Troublesome Topic: CAN SOME PEOPLE REALLY STUDY BETTER WHILE WATCHING TV OR A VIDEO?

No, but there is a good reason they think they can.

Here is that reason.

The brain has many parts and most of those parts are communicating with each other and working together to do any task. All pertinent information, memories or emotions are shared with all the parts of the brain that might need them.

When someone gets used to doing two or more things at the same time, such as doing homework and watching a video, the brain gets used to multi-tasking in that way. After multiple times of doing that, it feels comfortable and settled when multi-tasking in that particular way. That has become the new normal. Then, if the student tries to just focus on studying without the second source of stimuli, the parts of the brain that previously were engaged with the video are now shouting at the student, indicating that they don’t feel comfortable in this new arrangement; they want something to do. They can shout loudly and cause the student to feel an overall sense of being disquieted. They will tell you, “I don’t like that”, but they don’t know why. Therefore, they have good reason to tell those of us that are “old-school” that they don’t study as well without the additional stuff going on.

HERE IS WHAT I HAVE OBSERVED

I see people who are used to doing the multi-tasking thing still pause and look up. When their eyes are on the screen, their fingers are still. Homework has been put on pause for a few seconds. When they are not looking at the screen, part of their brain is processing the audio from the video or TV while other parts of their brain are doing homework. In reality I have seen a great deal of time wasted while the person is claiming to study in the way that is best for them.

HOWEVER, I THINK THERE IS MORE TO THE PICTURE.

I am convinced that the student would get more out of their study time if they re-trained their mind to focus all its mental energy on learning, without any distractions. But it would require a re-training of the mind. My guess is that it would take about 2 weeks of singular focus during homework time each day to acclimate the parts of the mind that had previously been engaged in the videos. But once the relevant parts of the mind are working together, and those that only engage when there is something like audio or video playing have learned to accept the silence and not shout for something to do, the student will be able to focus with much more intensity. They and everyone around them will be amazed at how fast they will get their school work done and how well they remember it!

I strongly encourage students of all ages to train themselves to focus fully on the task at hand, finish it with high quality attention, then reward themselves by watching a show or a video they wanted to watch. The video will be more enjoyable because it will not be hindered by the need to get homework done.

I accept it when a student tells me they like to study with the TV on, or that is what they are used to, but I do not accept it when they tell me that they study better that way. If they took the time and effort to re-train their brain, they would learn but “better” really is.