2 Listen Activity 1
Activity #L1: Selective Attention, Find the Mascot
Do you remember the “Where’s Waldo?” books from your childhood? They are a “seek and find” style book where you look for one thing in a very busy scene of many, many objects. The task can be easy or more difficult depending on the image and environment.
Our version is called “Find the Mascot.” Most of you are familiar with team mascots. They can often be found in a crowded sports arena and are dressed in the same team colors as the players and fans. Sure, almost anyone can spot the mascot if it is dancing center court during game intermission; however, what happens when the mascot gets “lost” among fans in the bleachers?
Check out this picture.
Finding this same mascot among the crowd is not as easy as you might think. Check out this picture of the crowd and “Find the mascot.”
If you haven’t found him yet: focus on the middle of the picture; still don’t see him? Once you see the mascot, it is difficult to go back in time and unsee it.
This process of finding one thing among many demonstrates how attention is SELECTIVE. Our attention at any given moment can be highly focused on one thing (like the mascot) or divided among many concepts or ideas (the crowd, the mascot, the players, or in some cases, we may not even be looking at the correct picture).
Listening while we learn is similar to this activity. It sometimes takes all of our focus to understand a new topic or idea. If our listening is not focused or we fail to even listen at all, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to learn.
The first feature of attention you need to know for effective learning is “IT IS SELECTIVE“.
