By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm:
When it comes to memory and attention, goldfish get a bad rap. It is said that they can only keep a thought in their heads for such a short span that the little plastic castle must be a surprise every time they see it. In truth, research shows that goldfish can remember new information for months. Still, that wasn’t enough to stop the recent stories circulating with clickbait headlines like, “You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span Than a Goldfish.” The articles draw on the comparison between a measured human attention span of just eight seconds, compared to a goldfish’s presumed span of nine seconds. Attention being different from memory, the source of the goldfish data is a little murky, but on the human side, the finding stems from a recent research report from Microsoft Canada aimed at advertisers. The main conclusion of the report is that, thanks to our digital lifestyle embracing many screens and instant chances to engage, our attention span is short and getting shorter. And it isn’t just normal human frailty that is the concern here. Rather, it is the realization that memory as a commodity is getting scarcer. And just like polar ice, the rate at which it is disappearing is speeding up as well. The report is available for free download, and fittingly, those who don’t have the attention spans to make it through a 52-page read can see the key takeaways boiled down in one quick infographic.
A good understanding of the limits of attention should be high on the priority list for litigators. After all, the jury trial model is one that is based on sustained, deep, careful attention. Average citizens who’ve never been trained or acclimated to the legal process are expected to sit in the courtroom over days, weeks, or even months to absorb information without interacting and without forming conclusions along the way. That’s a pretty tall order on face, and the more one learns about the limits and challenges to human attention, the taller the order becomes. The recent Microsoft study puts an exclamation point on the problem, showing the effect of recent changes in our relationship to technology, and those changes have been at odds with the contemplative model of the trial. As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella puts it, “We are moving from a world where computing power was scarce to a place where it now is almost limitless, and where the true scarce commodity is increasingly human attention.” In this post, I’ll take a look at the Microsoft study and share some recommendations on adapting to a finite and shrinking attention span in the jury box.
The Research: Fast and Ever-Present Media Equals Shrinking Attention
So, should you read this, or perhaps you should quickly check your email? Or see if any new tweets have come in? Or what about your Facebook notifications? For the typical wired and connected citizen, it may be a continuous back-and-forth among these various activities while our skills in sustained attention are taking a beating. The Microsoft report focused on the extent of the resulting erosion of attention, and is summarized by Time Magazine on May 14th of this year. Researchers surveyed 2000 research participants, and then conducted electroencephalograms on 112 others. Because this is Microsoft Canada, all of these participants are Canadians, but how different are they really from Americans, eh? But more seriously, Canadians rank pretty close to Americans in internet and mobile device usage.
Attention relates to the level of mental resources we are able and willing to devote to a single task or stimuli, and for how long. It comes in three kinds: sustained attention (prolonged focus on a single thought or task), selective attention (the ability to resist distractions) and alternating attention (the ability to effectively multi-task). Looking at prolonged attention, the kind that seems most relevant for trial, the Microsoft study found that people lose concentration after about eight seconds. That is one second sooner than the nine attributed to the goldfish, and it is down from 12 seconds measured in the year 2000. Based on the survey results, the team concludes that “Long-term focus erodes with increased digital consumption, social media usage, and tech savviness.” That erosion means that we are probably working harder. The survey found that 44 percent report having to concentrate hard in order to stay focused. That proportion is higher among early technology adopters (68 percent), heavy social media users (67 percent), and 18-24 year olds (67 percent).
The Microsoft team traces this challenge to the effects of our digital lifestyles. Media use, social media dependence, technology adoption, and multi-screen behavior have all conditioned us to expect and demand a shifting stimuli. “Heavy multi-screeners,” they say, “find it difficult to filter out irrelevant stimuli — they’re more easily distracted by multiple streams of media.”
There is a silver lining to that distractibility, however. Microsoft’s Alyson Gausby writes in the report’s forward that “Tech savvy consumers are actually getting better at processing information and encoding that information to memory.” The researchers also found that higher social media users and early tech adopters show increased ability to provide short bursts of high attention. But there are good reasons to fear that this benefit — short and shifting attention devoted to serial stimuli — isn’t naturally well-suited to the style or substance of courtroom persuasion. Another study, released just last week, points toward an additional wrinkle. Duke researchers (Chiu & Enger, 2015) found that practicing self-control in a particular situation further taxes attention and memory. So as jurors sit there in the formal courtroom setting, not blurting out what they’re thinking, not reaching premature conclusions, and resisting the temptation to check their phones, they are leaving themselves with even less mental space to be devoted to an understanding of your case.
The Recommendation: Adapt (Even More)
Persuading jurors in a digital age means reminding yourself that the type of attention they’re asked to give in court goes against their habits of attention — habits that are being reinforced and extended on a daily basis when they aren’t in court. It is safe to assume that they are struggling. As far as the 8-second rule goes, it does provide a reminder that your first words are important — but obviously that isn’t all that is important. After all, we are able to watch feature-length movies and still remember what happened in the beginning. Attention can be regained, and a good way of thinking about effective style is that it is mostly a matter of speaking as though you are continually trying to regain attention, which you are.
The Microsoft report advises treating attention span as if it is a picky consumer. Modern media users have less sustained attention, but are also more efficient at continuously filtering what they want or don’t want at any given moment. A good advocate knows this and consistently works to re-engage. As Microsoft notes, “Consumers,” and I’d add jurors, “are looking for something to care about at every moment.”
Here are a few implications that bear re-emphasis:
- Dig in early and make your first sentences count.
- Don’t skimp on breaks. Jurors need to reboot, and their attention will be better when they come back.
- Use visuals to regain attention and to engage jurors at more than one level.
- Tell stories. The idea of plot is one of the most reliable means of gaining and regaining attention.
- Break your content into chunks, or chapters, so you are continually moving and regaining attention.
- Focus your issue selection, your arguments, and your support. That often means “reduce, reduce, reduce.”
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Other Posts on Memory and Attention:
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Y.-C. Chiu, T. Egner. Inhibition-Induced Forgetting Results from Resource Competition between Response Inhibition and Memory Encoding Processes. Journal of Neuroscience, 2015; 35 (34): 11936 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0519-15.2015
Microsoft Canada (2015). Attention Spans. [Research Report and Infographic] URL: http://advertising.microsoft.com/en/cl/31966/how-does-digital-affect-canadian-attention-spans
Image Credit: AJ Cann, Flickr Creative Commons