Attention Matters

This self-guided course developed by NLL researchers includes modules on how to understand, manage, and leverage our attentional resources. The main ideas in this course are:

1. Attention is one of the most important resources that we have. Its impact is ubiquitous in our lives and interacts with every aspect of learning and work performance.
   
2. Our beliefs about the nature of attention impact how we attempt to deploy it and how we feel about our efforts, and subsequently, ourselves.
   
3. While attention is certainly a deployable resource, outdated ideas about how attention and perception work often lead to untenable practices by educators and by learners.
   
4. Understanding how human cognitive architecture engages attention will help us to work with its limitations and affordances to offer the best strategies for deploying attention.

Each of these main ideas is represented in a separate self-guided module in the course Attention Matters, which is part of our larger learning series “A User’s Guide to the Mind: Next Level Lab Self-Guided Courses to Support Learning and Work Performance.” The modules can be done individually, or they can provide the basis for group sessions and discussions. Downloadable module materials are linked in the table below.

Attention Matters Course Materials