Monthly Archive for January, 2024

Arnold L. Glass & Mengxue Kang (2019) Dividing attention in the classroom reduces exam performance,Educational Psychology, 39:3, 395-408.

When students are allowed to use phones, tablets or other devices for non-academic purposes during classroom lectures, they perform worse in end-of-term exams, according to a new Rutgers University–New Brunswick study.

The study, published in Educational Psychology, also found that students who don’t use electronic devices in class, but attend lectures where their use is permitted, also do worse – suggesting that phone and tablet use damages the group learning environment.

“Many dedicated students think they can divide their attention in the classroom without harming their academic success – but we found an insidious effect on exam performance and final grades,” said lead researcher Arnold Glass, a professor of psychology at Rutgers–New Brunswick’s School of Arts and Sciences. “To help manage the use of devices in the classroom, teachers should explain to students the damaging effect of distractions on retention – not only on themselves, but for the whole class.”

Glass, working with graduate student Mengxue Kang, led the experiment to test whether allowing students to divide their attention between electronic devices and the lecturer affected performance on tests taken during class as well as the end-of-term exam.

The experiment included 118 Rutgers–New Brunswick cognitive psychology students during one term of their course. Laptops, phones and tablets were banned during half of the lectures and permitted during the other half. When devices were allowed, students were asked to record whether they had used them for non-academic purposes during the lectures.

The study found that having a device didn’t lower students’ scores in comprehension tests within lectures but did lower their scores in the end-of-term exam by at least 5 percent, or half a grade. This finding shows for the first time that the main effect of divided attention in the classroom is on long-term retention.

In addition, when the use of electronic devices was allowed in class, performance was also poorer for students who did not use devices as well as for those who did.

This is the first-ever study in an actual classroom showing a causal relationship between distractions from an electronic device and subsequent exam performance.

High performance requires deep thoughts that lead to the acceptance of one’s anxiety and any emotional state the athlete may be in.

Here are some examples of great Italian champions:

Giovanni Pellielo (shooting, 4 Olympic medals, 4 world golds)

The last series of selection was the heaviest; I scored zero on the penultimate target in the first platform, and I finished with twenty-three. It was the series where I suffered the most because I had to achieve the result in difficult conditions and with a very high emotional load, as I was the man who had already won two Olympic medals. Let’s say that on that occasion, all the ghosts came to mind; it was difficult to close that result, but I did it. Then I thought about the final, referring to the baggage of four years of experience, and I relived everything I had done in the last year in terms of preparation, especially psychologically, so as to face the final as I wanted and desired.

Valentina Vezzali (6 Olympic golds)

I have great respect for the opponent to the point of trembling like a leaf before the start of each competition. When there are ten minutes left until the match, it feels like going back to the high school graduation exam. I feel the same anguish.

Jannik Sinner (tennis, 1st Italian to win a Grand Slam tournament in 48 years)

Under pressure? Nothing compared to that of a surgeon or a head of the family who has to put dinner on the table. Maintaining a family or not knowing if a rocket is going to hit your house, that’s pressure. Playing tennis is a privilege, something to feel honored about.

It is not about nostalgia for the past. It is knowing where we came from and reflecting where we have arrived today in soccer. In Rocco’s Milan, the genius he speaks of was Gianni Rivera.

60 years later, aside from the differences in the game, the donkeys have studied.

The Association of Italian Doctors and Doctoral Students conducted a survey of 7,000 doctoral enrollees who responded to the questionnaire posed and found that nearly half of the scholars at the top rung of education-training in the country have high-risk mental health.

• 27% report scores rated as severe or very severe on a scale assessing anxiety, 36 percent report a similar situation for depression, and 37 percent for stress. These data are higher than those found in the general population but also higher than those of fellow Ph.D. students abroad. Only 52% have no severe scores.
• 20% have severe values in the three psychopathological dimensions: stress, anxiety, depression.
• 16,243 euros (1,195 net per month) is the minimum gross amount set by the Ministry of Education and Research for a doctoral fellowship. Purchasing power is down 8.7 percent from 15 years ago and 9 percent from the 2020 figure.
• 61.6% of doctoral students are in the range between 1,100 and 1,200 euros per month, the minimum for the fellowship. Nine percent are below. Less than a third of the sample, therefore, is above 1,200 euros per month and only 18.6 percent is above 1,300 euros per month.
• 24 out of 40 cities host 80.2 percent of the total number of doctoral positions in Italy. The rent for a 35-square-meter studio apartment in the center is more than 30 percent of the grant.
• 52% could not meet an unexpected expense of 400 euros, and only 26 percent exceed the determining threshold of 800 euros, “the one used in official statistics to determine poverty status.”
• 88% perceive the precariousness of the role, and more than 50% initially intending to stay in academia say they have changed their minds.

Being skilled in Italy is a disgrace.