and uncon- scious. That is, you can search your environment for the information you are looking for or information can be processed without your being consciously aware of it. As we engage with information in the environment, we are activating a series of networks in the brain that involve both cortical and subcortical structures that help us determine what information we should focus on. An essential part of this system is the reticular activating system. This structure will be described later in the chapter. In the classroom, students are exposed to many different stim- uli. They need to be prepared to orient to relevant stimuli for learning and be able to block out stimuli that are not important.

Focusing on one stream of information requires sustained or focused attention. Sustained attention is the ability to intentionally focus on a specific stimulus. As a student becomes alert to important information in the classroom and focuses on this information, increased activation is found in the brain’s attentional networks.

The ability to intentionally activate the higher brain areas is essential to sustaining voluntary focus. This “top-down” control is related to learners’ attentional control abilities and cogni- tive capacity in general (Sarter, Givens, & Bruno, 2001). Impairments in the ability to engage in sustained attention can have a negative impact on learning in the classroom and also in daily life. In the classroom, implications might include a lack of ability to listen to instruc- tions, a lack of ability to follow a story or lecture, decreased capacity for taking in information while reading, or even missing social cues that are related to learning. As an educator, you can help students activate higher brain attention control systems by increasing student engage- ment, curiosity, and motivation. For example, attentional responsiveness to learning could be enhanced by having the students get up and walk around the room or by participating in other activities involving movement.

Students could participate in a game whereby they are each assigned a particular course topic. Next, they would be required to gather information on their topic from classmates. As they walk around the room and interact with others, their brains will become more active.

Ask Yourself As a student, what is apt to get your attention in a learning context—both in constructive and not-so-constructive ways? What classroom configurations or teaching methods are likely to draw your attention to the lesson at hand? Understanding what gets your own attention will help you to better identify what might be distracting or engaging to others.

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Section 2.2 What Gets Our Attention

Additionally, as they seek out information, they will be using sustained attention to focus on the information they are gathering.

Motivation can be increased by making the information or concepts meaningful to students. You can incorporate examples into your lessons that apply concepts to life, sporting events, or popular television shows. If students understand why they need the information, they will be more likely to focus their attention on you. Additional concepts of attention can also help us better engage students in the classroom. One of these concepts is pattern seeking.

The brain processes information according to patterns in its environment (Beitman, 2009). Information that is consistent with a pattern in a given context will receive less attention from the brain than information that is inconsistent with a particular pattern. It’s not difficult to see the utility of such a filter from an evolutionary standpoint. Noting discrepancies in one’s environment might serve as a signal that danger is near. For example, think of hiking alone through the mountains. You hear the wind blowing through trees, birds chirping, the occa- sional rustling of leaves from small woodland creatures. It wouldn’t take long to start ignoring these sounds. You would quickly become desensitized to the auditory “pattern” of the moun- tain trail. But your attention filter would likely quickly process any discrepant sounds, such as a large stick cracking a few feet away or a flock of birds flying away all at once from a nearby tree—each of which could be a sign of potential danger.

Stimuli such as these grab our atten- tion and are referred to as salient. A salient stimulus is one that stands out among the rest. For example, a red dress in a sea of black is salient. When something in the environment is salient, it activates the attentional systems of the brain and is processed. However, this processing occurs at low levels of the brain (i.e., the brain stem) and does not ensure that the individual will consciously process the stimulus. This type of processing is referred to as bottom-up processing. It is so termed because the processing begins at lower levels of the brain, or within subcortical structures. It is also referred to as sensory-driven process- ing because the information comes in

from the senses and then determines where our attention will go (Goldstein, 2007). In order for the stimulus to reach conscious processing, increased neural activity at higher levels of the brain (i.e., the cortex) would have to occur (Carter, 2009). In the case of threat, it is highly likely that it will be sent through to higher areas of the brain because it is important for survival.

In contrast, there also exists top-down processing. This type of processing refers to knowledge- based processing, and occurs when we direct our attention toward a certain stimulus or event in the environment (Goldstein, 2007). It is called top-down because higher levels of the brain determine where attention will go. While bottom-up processing is more related to patterns of

Scothth/iStock/Thinkstock

Visual information that stands out from an expected pattern is more likely to get the brain’s attention.

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Section 2.3 The Reticular Activating System (RAS)

stimuli in the environment, top-down processing is more related to activation of different areas of the brain and illustrates that we have the ability to influence where our attention is directed. Many strategies described in this text will first grab the brain’s attention by using bottom-up processing; however, if you keep the information interesting and continue to use the strategies, your students will begin to keep their attention focused on you in the classroom by using top- down processing.

However, the brain also seeks patterns that prove pleasurable. Mammalian brains use pat- terns based on memories of previous experiences to interpret new sensory information. These memory patterns are activated to predict the best response to new objects, experi- ences, or sensations. If we go back to the mountain trail for a moment, it’s likely that if you found the peace and tranquility of the trail pleasurable, the hike is something you would seek to do again, or perhaps you would seek to replicate that sensory experience in other ways. Perhaps you would download nature sounds to play at home, or maybe you would pay more attention to the sounds of birds chirping in your backyard or at a local park. Either of these activities might serve to provide you the same pleasurable feeling of the mountain trail. This is assuming, of course, that the sound of the cracking stick was just an old branch that fell out of tree and not a 1,000-pound bear because, just as the brain seeks pleasure, it also seeks to avoid experiences that have been associated with pain or similar negative experiences.

Pleasure can also be connected with motivation. The brain finds things that are pleasurable to be highly motivating. Early research in psychology illustrated that when animals were forced to choose between food and water and electrical stimulation of brain areas associated with pleasure, they choose brain stimulation (Routtenberg & Lindy, 1965). Pleasure was so highly motivating to the animals that they starved themselves. This behavior is also evident in humans if you consider the case of drug addicts who will choose their drug of choice above basic life needs. This pleasure-motivation connection is important because we can use it in the classroom. If learning can be made pleasurable, students will seek it out above other dis- tracting stimuli in the classroom.

The patterning response is quite logical when considered from an evolutionary standpoint. We seek what seems to benefit us and avoid that which does not. This same principle is some- thing that we thankfully can translate into the classroom experience.

2.3 The Reticular Activating System (RAS) Everything we learn enters the body from sensory nerves. Information constantly comes to the body through the sensory receptors that provide access to millions of bits of sensory information from sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, movement, and more every second. We couldn’t possibly negotiate all of this data on a conscious, voluntary basis; our brains, in fact, have to do a lot of this processing for us, without us even knowing, which is what makes much of the attention selection process involuntary. And the brain isn’t taking this task lightly! It’s very selective about what sensory information is admitted and which of that information is given access to the highest brain. In short, it selects what is worthy of our attention and what is not.

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Section 2.3 The Reticular Activating System (RAS)

The reticular activating system (RAS) is the sensory intake filter key to our attention and is an important structure in information processing in the brain. Information comes to the RAS from the sensory systems. The RAS (shown in Figure 2.1) has many projections and connec- tions with the cerebral cortex (Carlson, 2004). As a result it is able to activate other areas of the brain and pass the important information on. The admission criteria for passage through the RAS are more exclusive than any club or university because for every one bit of data accepted for admission, thousands are rejected. Understanding the admission criteria, however, puts you in a prime position to better access and hold your students’ attention in the classroom.

We often hear students criticized for not paying attention, but as you learn about the RAS, you’ll recognize that they may indeed be paying attention, just not to the information the edu- cator, parent, coach, etc., is providing in the form of sensory input. The RAS is essentially always paying attention, in the sense that it is always allowing bits of sensory input to pass through into the brain each second. Students’ RAS may therefore be attentive in the class- room, but that attention may be selecting information about their neighbors’ whispering, their too-tight pants, or their growling stomachs.

Figure 2.1: The reticular activating system (RAS)

Sensory information from the body and spinal cord is first filtered by the RAS before being relayed outward to other parts of the brain to be further processed.

Hippocampus

Amygdala

Nucleus accumbens

Cerebral cortex

RAS

Reticular formation

Sensory inpu tSensory inpu t

Sensory input

Hippocampus

Amygdala

Nucleus accumbens

Cerebral cortex

RAS

Reticular formation

Sensory inpu tSensory inpu t

Sensory input

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Section 2.3 The Reticular Activating System (RAS)

The human RAS, like most of our other lower brain structures, has not evolved much beyond that of other mammals. The RAS still prioritizes for our attention information that is most valuable for survival purposes. Think back to our earlier discussion on pattern seeking; it is our RAS that is doing most of the work in assimilating to patterns or pleasure or processing information that could be potentially harmful or dangerous to us—that is, stimuli that breaks from an expected pattern. If it weren’t for the RAS filter, our brains would be overwhelmed by information input. With so much information to choose from, it makes sense that the RAS and the amygdala (discussed in more detail in Chapter 4) each have programmed priorities that select what is admitted into our perception.

In the context of formal learning environments, much of what is accepted for intake is not a voluntary, conscious choice by students who may seem to be willfully ignoring direct instruc- tion. The problem is that if the information in your lesson is not selected by this primitive filter (the RAS), it stands far less of a chance of reaching the higher brain. Finding ways to play off of the instinctual tendencies of our RAS—that is, to find ways to break from some of the classroom patterns that students have come to expect—is central to getting and keeping their attention.

Detects Changes in Expected Pattern

The RAS is key to arousing or “turning on” the brain’s level of receptivity to input. The RAS response to the sensory information that it receives impacts the speed, content, and type of information that is given entry into the higher-thinking regions of the brain. Our RAS acts in accordance to the directives it has developed for all mammals: Preference is for sensory input regarding changes in the expected pattern of the animal’s environment. For an animal, the consideration might be: What has changed from the last time the animal was in this field or tree? For a student, it might be: What has changed in the classroom from the last day or the last week?

The RAS selections based on environmental changes perceived as pleasurable also allow the animal to survive and thus are more likely to gain attention. Likewise, a student who per- ceives pleasurable changes is more likely to readily engage in that environment.

Detects Perceived Threats

As we discussed earlier, the RAS remains alert first for things that have changed in the environ- ment that are associated with perceived threat. When threatening sensory intake is selected from the environmental cues, there is interference with the flow of most other information provided by the sensory nervous system.

Consider a fox coming out of its den in the morning, for an example of how sensory intake is prioritized. If there are several changes in the usual pattern of sensory information from its environment, what will its attention filter let in? If there is the sound of an unfamiliar animal’s barking and also the new scent of a female fox, the novelty that receives the highest priority

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Section 2.3 The Reticular Activating System (RAS)

is the barking because it is potentially a threat. Input interpreted as potentially threatening blocks intake of other information.

Since the fox’s RAS intake is directed to a source of threat, the other sensory information related to that intake also gets priority passage through the RAS at the expense of other new stimuli. Once our fox is on attention-intake alert to unfamiliar barking, the rustling in the brush coming from the direction of the barking will also take precedence over any other novel, but nonthreatening, sensory stimuli, such as a potential mate, a new source of food, etc.

As long as this state of perceived threat persists, it is unlikely that any other potentially vital valuable infor- mation will reach the highest parts of the brain. Unless

the perception of threat is reduced, the brain persists in doing its primary job—protecting the individual from harm. During fear, sadness, or anger, neural activity on brain scans predomi- nates in the lower brain, where the involuntary response is not to think, but to react—fight, flight, or freeze.

When we apply this to a learning environment, we can see how critical it is for learning to cre- ate a friendly, inviting atmosphere for students. If students feel uncomfortable or threatened, their RAS will begin to go into survival mode, cueing up on stimuli the student perceives as a source of potential harm and thereby shutting out other potentially valuable information— most notably your lesson! The sensory input of important items, such as the content of the day’s lesson, is reduced by the perception of possible threat, presenting a significant challenge for educators and learners. It is also impor- tant to note that students might be dis- tracted by a variety of events. These can include things in the classroom or events that have taken place before they entered the classroom. For exam- ple, stressors at home including trou- ble with parents, hunger, bullying, child abuse, or chronic health issues can occupy students’ minds and keep them from focusing on the task at hand. Edu- cators may not have the ability to reduce these threats; however, noting their existence can help educators relate to their students.

Ask Yourself Recall a social situation when you said something you didn’t intend to, or heard something unexpected, or ran into someone you hadn’t planned on seeing. Did you become embarrassed, fearful, or otherwise distracted? In what ways do recall being affected, and how did it affect your ability to engage with others?

Tim McCaig/iStock/Thinkstock

Emergency vehicles use salient stimuli such as sirens and lights to make sure their presence takes priority over other sensory information.

Meeting the Needs of Individual Learners: Stress and Trauma

Almost everyone has experienced stress and trauma in their lives and has been impacted by incidents that elicit great emotion, deep pain, and intense fear. As professionals, we must understand that anyone who walks through our doors or into our classrooms could be fighting some type of battle. The ability to cope with and process stress and trauma depends partly on our individual psychological, physical, and biological makeups, and partly on the support we receive from outside resources.

Exposure to trauma, fear, unpredictability, and consistent or repetitive negative experiences reinforces our brains’ stress and trauma response to “fight or flight,” which is characterized by increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. This repeated activation of the stress response promotes a heightened baseline state of arousal in an individual, so that even in the absence of an external threat, he or she must navigate the world in a continuous state of fight or flight.

The impact of stress and trauma on the developing child is particularly poignant. Traumatized children are at a significant risk for mental health problems and psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, self-destructive behaviors, PTSD, and personality/eating disorders, as well as various medical illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), liver disease, fibromyalgia, immune system dysfunction, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The etiology of these symptoms, may, in part, be due to the structural, chemical, and physiological effects of stress and trauma on the brain and body (Center for Disease Control, 2013b; Gabowitz, Zucker, & Cook, 2008; McCollum, 2006; Van der Kolk, 2005).

When a child is exposed to persistent fear and trauma, the development of the brain changes both structurally and chemically. These changes include decreased volume of the hippocampus, amygdala, and corpus callosum; irregular levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin (discussed in Chapters 3 and 6, respectively); and overproduction of neural connections associated with fear, anxiety, and impulsive responses (Carrion, Weems, & Reiss, 2007; McCollum, 2006; National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2005/2014, Teicher, Anderson, & Polcari, et al., 2002. The child’s ability to learn, retain information, and become a successful student is compromised. Significant cognitive problems have been demonstrated in children exposed to stress and trauma, such as deficits in overall cognitive functioning, academic achievement, school performance, attention/executive functioning, memory, visual-spatial skills, and language (Gabowitz, Zucker, & Cook, 2008).

When working with or teaching a child who has been exposed to stress and trauma, you must stay calm and demonstrate patience and empathy. These children need to feel safe and comfortable in your presence. It is also key to recognize how these children view stress; begin to understand stressful situations from their perspective and give them time to reflect on their experiences and feelings. Lessons and/or sessions can focus on identifying and expressing feelings. Teach the children positive coping mechanisms and ways to handle their stress. Depending on the age of the child, recommending relaxation techniques, journaling, and exercise is generally a good place to start. By understanding how they perceive stress and trauma and learning new coping strategies, you can mitigate the internal pain these children will have to endure.

Joanna Savarese, Ph.D.

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Section 2.3 The Reticular Activating System (RAS)

is the barking because it is potentially a threat. Input interpreted as potentially threatening blocks intake of other information.

As long as this state of perceived threat persists, it is unlikely that any other potentially vital valuable infor- mation will reach the highest parts of the brain. Unless

Tim McCaig/iStock/Thinkstock

Emergency vehicles use salient stimuli such as sirens and lights to make sure their presence takes priority over other sensory information.

Meeting the Needs of Individual Learners: Stress and Trauma

Joanna Savarese, Ph.D.

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Section 2.4 Perceived Threat Interventions: Calming the Nervous Fox

Responds to Novelty and Curiosity

Just as neuroscience research suggests the environmental stimuli that can restrict learning, neuroimaging has also given us information about which sensory input gets through the RAS when no threat exists.

In the unthreatened state, RAS sensory intake priority is drawn to changes in the expected pattern that are novel and arouse curiosity. In the next section, we will consider strategies and interventions that reduce perceived threat, which will lay the groundwork for exploring strategies that, in the absence of perceived threat, are particularly attractive for RAS intake because of their novelty and curiosity.

2.4 Perceived Threat Interventions: Calming the Nervous Fox

In this chapter, we have explained how the human RAS is very similar to the RAS of other mammals in that it first selects for attention stimuli most critical to survival in an unpre- dictable environment. This process exists in the young brain as well as more mature brains. However, as predatory tigers are rarely a threat in classrooms and students do not have to chase down lunch, the priorities of sensory intake of what might be perceived as threat by animals in unpredictable environments have not really kept pace with human evolutionary development.

Nevertheless, to consider the priority given by the RAS to perceived threat, it serves us well to think of our students’ RAS as responding much like that of our fox. When the fox comes out of its den in the morning, alerted to changes in the expected pattern, there is likely to be more than one change or novelty. Both the howling of a predatory wolf and a rabbit running by could be two novel events—changes in the daily expected pattern. The howling of the wolf would get first priority, and only when that sound is gone would the RAS grant entry to the nonthreaten- ing changes in sensory input such as the sights and sounds of the rabbit running by.

Educators in the classroom need to reduce the perception of threat so that the intake filter does not persist in giving priority to the prime directive in order to protect the student from harm. As you will soon see, without the maturation of executive functions of the prefrontal cortex, schoolchildren’s brains do not have the clear perspective with which to evaluate the world around them and voluntarily select the most important sensory input. It is also impor- tant to note that the prefrontal cortex does not completely mature until after adolescence (Giedd et al., 1999), so even in college-age students, these same principles will also hold true. The prefrontal cortex is often the first area of the brain to deteriorate in aging (Raz, 2000). So, if you are teaching older adult learners, you may be dealing with some of the same issues that younger children face. Additionally, even in a fully matured brain, picking out important information in the classroom can be difficult due to the amount of information that is coming into the brain and the stressors that might exist in the learning environment. Thus, the strate- gies provided below will help you teach to any brain—young or old.

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Section 2.4 Perceived Threat Interventions: Calming the Nervous Fox

What students might perceive as threat that could take over the sensory intake are things such as fear of being embarrassed in front of classmates by making mistakes, anxiety of being called upon for a homework answer when they forgot their homework, being the last person chosen to be on a team, or making mistakes in the use of English when it is not their first lan- guage. Adult learners are subject to the same threats in the classroom. Although their brain systems are more mature, providing them with better social and attentional skills, they are still embarrassed by not knowing answers or by making mistakes in the classroom. Addition- ally, some of them may feel shame in being far behind younger students (Doherty, 2012) or may have already had bad experiences with education, which would make them more respon- sive to threats in their environment.

With the goal of promoting the RAS intake of your instructional information, as well as of other important cognitive and social sensory cues from the classroom, we need to keep our young foxes feeling safe and prepare them to avoid the misperceptions of threat. Perceived threats exist both in and out of the classroom for students. As a result, it might also be impor- tant to help your students calm their nerves in areas outside of the classroom. For example, if you have a student who you suspect is having family trouble, you could recommend further school-based evaluation. School guidance counselors can be of great help in this area. For example, Lapan, Gysbers, and Petroski (2001) reported that seventh graders who had coun- selors who were more engaged in providing support and services to students had stronger relationships with educators, better grades, and a belief that education was important and relevant. Additionally, conferences with parents could be an opportunity to discuss potential issues. You could even provide families with a little education on how their brains work to help them understand why it is important to reduce threats and provide a safe environment. Once we can establish a safe environment for learning, our young foxes will be able to attend to the more positive sensory input, just as the fox in the wild becomes aware of the potential yummy meal scampering by—once the howling stops.

Classroom Climate

One of the most fundamental ways to quell students’ potential fears is to provide optimal learning climates. Basic classroom management can go a long way toward serving this end. You’ll keep your young foxes feeling unthreatened by consistent enforcement of class rules and maintaining a supportive classroom community. This means not only providing students a learning environment in which they feel safe from potential threat but also increasing their comfort about taking the risk of participating and even making mistakes.

The most important of classroom rules regarding the perception of safety by students are those that assure them that their physical person, property, and feelings will not be hurt. Especially young children, but truly across the spectrum through high school and at the col- lege level as well, students count to a large degree on adults to enforce the rules that are in place. A way to assure students that you will indeed be there to enforce the rules is by demonstrating early on that you are aware of times when their property, person, or feelings are perhaps being threatened and that you will intervene promptly. For example, let’s say you have two students, Terrell and Josh, sitting side by side in the classroom. You see Josh is antagonizing Terrell by drawing all over his artwork. You can invite Terrell to help you with

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Section 2.4 Perceived Threat Interventions: Calming the Nervous Fox

the next activity or to distribute items to the class, thereby addressing your first priority, which is for the student’s safety. After removing Terrell from the threat to his property, make your way back over to his desk and move the artwork and his other personal items away from the reach of the perpetrator, Josh. Perhaps, move Josh’s desk further away from Terrell’s. At that time you can quietly tell Josh that he is to meet you after class. This example is applicable at all levels of education. It is always important to reinforce the idea that you will keep the student safe.

As early as possible in the year, make it a point to show students that your class is one in which they can feel safe participating, comfortable asking for help, and aware that you will listen to them and be fair. When you take these opportunities to show students that you’re serious about protecting them from perceived threat, they will grow more comfortable.

Threats to students also exist in the ever-growing online environment. Just as in the class- room, it is important to address potential fears early on. Some issues reported with online education include social isolation or a lack of a learning community and technology issues (Chee Mang & Werner, 2004). Social isolation can occur as a result of a lack of face-to-face interactions with others. Educators play an important role in reducing the fear of isolation in individuals. Reaching out to students or parents through emails, discussions, and/or phone calls can be effective ways to maximize the student-teacher relationship. Additionally, educa- tors should promote collaboration between students to decrease the fears of isolation and increase community in the classroom.

Technological fears can be reduced by providing students with appropriate resources for help with technology. Educators should also be prepared to monitor student use of technology. Students who are not using the technology should be reached out to in order to ensure they do not fall too far behind. It can also be helpful for students and faculty to engage in training before beginning an online class. Wagner, Schramm, and Werner (2001) report that students had a higher satisfaction with their online courses when they received necessary training.

Finally, the virtual environment provides more ano- nymity to students. Thus, exchanges between students might be more emotionally charged (Clark, Werth, & Ahten, 2012). As a result, students might pose a threat to each other. It is important for the educator to lay out a set of rules for online communication at the begin- ning of the course. Most students report that they pre- fer to hear from the instructor before the class begins (Conrad, 2002). So, instructors could post an introduc- tory message that helps individuals understand the rules of the course and lets students know that they will be monitoring their comments. Additionally, any inappropriate comments should be removed from the online environment, and students who make the com-

ments should be addressed. Just as in the live classroom, students should be aware that you will keep them safe and that inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated.

Ask Yourself The use of new technology in learning environments can be challenging to adult students or anyone who has not had much exposure to the digital world. Can you think of a situation in which you were unfamiliar with the tools, equipment, or even the language? How did this lack of basic knowledge affect your ability to perform at your normal capacity, and in what ways did you attempt to bridge this “digital divide”?

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Section 2.4 Perceived Threat Interventions: Calming the Nervous Fox

This information can also be applied in settings outside of the classroom. For example, employees need to feel safe in order to perform well and focus on their jobs. Bullying from co-workers could interfere with performance. In 2010, the Workplace Bullying Institute reported that half of all Americans have experienced workplace bullying. Bullying in the workplace may include things like intimidation, name calling, or exclusion. These behaviors have the ability to decrease worker confidence and efficiency (Cowie, Naylor, Rivers, Smith, & Pereira, 2002). Additionally, feeling like there is no one to turn to in times of stress can also be a problem. Like educators, employers, bosses, and managers should strive to cre- ate a safe place for individuals to interact. Taking note of potential bullies and making sure workers are protected and safe can be critical to fostering a constructive and productive work environment. Human resource professionals can also play a role in helping create a safe workplace environment.

Building Relationships Between and Among Students

You might have noticed in classes you’ve been a part of that students’ moods often seem to reflect the mood of the instructor. Instructors who are confident and respectful of their stu- dents, encouraging, with a good sense of humor without being sarcastic have a positive influ- ence on students’ resilience to perceived threat as well as displaying more positive moods overall. Even the expressions on your face can influence students’ resilience to negative experiences.

This social influence can be explained in part by what scientists have termed mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are the neurons in the brain that respond when we perform an action and when we see that action being performed. These neurons were first discovered in monkeys who were watching food being picked up and then picking up the food themselves (Di Pel- legrino et al., 1992). See Figure 2.2 below for more detail about one such experiment. How- ever, research in humans has also illustrated the existence of mirror neurons (Iacoboni et al., 1999). Mirror neurons also respond to emotional cues, often from the facial expressions and other nuances of people. It turns out that when we observe someone smiling, the same neural networks activated by smiling in their brains activate the corresponding neurons in our brains. Although we may not be producing a smile, the activation of these neurons results in

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Section 2.4 Perceived Threat Interventions: Calming the Nervous Fox

an emotional state that reciprocates that which we see. When we see someone smiling, it likewise triggers in us a more pleasurable emotional state.

Figure 2.2: Mirror neuron systems

An experiment on a monkey shows that the same areas of the brain’s premotor cortex that are activated when grasping an object are also activated when observing an object being grasped via mirror neuron systems. This suggests that whatever actions or expressions you make will turn on these areas of your students’ brains, too.

Reprinted from “Motion, emotion, and empathy in esthetic experience” by David Freedberg and Vittorio Gallese in TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, 11(5), 200, Fig. 4. Copyright 2007, with permission from Elsevier.

500 msec

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Section 2.4 Perceived Threat Interventions: Calming the Nervous Fox

This research suggests two practical strategies as we navigate our daily relationships with stu- dents. One is to be conscious that when our facial expressions reflect dismay with ourselves, our students might misinterpret these expressions as a negative emotion directed at them.

On the flip side, we want to remember that our smiles can have a positive impact on their emo- tional states and perhaps ward off the perception of threat. Students not only see and hear our actions and emotions, but also our actions and emotions evoke an internal representa- tion of the particular action or emotion in them (Gallese, Keysers, & Rizzolatti, 2004), making it important to evoke positive emotions in the classroom through the use of positive actions and expressions. This same principle holds true in the professional environment. Actions and emotional expressions influence how co-workers perceive each other and interact with one another. To employ a strategy in the online classroom suggested by the mirror neuron phe- nomenon, try using Skype™ at different points in the term to check on your students.

A great way to start the year in terms of letting students know that you respect them and are responsive to their feelings is to invite them to tell you what characteristics they find in their best teachers. Student lists are often quite similar in that most students seek the quali- ties in their teachers that they also seek in friends. Lists often contain characteristics such as being fair, not showing favorites, being honest, being prepared, listening to their perspec- tives, and having a good sense of humor without being sarcastic. To demonstrate your value of the students’ opinions, you could let them know that about every six weeks they will have an opportunity to give you a report card with grades on the items from the class list that was generated. You can take into consideration their responses and report back to them where there seemed to be the greatest overlap and how you hope to improve in those areas. With some modification, this activity can be completed in any classroom, whether it is a kindergar- ten class or online employee training. Older students could be asked to describe what they think being fair is, and they can also be asked about what characteristics are best in successful students. In online environments, anonymous discussion boards can be created so that stu- dents can have the opportunity to evaluate the course or instructor without the fear of being penalized for their comments.

Maintaining consistent classroom routines also fosters a safe learning environment. The class community is certainly one in a state of flux that can change with situations schoolwide, in the world, or community; with individual families and friendships; and with academic stressors, such as tests. Although curiosity and novelty are powerful attention grabbers, the value of some consistent routines should not be overlooked, especially in times of stress. Classroom meetings held once a week are a great way to start building a consistent and cohesive routine. Simple strategies can and should consistently be employed in conducting these meetings, such as passing a talking stick when someone has something to say, sitting around a lit candle that represents a campfire, or being sure that students acknowledge one quality they appreciate in a classmate prior to expressing a concern. You’ll find that these class meetings build trust and also give you feedback about the amount of trust that is developing through your efforts at community and relationship building. Wong, Wong, Rogers, and Brooks (2012) note that effective teachers have classroom management plans. They refer to classroom management as all the things teachers do to support or organize students so that learning can take place. Consistent routines and class meetings mentioned above would be part of classroom manage- ment. When a class is well-managed, it is safe, predictable, and focused on learning. Wong et al. (2012) stress the importance of establishing procedures for classroom management during the first few weeks of class. Once rules are put in place, students will be better able to learn.

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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

Relationship building could also be used to increase employee performance and productivity. Employees could be encouraged to build relationships with each other and their supervisors at company events. Collaboration on projects could be another way to increase interaction between employees. Supervisors should work to create positive relationships with employ- ees as well. Some of the above strategies could be used in this avenue. For example, super- visors could ask employees for feedback or a report card on their performance. Consistent workplace routines could also be used to help promote a safe environment for employees. In a study examining leadership styles and safety behaviors in workers, Mullen, Kelloway, and Teed (2011) note that passive leaders have employees that are less likely to comply with safety rules. They note that consistently promoting and engaging in safety behaviors will pro- vide the best benefits for employees. Additionally, the study noted that the effects of passive leaders were stronger for younger workers. These results highlight the need for leaders in the workplace to focus on safety behaviors and be positive role models for employees (Mullen, Kelloway, & Teed, 2011).

2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity Once there is not the attention deflector of perceived threat, curiosity will prepare students’ attention intake to know more about novel sensory input and seek explanations for the curi- ous changes in the pattern of their environment. Humans have a desire to seek out new knowledge. This desire is evidenced in our numerous explorations and inventions over the course of time. This desire for knowledge shows up in behavior as small changes, such as ori- enting to a new sign, or as big changes, such as inventing electricity, and seems to indicate that humans find learning reinforcing on its own (Gottlieb, Oudeyer, Lopes, & Baranes, 2013). One important thing to remember is that students cannot be curious outside of what they know. Students need some background knowledge in order to set the stage and create curiosity (Gottlieb, Oudeyer, Lopes, & Baranes, 2013).

Even without red wagons and fire extinguishers, you can promote flow through your students’ RAS with changes in the brain’s expected pattern. Using color, music, movement, advertise- ments, curious photographs, unexpected objects, and even aromatic sensations for upcoming units, as well as holding class outdoors, you can alert the RAS to pay attention through posi- tive expectations.

A memorable inspirational poster proclaims, “A brain stretched to new limits never regains its original shape.” Educators can stretch their students’ brains to new limits beginning with strategies that stimulate sensory intake through the use of novelty and curiosity. These strat- egies include the use of movement, sound, visual change, discrepant events, extremes, and the use of advertising.

Movement in the Classroom

The perception of movement in the environment or movement of one’s body itself is a prior- ity RAS sensory intake. You can provide both types of movement pattern change in the class- room. An obvious strategy is to have students perform some kind of movement—i.e., standing

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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

up and stretching, switching seats, gathering in groups—before receiving direct instruction. In the professional environment movement can be created by having workers collaborate on projects.

Another option might be to have students work at different stations throughout the class- room. For example, in a specific lesson, you might hang posters around the classroom with different headings on them. Students could walk around the room adding information to each poster. For young students, you could have them add pictures. For older students, you could

have them connect ideas or principles as well as add content. The idea of sta- tions could also be used in the work- place environment. Rather than having workers conduct all their work from the same office or cubicle, work envi- ronments could have specific rooms or stations where employees complete specific tasks. Moving between the rooms would help activate the RAS to intake more sensory input and help keep the workers focused.

As you create movement in the class- room, it is important to remember that movement helps with focusing atten- tion, but it does not ensure that learn-

ing will take place (Wolfe, 2001). Students should be actively engaged to make the movement most meaningful. Having students follow rules, respond to cues, or concentrate during the movement will make the movement more meaningful (Blakemore, 2003).

However, students do not need to even get out of their chairs to have the stimulus of move- ment promote attention. When you yourself move to different parts of the classroom during your instruction, they will be moving their torsos, necks, heads, and eyes to follow you. In addition to this movement itself, they will receive new visual sensory stimuli because the visuals behind you changed with your new place in the room.

Movement is tricky in the online environment because you are not directly interacting with your students; instead they are sitting in front of their computers. There are several things you can do in the design of the course to increase the student interaction with the course and thus, create the impression of movement. Lectures and readings should be supplemented with videos, pictures, or interactive quizzes that can break up the monotony of continuous reading. Requiring students to move from one website to another can be another way to cre- ate movement.

Beyond this more general type of movement, another strategy you can employ along these same lines is curiosity-boosting movement. These types of movements can be employed as primers for a specific lesson. An example of curiosity-boosting movement would be for you to be walking backward when the students enter the room. They would become curious as to why you’re walking backward and perhaps start making predictions. Now their curiosity would be a primer as you embark on a lesson in negative numbers, going back in time, plot

petrograd99/iStock/Thinkstock

Getting students up and out of their seats will also get their attention and promote better learning.

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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

events in the book they are reading with negative consequences, or positive and negative charges in atoms. In higher education it might be associated with positive or negative rein- forcement in a psychology class.

Finally, using novel presentation tools can create movement in a variety of classrooms. Prezi is an online presentation tool that allows you to place information into a format that creates movement for students. The presentation moves from one piece of information to the next, different than a typical PowerPoint. Individual nodes of information can be connected to each other so that students not only see movement, but they see connection as well. It is a free tool that is available at prezi.com. Students in the online environment can view links to your pre- sentation as well, so you don’t have to be in the live classroom to use the tool. Prezi could also be used to present information in the professional environment.

Employ Sound Effectively

It makes sense for animals in the wild to alert to changes in sound, and you can also provide these environmental changes in the classroom. Although the sensory discrimination of the RAS does not respond to verbal language in mammals, including humans, other qualities of your verbalizations can provide novel stimuli. You can modulate your voice pitch or cadence in different ways to emphasize material in the lesson. You can imitate robot speak or even Yoda with sentence structure reversal phrases such as, “Happy I am when I see the word pleasant spelled with an ‘ant’ at the end.”

You can also stimulate attention to the input that follows the absence of sound. If you stop talking midsentence and look around with a pleasant expression, so as not to give the mes- sage that you are impatiently waiting for students to quiet down, you are activating attentive intake with that suspenseful pause in your speech. Silence is a novelty in the classroom, and the RAS will alert to your unexpected pause with increased students’ attention to what you say or do next.

The Brain at Work

A summer camp director orienting new counselors to the camp could use the game of Bingo to employ novelty. The goal would be for the counselors to sustain attention while the director orients them to the names of important buildings and facilities on the camp grounds and where to find important supplies. A list of these 25 names and places would be available on a whiteboard, and the future counselors would have 5 × 5 Bingo cards without anything written in boxes. They would then write the names from the board onto their blank grid boxes in any order they choose. While the director is giving the new counselor orientation, each time they hear one of the words they would check off that Bingo box. The winner would be the first person to have five of the boxes filled in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row. This game promotes and sustains attention as an unusual experience during the meeting, and the personal relevance of the counselors’ own Bingo boards adds the motivation to sustain attention.

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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

Music also provides an opportunity for alert and attentive intake. Listening to music creates physiological changes in the brain. Increased synchronization in the alpha band is noted while listening to music (Wu, Zhang, Ding, & Zhou, 2013). The alpha band is a brain wave that is noted in individuals while they are awake and relaxed. Others have suggested the alpha band is related to attention (Klimesch, 2012; Schürmann & Başar, 2001). Benedek et al. (2011) sug- gest that increased synchronization in the alpha band wave is associated with top-down pro- cessing of information, suggesting that the increased synchronization of the alpha band seen during music processing can help the brain direct and focus attention. Playing music before the introduction of a lesson may prepare the brain to direct its attention. Additionally, Menon and Levitin (2005) found that listening to music activated the brain’s reward system and increased pleasure in participants. Recall that increasing pleasure can be a way to increase motivation for learning in students.

If you have a song or instrumental piece playing when students enter the classroom, they will be curious as to why the music is playing and why that particular music is playing. They will know, because you have provided curiosity and novelty before, that they will have the opportunity to evaluate the reasons for that music as the lesson goes on (see Chapter 3). Recall from earlier in the chapter that students cannot be curious outside of what they know; you need to set the stage. Music can help you set the stage by providing students with key information about what the lesson will be. For example, you might choose to play “The Star-Spangled Banner” for a certain history lesson. You can select the music with links to instruction in the tempo, musician, timing of when the piece was first written, or with unusual instruments playing a familiar song. Students will be attentive to the music and pleasantly alert to find out how it links to the lesson.

This information might be applicable to the workplace as well, due to the fact that many work environments play background music. Research on listening to music in the workplace has found mixed results (Huang & Shih, 2011). However, the type of music might be the influ- encing factor. In an experiment examining the effects of music on attention, Huang and Shih (2011) found that music that workers strongly liked or disliked had a negative effect on atten- tion. Strong like or dislike was thought to deter attention from the task at hand. Additionally, music with lyrics is noted to reduce worker attention (Shih, Huang, & Chiang, 2012). This would suggest that relatively neutral music with no lyrics would be the most beneficial in the workplace. Oldham et al. (1995) report that when doing relatively simple jobs, music might be able to increase performance by counteracting boredom and monotony.

One caution to using music might be not to use it too much. If music is used on a daily basis, it will become less novel and invoke little curiosity to students. Additionally, music can be associated with state-dependent learning. State-dependent learning refers to the process by which memory retrieval is aided when individuals are in the same state while recalling the information as they were in when they learned the information. The effect was demonstrated in a classic experiment where divers learned a list of words on land or under water. Later they were tested on land or under water. The results indicated that recall was better when the divers were in the same environment as when they learned the material. For example, if they

Ask Yourself In what contexts do you find music helps you be more productive? In what contexts do you find music distracting? Is there a particular type of music that lends itself to one or the other outcome? Do you think you would employ music to enhance learning? If so, how would you do it? If not, why?

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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

learned the list on dry land, recall was better on land; however, if they learned the list under water recall was better under water (Godden & Baddeley, 1975). This same effect might occur with music. If students learn information with music and then are tested without music, their performance may be hindered.

Visual Stimuli

Visual stimuli provide a strong sensory cue pattern, as the human brain has the most recep- tion area for input from the visual system. Approximately 20–30% of the brain is devoted to visual processing (Van Essen & Drury, 1997); therefore using visual stimuli in teaching is important. The use of color to designate importance is certainly a way to alert attention, but additional opportunities include varying the font or the spacing used in a text.

Your visual appearance is a powerful visual prompt if you alter it, such as by wearing a cos- tume, an odd accessory, or other curious apparel. Alterations that are visual novelties can also be made in the classroom, such as a new display on the bulletin board, change in the furniture arrangements, or curious photographs with subtle links to the upcoming instruction. A lit candle when students enter the classroom or a box that is gift wrapped that they can shake and make guesses about will prime attention.

One of my favorite visual prompts is one that I would offer just before the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. The students would enter the classroom and find a one-dollar and a five- dollar bill tacked to the ceiling above them. I would build on their curiosity as I led them into discussions such as how the bills relate to the coming holiday, who is on the one-dollar and five-dollar bill, or math warm-ups such as what can be done numerically with the numbers one and five or with the numbers that coincide with the number of the president on each bill (e.g., Washington was the first president). Students in the lower grades will be able to use arithmetic, such as addition, subtraction, division, and perhaps fractions to create as many combinations as possible with the numbers one and five. Older students will be able to add to those exponents, decimals, and square roots. In even older students who have more experi- ence with money (high school or college), rather than put bills on the ceiling you could have them attempt to draw a picture of the bills. This will not only invoke curiosity (they will be wondering why they are doing it), but it will engage their memory systems and get them actively engaged in the classroom.

In online learning, visual stimuli can help make the environment richer. Using diagrams, vid- eos, etc., to explain content can be especially important because the students will primarily be interacting with the information in a visual way. It can direct overall attention to an impor- tant concept, and new images change the expected pattern of information presentation and increase the flow of information through the RAS. In a study that looked at how animations influence learning in a biology class, O’Day (2007) found that undergraduate students prefer animations to reading the textbook and that these animations improved long-term memory of the information in comparison to simple graphics. Animations on almost any subject exist on the Internet. Finding an appropriate animation and embedding it in your online course can be a great help to students.

Visual stimuli can also be added to the workplace environment to improve employee atten- tion to certain practices. Posters could be placed at different stations with instructions on

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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

how to properly complete a task. Emails with different diagrams could be sent to employees to help them learn new policies or procedures. Presentations and training should also incor- porate visual stimuli to boost worker attention.

Radishes

Recall how, as a child, you felt about radishes as garnish on your plate. Now, imagine walk- ing into your childhood classroom to find a radish on your desk and additional radishes on the desks of your classmates. One of my favorite RAS primers was placing a radish on each student’s desk before class. Instead of the disdainful looks radishes usually receive when on a salad plate, these radishes were sources of novelty and delight. Students even asked if they were theirs “to keep” and if they could eat them when we were finished.

Students’ RAS were opened through their curiosity about these mundane objects because they were on their classroom desks and not in the expected “pattern of location” on their lunch plates. They were engaged and motivated to discover the reason the radishes were there. Predictions abounded as their attention was sustained and during the subsequent his- tory unit.

An unexpected result of the radish was to have students consider its relationship not just the first day, but also throughout the unit on Westward expansion. The question was, how is the radish correlated with the experience of the Native Americans who were moved to reserva- tions? Their responses showed much more depth of understanding and compassion with the challenges and disappointments based on the experiences of the Native Americans than in previous years when students did not have the radish with which to make metaphors.

Here are two examples:

• Tribes that farmed needed good soil and rain, but were given the worst land. Their harvests made them bitter like radishes.

• The new world people kept the best land for their own farming and grew green, leafy crops like the leaves next to the radishes.

Discrepant Events

When individuals view a scene or an event, they often break it into meaningful parts in order to understand it. This is known as event segmentation (Zacks & Swallow, 2007). Research on event segmentation seems to indicate that it is an automatic process that is economical. That is, it helps us reduce the continuous flow of information and better remember the informa- tion later. Zacks et al. (2007) reported that the brain tracks salient features of the environ- ment and when a feature changes unpredictably, an event boundary is created (see Figure 2.3 below for an example). As this is occurring, an individual uses incoming sensory input to process perceptual features, like color or sound. However, top-down mechanisms are needed to process conceptual input that connects what the individual already knows with the incom- ing information (Zacks & Swallow, 2007). This organization of the brain, using both incoming sensory input and higher-order processing to segment events, allows you take advantage of

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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

processing and grab your students’ attention by using discrepant events. As events are being segmented, something discrepant will create unpredictability and cause the individual to cre- ate a new event boundary.

Discrepant events are things that are unexpected and that puzzle the observer. Discrepant events are especially curiosity provoking because they are both novel and are also inconsis- tent with what the brain expects. You can capture students’ attention because they want to know how to make sense of something unexpected, such as a white carnation that gradually takes on green pigment (which can be done by dipping a white carnation in an opaque vase filled with water and green food coloring). Sometimes you may need to point out the discrep- ant event, but students will indeed be on sensory alert if you employ these types of discrepant events as part of your classroom environment. Examples of discrepant events exist all over the Internet. YouTube provides some great demonstrations of events that are discrepant as well as videos of magic tricks that can be embedded into an online class. Pinterest also has some good ideas for discrepant events. These types of demonstrations can be particularly helpful in physics courses because many laws of physics go against our intuitive thinking (Petitto & Dunbar, 2004). The discrepant event will help engage both bottom-up processing and top-down processing in your students and get them to start to think about the informa- tion in a new way.

Figure 2.3: Event segmentation

Zacks and Swallow (2007) give the process of pitching a tent as an example of event segmentation, where each new step the woman takes toward finishing the tent is perceived as a separate event segment. If one of the tent poles broke, this discrepant event would likely cause us to create a new and different event boundary for that segment.

The Brain at Work

The strategy of using a curious visual stimulus is one that would be useful for waiters at a hotel event or security guards on a building site, for example, to emphasize how important it is for them to stay alert to things that appear to be routine but end up being important. The discrepant event will exemplify that attention should not be limited to the unusual but also to the more common objects in the area.

A speaker in front of a group could also use discrepant events to benefit his or her presentation. The discrepant event in this case could be an orange, previously dipped in liquid nitrogen and placed on a table or counter in front of the room. At some point during the presentation the speaker would bump into the orange, which would drop to the floor. However, because it is frozen solid as a result of the liquid nitrogen, the orange would startlingly shatter into dozens of pieces. The assembled group would then be attentive and curious to discuss the event and predict potential things that could arise in their work that warrant attention even when they appear ordinary.

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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

Figure 2.3: Event segmentation

The Brain at Work

Using Extremes

Considering that mammals survive in unpredictable environments, it would be reasonable for priority sensory selection to alert to things that are more extreme than the rest of the environment—whether it is a potential for great threat or for great pleasure. This attraction to extremes is also a tool to use to engage student attention in both young and old students.

Employing hyperbole or using phrases, when appropriate, that include the words “most, big- gest, smallest, fastest, or longest” can draw attention. An example of hyperbole would be a mathematics word problem: “The three-month-old girl threw the ball 3,000 meters farther than the pitching machine. Calculate the . . .”

You can even take examples right out a book such as the Guinness Book of World Records as prompts for discussions on a variety of topics. A great website for surprising facts you can link to lessons is http://mentalfloss.com/amazingfactgenerator#f204.* Accompanying these with visual input will have even more of that pattern-surprising novelty to engage intake through the RAS. An example of visual input might be a video of an extreme sport. You could then connect the video to concepts of math or science—for example, calculating the force it might take to move a large boulder in a strong-man competition. Or in a business course you could look at graphs of the stock market that show shifts from major highs to lows and discuss principles related to extreme shifts in the market. History classes could watch videos of extreme riots or demonstrations that changed the course of politics in a country. These extreme events will grab the attention of the RAS, and as students process the more difficult conceptual information associated with the event, they will begin to use higher brain func- tions that aid in the learning of the material.

*Link used by permission of Mental Floss.

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http://mentalfloss.com/amazingfactgenerator#f204

Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

Advertising

The advertising industry spends billions of dollars each year doing research on what sensory input in their media is most likely to capture the attention of the consumers. Opportunities to advertise a lesson do not need to cost you more than a few minutes of time. You can take advantage of the advertising research when you want to promote attention to an upcoming unit or topic that is not a favorite of the students year after year.

In advance of this upcoming lesson or unit, consider how you can prime students’ interest and activate their prior knowledge. You can use a poster or even download a picture from the Internet and cut it up into puzzle-shaped pieces that you will mount on the wall. In the 1–2 weeks preceding the unit of instruction, add an additional puzzle piece each day as students develop increasing curiosity as to what the picture will be and then to how it will relate to the upcoming unit.

For example, the curiosity and even attendance on “opening day” was certainly enhanced when I advertised a unit in advance with downloaded pictures representing the Star Wars movies. Every few days I’d post one of these pictures until the day before the new unit when the picture was of a T-shirt that said, “The force will be with you.” I wrote under that phrase the word “tomorrow.” It was that next day when I found that curiosity indeed impacted atten- dance and punctuality as I saw students, even those perpetually late, arrive on time to see what awaited them.

The first year I used these posters, the students entered the classroom to see me spinning a string with a paper cup tied to the end. When they had all entered, I stopped spinning the cup, and a marble fell out as the introduc- tion to a lesson on the differences between centripetal and centrifugal force. In following years I used the same posters to promote different lessons, including the use of forceful opening sentences, exclamation points, forces of nature, forces that changed history, and the forces of pressure.

Using posters in a college class or an online class would be more difficult. However, you could modify this example to suit your needs. For example, in a college course you could end each class by showing students a picture of something that will be relevant in the next class. For example, before moving to a lecture on the psychology of learning, you might show your students an image of a dog or a rat to indicate that the next lessons will be focused on Pavlov’s dog or Skinner’s rats. In the online environment you can make use of an announce- ment board. A weekly announcement can be posted to advertise what is coming up next. In a study examining the use of interactive teaching tools in an online class, instructors were able to increase student usage of the interactive tools by advertising the benefits of the tools in announcements (Karaksha et al., 2013). You can also use email as way to reach out to students and advertise different tools in your class that can facilitate their learning process. Integrat- ing music, visual stimuli, or videos of extremes into the announcement can be a way to create curiosity and grab attention.

Ask Yourself In your experience, what types of advertisements do you find most effective? Are they funny? Do they employ cool music? A catchy jingle? Interesting people? Unique visuals? What elements of successful ads would you use to engage an audience?

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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

The RAS Doesn’t Obey Verbal Requests to “Pay Attention”

Throughout a lesson, a teacher is usually presenting information that represents varying degrees of importance. For example, in describing human anatomy a teacher might want students to understand the parts of the digestive system. Some anatomical structures are more important for understanding how the digestive system works than others. How can the teacher alert students to the most important information?

Now that you know that novelty or change in the expected pattern receives priority intake through the attention system, you have that tool for gauging student attention. However, you now also know that the RAS is a very primitive filter. That being the case, using words such as “pay attention” do not have any impact on this low-brain structure. The simple rule to keep in mind is that if saying or doing something would not communicate information to our little fox, it is unlikely to pass through the same intake structure in your students.

There are ways to use what we know about sensory input that is high intake to draw students’ attention to information that is particularly important. Let’s review some possible strategies below.

The Traffic Light For younger students consider having a picture of a traffic light on the wall with the green, yellow, and red placed from bottom to top. Explain to them that the color progression symbol- izes levels of importance that you will be designating when information comes up in class that you would like them to recognize as particularly important. This simple visual cue will prove more effective than merely telling students to “pay attention” in the moment you need them to do so. And this system can be coordinated with other attention-grabbing strategies to fur- ther reinforce the importance of particular topics, as demonstrated in the following sections.

For older students you can signal them in a similar but modified way. For example, if you are presenting a PowerPoint lecture in a college course, you can create a graphic that appears next to information that is particularly important for students to know and remember. The graphic could be a silly picture, or it could be a special kind of bullet. This same system could be integrated into lectures that are delivered in the online environment as well. Another strat- egy might be to inset questions at different points in your lecture for students to answer. This will make them go back to the material and find the important information.

The Hat The first signaling system I designed was putting on a cap. The cap’s design was the surface of the brain with its wrinkles. I told the students that when I put the cap on, it symbolized that something important had been said or was about to be said. It could be something that a student said in a discussion, something that the students read during a read around, or some- thing that I was about to say in instruction.

Recall that color, movement, and change in your appearance are high influence novelties. These were all involved in my forms of signaling. If I put the hat on brim forward, it was level one importance, corresponding to the green color on the traffic light. If I put the hat on in a

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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

sideways position or moved the brim from normal front to sideways, it signified an increase in importance or a higher importance to begin with, thus the equivalent of yellow on the traffic light. If I positioned the hat’s brim facing backward it was the equivalent of red on the traffic light and top-level importance for their attention.

I had a fourth signal that also involved the brim. When something was extremely important I would place the brim forward and flip it up so they could read the words on the underside of the brim that said, “Think, think, think!”

You may feel silly using this kind of strategy with older students; however, their brains will respond to the hat stimuli as well. You might modify it by using a special kind of laser pointer at different areas of your lecture or you might embed a particular clip of music (like the Jeop- ardy! theme song) in your PowerPoint slides when you are presenting important information.

Colored Pencils The colored pencils prompt would use both color and movement to engage attention. Rou- tinely, I would not use the three traffic light colors when I would write on the board with either chalk or dry erase markers. Similarly, the students would have those three colors of pencils at their desks but would not use them unless I used them.

If I wanted to signal something of first-level importance I would dramatically take my green writing implement so that the students would get out their green pencils. The movement of classmates getting their green pencils would alert the attention of students who were not as responsive to that change as others.

They knew that the green color indicated the green level of the traffic light, and it was a nov- elty for them to be able to write in green. The same process would be in place if I used my yellow marker and they used yellow pencils; or for highest importance I used my red, and they would follow suit.

College students could also be encouraged to use different colors of ink or marker while tak- ing notes. Figure 2.4 shows how color-coded notation can be used in learning music as well. Additionally, you could use different colors of marker on a marker board or smart board while teaching. In the online environment, you could use different color coding in the notes that are presented. For example, black would be the typical color presented, but when information is particularly important it could appear in red.

When I first began these strategies, I was concerned that I was depriving students of an important skill they needed to build, that of being able to prioritize information from lectures, conversations, or reading that was most important. However, my concern was alleviated early the first year I used the cap strategy and each year thereafter, when students without any prompting would start drawing little caps with the brims in different directions in the notes they took in class or at home during their reading. They were using these as their own desig- nations of levels of importance.

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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

As I began to gradually withdraw this scaffolding as the year progressed, I followed their cues and assigned the class to use either the color designations or the cap drawn in different direc- tions when taking notes to designate importance. I would then be able to assess their compre- hension of importance and priority by evaluating their notes.

Have Fun

If you’re having fun, so will your students. Although it may seem daunting at first, when you start trying these strategies, and as you get more comfortable doing so, you’ll find yourself having more and more fun. And as we discussed earlier, students respond in kind to your moods and expressions. If they see you’re happy and having fun, they are much more apt to be happy and having fun as well. You’ll notice their enthusiasm and the increased attention paid to the instruction as you find and use these creative ways to connect students to the instruc- tional topics. You will be doing more than engaging them in the lesson—you will be sustaining or renewing their awe and joy for learning.

Suggestions and Cautions

You now have a variety of sensory stimuli and suggestions for engaging intake to a system responsive to changes in the expected pattern. Using novelty to promote curiosity is quite valuable, especially at the beginning of instruction of the unit. The caution is not to stick with just one type of sensory opening such as just visuals or playing music when students enter. You want to avoid the novel becoming too routine, so it is a good idea to rotate the type of curious opening that you use.

Figure 2.4: Color-coded notation

Color-coding musical instruments and notation is a popular way for musicians to begin learning. What else in a learning environment would be more effective if it were color-coded?

CC DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CC DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CC D EE FEE F GG AA BB CC DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CCDCC DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CC DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CC D EE FEE F GG AA BB CC DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CCD

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Summary and Resources

The other caution is to be wary of changes to the classroom environment that some stu- dents might find disturbing or distracting, which of course would be the opposite of your intended effect. Consider the potential negative response from these students if you are plan- ning something that may be engaging to most students but may be potentially threatening to others. In my years of teaching, I found that such potential pitfalls were offset as long as I communicated in advance with any students I felt might have an adverse reaction to a strat- egy I was considering for class. For example, if I was going to be walking backward, I would tell the students about whom I was concerned what I was going to do and invite them to join me in that activity. I would either meet with them at the end of class the day before or ask them to meet me at the classroom door before coming in the next morning, so I could alert them to what was happening.

It was only a rare situation where I thought it prudent to notify children’s parents the night before so they could let the student be prepared. In general it will serve you best if you keep in mind the special-needs students with plans to prepare or partner with them.

Summary and Resources

Chapter Conclusions • The amount of sensory information available every second exceeds the amount the

brain can process. • The brain has an attention filter, the RAS, that is programed to selectively admit sen-

sory information based on specific characteristics. • Bottom-up processing is used when things in the environment grab the brain’s

attention; top-down processing is used when we direct our attention to process a specific piece of information in the environment.

• The programming for attention intake makes the selection of sensory information essentially involuntary.

• The brain, for survival of the animal and species, has evolved to seek patterns and pleasure.

• The selection of which sensory input is admitted into the brain is an involuntary response programmed to give priority to changes in the expected pattern. Pattern change–related sensory information interpreted as potentially threatening gets pri- ority and often blocks intake of other information.

• If there is no threat, intake priority goes to novelty or pattern change that is curi- ous. Therefore, it is crucial to eliminate threats in learning environments in order for students to learn at their fullest capacity.

• Creating safe and constructive classroom climates and relationships between edu- cators and students, as well as among students themselves, is essential in fostering optimal learning in students.

• Once a safe and trusting environment has been created, there are many strategies educators can use to implement novelty and promote curiosity in students.

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Summary and Resources

Web Resources http://prezi.com Prezi is a free online presentation tool that allows you to place information into a format that creates movement for students. The presentation moves from one piece of information to the next, different than a typical PowerPoint. Individual modes of information can be connected to each other so that students not only see movement, but they see connection as well.

http://animoto.com/education Animoto is a website that allows you to make videos. You can use this site to make “advertis- ing promos” for your lessons. You can view my Animotos under “Judy Willis” or “RAD Teach” on YouTube, one of which is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEi3VXNmnjo.

http://studentdigitaltools.wordpress.com/ Student Digital Tools has dozens of digital tools and images for students and for you to cre- ate curiosity about a lesson or unit.

Questions for Review and Discussion 1. Think of a time when your attention was grabbed and held in a learning experience

such that the sensory information made it through your attention filter and became a long-term memory. Using what you’ve learned about the reticular activating sys- tem, how could you now explain why your brain “paid attention” so successfully?

2. What are some things that derail attention and keep information from entering the RAS?

3. How can you evaluate the class climate? What will you look for that, from a student’s perspective, could be interpreted as potentially threatening?

4. What strategies will you employ to promote a safe, supportive classroom community? 5. How could you focus student attention through novelty and curiosity using what

you’ve learned about the brain’s directive of attending to changes in the patterns it expects to perceive?

6. Since you can’t tell a fox to “pay attention” and get any significant response, how can you nonverbally indicate to students that a particular piece of information is espe- cially important?

7. Which information from this chapter will you use (or have you already successfully used) to promote engagement in the classroom, and what is the science that sup- ports your choices?

Key Terms

bottom-up processing Processing of information by the brain that is sensory driven. Whether or not the information will be processed depends on its characteristics. Stimuli that are salient will create bottom-up processing.

discrepant event Something that does not appear or turn out in the way the brain expects. The sense of disequilibrium expe- rienced with a discrepant event motivates students’ attention and curiosity as the brain seeks an explanation for its incorrect prediction.

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http://prezi.com

http://animoto.com/education

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEi3VXNmnjo

http://studentdigitaltools.wordpress.com/

Summary and Resources

mirror neurons the neurons in the brain that respond when we perform an action and when we see that action being performed.

reticular activating system (RAS) This lower part of the posterior brain filters all incoming stimuli and makes the “decision” as to what sensory input is attended to or ignored. The main categories that focus the attention of the RAS include novelty (changes in the environment), surprise, dan- ger, and movement.

top-down processing Processing of infor- mation by the brain that is knowledge based. It refers to our ability to direct attention to a particular stimulus or event in the environment.

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