The Power of Mindful Learning (8 page)

In contrast to hypervigilance, which locks in an object of
attention, this soft vigilance remains open to novelty. With vigilance, the target of attention is static; with soft vigilance the
mind, without detailed prescription, is open to take in more
information.

Hypervigilance may be what we are unintentionally expecting
from our students. As many as two million schoolchildren,
along with their families, teachers, and classmates are affected
by attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).5 Short
attention span and easy distractibility, the cornerstones of this
disorder, clearly have negative effects on scholastic achievement. Attention problems of this severity are not only evident
in childhood, but often persist throughout life.'

The causes of ADHD are uncertain. Some theorists believe
it has a genetic component, based on the relatively greater
prevalence of ADHD in children whose parents exhibit similar
symptoms. However, we would also expect to find this intergen erational similarity in the symptoms related to attention if parents taught their children to pay attention in the same way they
did. Other studies suggest that children and adults with
ADHD-related symptoms have less neurotransmitter activity in
the areas of the brain thought to be important for the control of
attention.' The data do not tell us whether there is less attention
because there is less neurotransmitter activity, or whether there
is less neurotransmitter activity because there is less attention, or
both. Nevertheless, these data provide the rationale for the use
of drug treatments for ADHD-related symptoms.

Stimulants, such as methylphenidate (Ritalin), are frequently used to treat the symptoms of ADHD, with some
apparent success! Although these stimulants may be effective
in producing a quieter and less disruptive child, they do not
necessarily help make a child a better student. In addition, the
possible side effects, which include loss of appetite, decreased
rate of growth, insomnia, stomach discomfort, irritability and
mood swings, and development of tics, may further interfere
with a child's ability to learn.

Nonpharmacological approaches are also used to manage
ADHD. These include tutoring, usually in classes designed to
help students with a variety of learning disabilities. Counseling
is considered a vital part of the approach.

The prevailing conception of ADHD is that it is an illness.
Treatment focuses on the symptoms that define the syndrome
on the theory that if we treat the symptoms, school performance will improve. Treatment is left to the medical community, while educators assess the outcome.

By taking a new look at the nature of attention, educators
might be able to improve school performance without medical
intervention. A social psychological approach to ADHD would
focus on the role of context and novelty in paying attention.
The attention ability of ADHD children could be improved
with changes in context, including changes in how information
is presented and in environmental stimuli.

Steven Landau looked at the effects of distractions on the
attention span of boys between the ages of six and twelve.' He
looked at boys who were diagnosed as having ADHD and at
boys without this diagnosis. They all watched several segments
of educational television in the presence or absence of highly
attractive toys. In the presence of the appealing "distractions,"
the ADHD boys spent only half the time spent by the nonADHD boys watching television, but when the toys were absent the ADHD boys were able to pay attention to television.

Mary Ford found that attention increased when third and
fourth graders diagnosed as having ADHD were working with
computer software that used a game format.10 Frances Cripe
found that children with ADHD demonstrated decreased
activity and increased attention when listening to rock music as
they performed their task.11 And Sydney Zentall found that
when the stimuli were in color, attention increased.12

Some of the problems associated with treating ADHD and
other attention problems may result from a lack of appreciation
of the importance of novelty. Hyperactivity may be the child's
implicit effort to increase novelty. If so, the advice to sit still
and pay attention may be counterproductive.

Graduate students Shelley Carson and Margaret Shih and I13
tested this movement and mindfulness hypothesis with a "normal" population of grade-school students aged nine to twelve
who attended a traditional private school in Massachusetts.

The children were shown a poster of a character walking
along a path. Fourteen landmarks, such as the Leaning Tower
of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower, and the Pyramids, were pictured. The
task was to pay attention to the poster and to try to remember
the landmarks and where on the poster they were located.

Children in the mindful movement group were told to
move slowly back and forth between two lines of masking tape
set about seven feet apart on the floor while they were looking
at the poster. We assumed that such movement would vary the
perspective from which they viewed the poster. They were
given a few minutes to practice until they felt comfortable
doing the movement.

Children in the no-movement group sat still as they viewed
the poster and were given a few minutes to get comfortable in
their chairs. To make sure that any difference between these
two groups would be the result of the change in perspective
and not of a difference in physiological arousal, we added
another control group. Children in this group sat in their chairs
and shuffled their feet while they looked at the poster. Pretesting revealed similar heart rates for the two movement groups.

After the children viewed the poster they were given
cutouts of landmarks that were on the poster as well as of landmarks that had not been seen before and they were asked to
reconstruct the poster.

Children in the shuffling control group outperformed the
sitting-still group. The movement group outperformed both
groups and remembered significantly more landmarks. While
conducting the experiment we noticed that children in the two
control groups appeared to scan the poster in a linear fashion,
resting their eyes on each landmark for a few seconds. In contrast, children in the mindful-movement group appeared to be
viewing the poster as a whole and scanned it both vertically and
horizontally.

To assess in another way whether novelty was in fact the
reason for these results, we tried the experiment again with
children from a Montessori school. At this school continuous
movement was not only allowed but was even expected of children. We created the same three groups, but now our hypothesis was reversed: we expected the best memory performance to
be in the now-novel sit-still group and the worst to be in the
walking group. Our hypothesis was confirmed.

These studies suggest that mindfully varying perspective
helps us pay attention. Margaret Shih, Amy Thau, and I are
now testing the mindful learning hypothesis with children
diagnosed as having ADHD. Being able to pay attention without walking around the stimulus or having to rely on somebody
else to vary it for us has advantages. In our study children with
ADHD are given instructions on how to vary the target of
their attention in their own minds. To assess the effectiveness
of these mindfulness instructions for children with ADHD we
are using the same computer program that was used with college undergraduates in the study described earlier. Although it is too soon in this research effort to be certain of the findings,
pilot data look encouraging; giving instructions to vary the target of attention seems to lead to an improvement in the ability
to pay attention to a subject and remember what was learned.

In summary, our understanding of problems of attention
may itself benefit from a shift in perspective. It is useful to
begin by remembering that those of us who have problems
paying attention can and do successfully attend to many things
in the course of a day when we are not self-consciously "paying
attention." Next, we can reframe the concept of distraction by
conceiving of it as being otherwise-attracted. Finally, it is
important to note that trying to hold an image or an idea still is
difficult and unnatural. These observations suggest the importance of novelty to the process of paying attention. Whether
trying to improve the ability to pay attention of college undergraduates, of children, or of children diagnosed with ADHD,
we have found in our studies that instructions on how to seek
out novelty, and thus pay mindful attention, appear to enhance
performance.

My initial experiences education were
on the whole pleasurable. Reading and writing
caused me no suffering. I found the first easier, but
the second was enjoyable -I mean artistically
enjoyable-and came to admire my own handwriting in pencil, when Igot to that stage, perhaps as a
youthful Chinese student might admire his own
brush strokes. It was wonderful to see that the letters
each had different expressions, and that the same
letter had derent expressions at different times.
Sometimes the two capitals of my name looked miserable, slumped down and sulky, but at others they
turned fat and cheerful, almost with roses in their
cheeks. I also had the "First Grade"to look forward to well asgeography, the maps, and longer and much better stories.