The first course, taught by Dr. Jared Featherstone and Dr. Phil Frana, was called Navigating the Attention Economy and offered in the fall of 2023 with both an Honors seminar and Integrative General Education sections. A second course, Attention and Mindfulness, was taught first in the spring 2024 semester by Dr. Featherstone and Dr. Upadhyay with both honors and psychology sections.
Both courses involved students evaluating their own attention habits and struggles in light of current research on attention, distraction, and persuasive technologies. Students created evidence-based Attention Management Plans to guide others toward more effective regulation of attention, especially in high-distraction environments common to university students. In addition, students proposed new research related to attention and mindfulness.
Student projects like those developed in the courses described are important to the holistic, collaborative approach the JMU Attention Literacy Initiative would like to take in helping the JMU community flourish amid attentional challenges. Students, who adopted technology at earlier stages of development than most faculty, live lives enmeshed in media multitasking environments and have had to learn the pitfalls and necessary hacks on their own. Consequently, student input is a necessary part of future resources, research, and projects.
Navigating the Attention Economy (HON 300 or UNST 300)
The term “attention economy” depicts human attention as a limited resource in a world of ever-increasing connectivity and information overload. The class will take a critical look at the current cultural development of individual consumer attention being treated as a commodity for which corporations are in competition. The course will examine the struggle of consumers to maintain agency within manipulative information environments and evaluate potential solutions at the individual and systemic levels. Assignments will emphasize personal experience in connection to course concepts.
Attention, Distraction, and the Recovery of Human Intention (HON 300)
Through the pervasive myth of multitasking and the constant immersion in information-saturated environments, human beings have found themselves anxious, overwhelmed, and unable to carry out their goals. Considering a range of disciplinary perspectives, this course will explore the reasons for this situation and possibilities for regaining the ability to navigate these environments and follow through with goals. In addition to learning the mechanisms behind attention and distraction, students will apply the theory and findings to their own experience.
Attention and Mindfulness (PSYC 400)
The psychological study of Attention and Mindfulness is an interdisciplinary effort that involves research from many areas of psychology, including: attention, sensation and perception, memory, and decision-making.
In this course students will be able to:
- Summarize how the concepts and issues from Attention and Mindfulness are related to content in the Psychology major’s core methodology and other Psychology content courses.
- Demonstrate critical thinking about specific issues related to Attention and Mindfulness.
- Apply psychological principles to critical issues within Attention and Mindfulness.
- Develop attention literacy (knowledge of the way human attention and distraction work).
- Apply interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives in problem solving.
