Found this new study via Daniel Willingham. In the paper, “Investigating Attention Contagion Between Students in a Lecture Hall,” Forrin and colleagues examine how attention or lack thereof spreads among students during lectures. This phenomenon, called attention contagion, suggests that one student’s attention or lack of attention may affect the attention of other students in the same room. The study was conducted by observing 180 psychology students during a simulated lecture in a lecture hall, where the researchers wanted to determine whether some students’ (missing) attention could cause a domino effect.

The researchers established several research questions and hypotheses. The most important were:

1. Attention contagion between students: The hypothesis was that the (no) attention of some students would spill over to others even without distracting factors such as electronic devices like smartphones or laptops.
2. Impact on learning outcomes: Students were expected to learn more and perform better on a post-lecture quiz if they were surrounded by attentive rather than non-attentive students.
3. Effect of proximity: Proximity to (non-)attentive classmates would influence how strong the attention contagion was.
4. Spread of both attention and inaction: Both attentiveness and lack of attention could spread, with the degree of contagion depending on the distance from the source of (no) attention.
5. Role of goals and social assessment: The researchers suggested that attention contagion was driven by “goal contagion” (adopting the learning goals of others) and by social assessment of the value of college content.

To answer these research questions, the researchers proceeded as follows. The study took place in a lecture hall with 60 students per session, including 15 “accomplices” who were instructed by the researchers to behave in a certain way. During the lecture, all students watched a pre-recorded 30-minute video lecture. In two of the four sessions, the accomplices behaved attentively (e.g., taking notes and sitting up straight). In comparison, they were intentionally non-attentive in the other two sessions (e.g., fidgeting and looking around). The remaining students were randomly divided into three zones: near the accomplices, at some distance, and far away.

The results showed that non-attentive behaviour was contagious, especially for students directly next to two non-attentive accomplices. These students reported lower attention during the lecture, took fewer notes and performed worse on the quiz afterwards. In contrast, attentive accomplices had no significant effect on other students’ attention or performance. This suggests that negative attention (non-attention) has a more substantial contagious effect than positive attention.

The findings suggest that (lack of) attention can spill over into a lecture hall and that this effect is especially strong when students are close to the source of (no) attention. This has important implications for how colleges are organized, especially when fostering a learning environment in which attentiveness is maximized.

This research further suggests that although distraction from electronic devices is often cited as a problem, even subtle behavioural changes such as fidgeting or looking around can have a major impact on others’ learning. Future research could focus on replicating these findings in different educational settings and with diverse student groups to confirm their generalizability.

Abstract of the study:

Extending prior attention contagion research (Forrin et al., 2021; Kalsi et al., 2022), we investigated whether (in)attentive states spread between undergraduate psychology students (n = 180) during a simulated lecture in a lecture hall. In each of four experimental sessions conducted in January 2020, 45 participants and 15 research confederates watched a 30-min lecture video that was immediately followed by a content quiz. We experimentally manipulated two factors while controlling for peer distraction: (a) whether all confederates were attentive or inattentive during the lecture and (b) the proximity of participants relative to confederates (seated between two confederates vs. one row behind confederates vs. far away from confederates). Although we hypothesized that both confederate attentiveness and inattentiveness would be contagious, we only found evidence of the latter. Specifically, inattentiveness spread to participants seated between two inattentive confederates, as evidenced by lower self-reported attentiveness during the lecture, fewer pages of notes, and worse quiz performance (relative to participants in the other conditions). These results demonstrate that inattention contagion is an ecologically valid phenomenon that is distinct from peer distraction. Moreover, instructors and students should be aware that inattention may be particularly contagious when students are seated beside (vs. behind) inattentive peers. To assess the generalizability of these results, future attention contagion research should recruit diverse student samples in real classrooms with varied seating configurations.