Photo: Pexels / Karolina Garbowska
Local psych prof talks research into attention
By William Crooks
Local Journalism Initiative
In a July 30 interview, Dr. Jonathan Carriere, a psychology professor at Bishop’s University, shared his expertise on the complexities of attention and cognitive psychology. With a solid academic foundation in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience from the University of Waterloo, Carriere’s research delves into understanding how everyday distractions and psychological factors like boredom and depression influence attentional capacities in the general population.
Carriere explained his focus on the broader population rather than clinical groups, stating, “I study cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, but my main application is attention research, specifically inattentiveness in the typical population.” This includes looking at how well people can maintain attention in everyday situations and what individual differences exist. His work uses a combination of questionnaires and experimental tasks to explore these areas.
One of the primary tools used in Carriere’s research is the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). This task involves participants responding to a sequence of numbers displayed on a screen, for instance, pressing a button for every number except ‘3’. “[It] is quite short—about five minutes most of the time,” Carriere noted. The task is deceptively simple: participants must press a button for each number except ‘3’, requiring them to override an automatic response developed through repetition. “The idea is that because you’re pressing the button frequently, it becomes very automatic, and you need to pay sufficient attention to withhold the response when a ‘3’ appears,” Carriere elaborated. This challenge makes the SART a useful tool for assessing the ability to sustain attention, revealing how different people handle the task’s monotony and the effort required to resist automatic responses.
Carriere also investigates the relationship between attentional abilities and psychological factors. “I’ve looked at the association of inattentiveness and boredom, and inattentiveness and depression,” he said, using these studies to draw connections between emotional states and attentional capacity. This research helps illuminate how mood disorders can impact focus and attention in everyday life.
A significant aspect of Carriere’s current work involves developing training regimens to enhance sustained attention, particularly in response to the distractions inherent in modern technology. “A lot of features of our modern lifestyle are designed to diminish sustained attention,” Carriere pointed out, highlighting how constant notifications from smartphones and other devices disrupt focus. He is working on creating systems that can detect when someone is not paying attention and provide immediate feedback to help them refocus, potentially offering practical applications in educational and professional settings.
In exploring the technological aspects of attention research, Carriere has utilized eye-tracking technology. These devices use infrared cameras to track eye movements, offering insights into where a person is looking and how their gaze shifts. “Eye trackers are more useful in measuring attention in tasks like visual search, where your eyes are moving around,” he explained. However, he noted that in tasks like the SART, where the focus is relatively static, eye-tracking may not provide as much additional information.
Carriere’s interest extends to how the presentation of information affects comprehension and engagement, particularly across different devices. He shared an observation about how reading emails on smartphones versus computers can feel different, despite the content being the same.
“When reading an email on my phone versus a computer, the only real change here is it’s gone from being narrow and long to being wider and shorter,” he noted. This led him to question whether the format of text presentation impacts comprehension and the persuasiveness of arguments. This area of research could have significant implications for how information is presented in digital formats, affecting everything from educational materials to news reporting.
One of the challenges in his work is measuring attentional processes in real-time, rather than relying on retrospective assessments. “We understand, as individuals, what attention is, and there’s all kinds of research looking at brain activity and other indicators of attentiveness,” he said. However, observing and measuring these processes in real-time remains complex. Carriere is exploring the use of physiological measures, such as heart rate variability or electroencephalography (EEG), to gain a more comprehensive understanding of attentional states.
As Carriere’s research progresses, he remains focused on bridging the gap between academic findings and practical applications. His work aims to provide tools and strategies that can help individuals improve their attentional capacities, especially in an age where digital distractions are omnipresent. By developing these tools, Carriere hopes to offer solutions that benefit a wide range of individuals, from students needing better focus to professionals who must maintain high levels of attention.