Today's New York Times has an article speculating that when you read on an ereader or tablet, your attention is likely to be diverted to other applications.

If you hit a dull patch in the book, can you resist the pull of YouTube, Twitter, or your email? Even if you're engaged in the book, Google may beckon to clarify a point in the book ("Essex? Where's that?") and next thing you know, 25 minutes have elapsed in surfing. Perhaps interesting, perhaps productive, but not what you sat down intending to do.

Many people I've spoken with have the impression that this sort of distraction is predictable, and that it is a greater problem when reading on a tablet computer, even compared to reading a print book with a computer nearby.

The data on this question are still thin, but I do know of one relevant study (Woody et al, 2011). Nearly 300 college students took part, each reading a chapter from an introductory psychology textbook in one of five formats: print textbook, printed text pages, printed manuscript in MS Word, electronic pdf file, or electronic textbook. Some students read in a laboratory, some at home, and everyone took a quiz on the chapter material after reading it.

The results showed that media format did not affect quiz grades. But students who read electronic media versions were more likely to respond to instant messages and email while reading, and were more likely to use social networking sites (Facebook/Myspace) while reading.

It's only one experiment, but this feels like an instance where the intuitions of the majority of people will end up according with data. Whether the extra level of distraction is really a problem remains to be seen; and it may well be that users (or software designers) come up with strategies to solve the problem, if it proves significant.

Woody, W. D., Daniel, D. B., & Stewart, J. M. (2011).  Students’ Preferences and Performance  Using E-Textbooks and Print Textbooks.  In F. Columbus (Ed.), Computers in Education.  New York: Nova Publishing.

I admit that until a few years ago, learning that a school asked their students to meditate prompted me to roll my eyes. It struck me as faddish and meant to appeal to parents rather than something meant to help students. But I’m not sneering anymore.

The last five or ten years has seen a burgeoning research literature on the cognitive benefits of mindfulness meditation—that style of meditation in which one focuses one’s thoughts on the present moment and emphasizes a open, non-judgmental attitude towards thoughts and sensations.

Most practitioners engage in mindfulness meditation for its effects on overall feelings of well-being. From a cognitive point of view, the daily practice in the management and control of attention might yield benefits for students. This sort of attentional control is positively associated with academic outcomes. (An article I wrote on the topic can be found here.)

What do the data on meditation and attentional control look like?

The truth is that it’s a bit early to tell. A recent review (Chiesa, Calati, & Serretti, 2011) concluded that meditation training did lead to improvements in controlled attention, but the authors warned that the effects were inconsistent.

The results might be inconsistent because the benefits to attention only accrue after significant practice--more practice then volunteers are willing to engage in for the sake of a study. But even when examining long-time meditators, the benefits to attention are inconsistent.

Another possibility is that meditation doesn’t make attentional control any more effective, but it does make it less taxing, which might be consistent with reports of improved well-being. There are electrophysiological data (e.g., Moore, Gruber, Derose & Malinowski, 2012) indicating that meditation training leads to changes in how the brain deals with attentional challenges, and that these changes reflect easier, smoother processing.

Most of the work has been done with adults, not kids.  There are at least a few studies that have used mindfulness mediation interventions with kids of middle-school age, and the authors of these studies claim these kids can learn the practice (e.g., Wall, 2005).

So at this point, the benefits of mindfulness mediation are not clear enough to make a claim that there is scientific backing for the practice in schools, if the hoped-for benefit is academic. But this is a research literature worth keeping on the radar.

Chiesa, A., Calati, R., & Serretti, A. (2011). Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 449-464.

Moore, A., Gruber, T., Derose, J., & Malinowski, P. (2012). Regular, brief mindfulness meditation practice improves electrophysiological markers of attentional control. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 18.

Wall, R. B. (2005). Tai chi and mindfulness-based stress reduction in a Boston Public middle school. Journal of Pediatric Health Care. 19,  230-237.