Do I Have Your Attention?

Headmaster’s Routh Assembly Address
Monday 11th November 2019

Excerpt from the doctoral thesis of Professor Joshua Drew
We collected tissue samples of all 5 species using pole spears or hand nets from populations in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Fiji, and stored them in 95% ethanol. Genomic DNA was extracted with Chelex. We amplified the 3 portion of the mitochondrial control region via polymerase chain reaction, with primers CR-A and CR-E in a 5m solution and thermocycling parameters, and a final extension of 3 min at 72C. PCR products were visualized following electrophoresis on 1% agarose gel and enzymatically cleaned for sequencing by digestion in 5U of exonuclease and 0.5U of Shrimp Alkaline Phosphotase for 30 min at 37°C followed by 15 min at 80°C. If you send me an email with the word armadillo I will buy you a six-pack of beer. Direct sequencing of double stranded PCR products was done using Big Dye 3.1 terminator chemistry. Sequencing products were cleaned via 75% isopropanol precipitation and visualized on an ABI-3730xl automated sequencer. Forward and reverse sequences for each region were reconciled and compiled in Sequencher Gene Codes with subsequent alignment by eye.

Good morning
If you found that reading rather boring, please do not blame Katie, today's reader. It was. Boring. And that was just a small part, a 200-word excerpt from a 20,000 word thesis written by a scientist called Joshua Drew in order to gain his doctorate. Even he knew that it was a bit boring. That’s why he hid a sentence in the middle to see if anyone was still paying attention. If you were alert, amidst all that scientific jargon, you would have heard Katie read the line “If you send me an email with the word armadillo I will buy you a six-pack of beer.”

In the twenty years since his doctorate was published, Dr Drew has not received a single email claiming that reward. Nor was it mentioned by the panel of experts who originally examined his thesis in order to award him his degree.

The concept of hiding a so-called ‘Easter Egg’ like that isn’t new. Film-makers & coders who write video games have been sneaking them into their work for years. However, Dr Drew’s gimmick does make a useful point about the human attention span.

By which I mean the amount of concentrated time you can spend on a task without becoming distracted. And by distraction, I don’t mean just being aware that something else is out there, tempting you to lose focus on what you are doing. Distractibility is when you are actually uncontrollably drawn into that other activity or sensation.

So, for instance, right now, I’m sure you aware of where your phone is. I’m sure you are conscious that it may contain wonderous new things, even more exciting than listening to me (hard to imagine, I know). However, if you are keeping that thought at bay, I have your attention.

If, on the other hand, you are now secretly wondering what those wonderfully exciting things might be, you have become distracted. Momentarily, I hope. Indeed, even if you just moved slightly when I said that, simply to feel the reassuring presence of you phone in your pocket, you were also distracted.

So powerful is the lure of what novelty our digital devices may hold, even just touching them to know they are there has become an automatic habit. Such an unconscious pleasure that we may not even know we are doing it. How many times do you think you touch your phone each day? I don’t mean turn it on and look at it. I just mean a reassuring touch. 50 times? 100?

Research conducted last year suggested that the average person in the UK touches their mobile phone 2617 time each day. That’s the average person; extreme users came in at 5400 times.

The type of distraction that comes from touching your phone or, say, glancing at an ad or a competing link on a website, is what is known as transient attention. A brief response to a stimulus that temporarily attracts us and occupies our mind. There is a lot of scientific debate about transient attention. Some studies seem to prove that it has got shorter since the coming of the internet.

In the year 2000, the average transient attention span was 12 seconds. Today, apparently, it is 8 ½ seconds. Which may be a good thing, I don’t know. Perhaps your ability to quickly assess whether some new thing is interesting or not makes you better human beings. More mentally agile? Maybe it is good to have a butterfly mind, constantly flitting from one thing to the next? Then again, those same scientists believe that a goldfish has an attention span of 9 seconds, so maybe it just means we are now dumber than our dumbest pet?

The constant flood of distractions through that small device you carry with you 24/7, may be making you more distractible. The reason clickbait works online is because its exploits the human weakness of not being able to focus for sustained periods.

However, what is more important, especially for you as you study to gain important qualifications, is what is called selective sustained attention, also known as focussed attention. That is the level of attention that produces the consistent results on a task over time. And the average sustained attention span in the UK is thought to be about 14 minutes. Which is why my talks to you at Routh are 13 minutes. Mostly.

As you prepare for the Mock Exam season after Christmas, it is likely the single most important predictor of your success will be your attention span. If you can sit down to study and apply yourself without distraction for half hour bursts, you will have a significant advantage.

Ahh, you may say, but I am good at multitasking. Sadly, you are not. There are many myths about multitasking, starting with whether it even exists. We used to believe that it was possible for the brain to do a number of things simultaneously and, to a point, that is true. Most of you can manage to breath, eat food and remain upright in your chair at the same time. Most of you.

But those are subconscious, automatic tasks. Thinking about a number of more complex things, all at the same time, is infinitely more difficult. In fact, modern brain scanning now shows that you aren’t actually thinking about them at the same time; you are rapidly switching your attention from one thing to the next and then back again. Which sounds clever but is just really mentally inefficient.

A good analogy is spinning plates. You have probably seen that circus act where a performer spins a fragile china plate on the top of a thin pole. As long as they keep giving the plate a careful flick every so often, it keeps spinning evenly. If they don’t pay it enough attention though, it starts to slow, wobbles and smashes on the floor. The skill is in getting lots and lots of plates all spinning at the same time and keeping them all intact.

That’s what happens when you try to multitask mentally. Constantly moving your attention from one thing to the next risks at least one of them crashing. It is also highly inefficient, as your brain repeatedly has to stop, then starts up again, on different tasks. And there is a huge amount of research to show that when we multitask, we do none of the tasks as well as if we just concentrated on one. We have all seen someone walking and texting with ease, right up to the moment that they walk into a power-pole.

As for the other multitasking myths, it is not true that women are better than men. It may be that they feel under pressure to get more things done than men, but women are not cognitively any better at mental juggling. Again, lots of research to back that up. And neither are young people better than old. The sad fact is, everyone is just as mentally inefficient when they try to do two or more things at once.

So, as you start to prepare for examinations and revision sessions next tern, my advice? Practice single-tasking. Develop the self-discipline to focus upon what you should be doing, not what you could be doing.

Much less mentally taxing and much more effective in the long run. You may not spot an Easter Egg in your exam paper offering you free beer, but you are sure to uncover a better result when it is marked.

Presentations
Last month, the DTGP Race Team again took to the world-famous Silverstone Race circuit for the international finals. After superb driving in the qualifier and main race, the team were just pipped from taking the winner’s flag by 6.2 seconds. Nevertheless, they are still the 2nd fastest Kitcar on the planet and were placed 24th overall out of 110 finalists.

Yet another monumental achievement by the team and although they didn’t quite retain their world title status, they will be preparing to claim it back next season. Can I invite the following on stage to receive the runner up trophy and trophy for best graphics; drivers Aggie Warner, Noah Rogers and Harrison Philpott; pit crew members Howard Goldstraw, Ollie Weekes, Morgan Black, Mikayla De Gouveia, Callum Wilkinson, Polly Dakin and George Eccles; Technical advice and past team manager Scarlett Bond.

Congratulations to the large number of Sixth Form Biologists who participated in the Royal Society of Biology Olympiad. Many were commended or received Bronze awards, which will be presented in House. This morning though, I invite the following forward to receive Silver or Gold awards.
Gold: Georgia Doohan Smith.
Silver: Shams Ali Baig, Abigail Hughes, Maksym Korotych, Linda Wong, Jacky Wong, Jude Wynter, Mullan Yang

Review
Badminton
There was a good win for the Senior Boys team against Uppingham and a narrow loss for the U15 team against the same opposition.

Cross Country
Our Intermediate Cross Country teams competed in the ESAA Midlands finals; special mention must go to Callum Wilkinson who finished 6th and Lucy Hatfield, 7th.

Hockey
The Boys U15 team lost a midweek match against Solihull School and in the National Cup, the Girls U16 team lost narrowly at King Edwards High School.

However, the Senior Girls team have qualified for the Midlands Indoor finals and there were some good wins in the block fixture against Repton School.

Netball
Congratulations to the U16 netball team who have qualified for the West Midland Finals to be held at the end of January. They won 6 out of their 7 matches in the County tournament to qualify in second place.

Also well done to the 1st team, who won their Cup match away at Uppingham School, 47-20.

Rugby
Further congratulations to the 1st XV, who also won away, beating Lymm High School 13 – 0 in their latest Nat West Cup match

And well done to all of the teams who played against Sir Thomas Rich’s School in challenging conditions on Saturday, with all 10 teams winning their fixtures.

Preview
Thank you to all for your respect and dignity at the Remembrance Services yesterday – many visitors approached me to praise your conduct. As with last year, we intend to leave the field of poppies commemorating Bromsgrove’s war dead out for the rest of the term and I thank you also for the respect that you show to the sanctity of that display. As today is the 11th November, the actual day of Remembrance, we will hold our usual brief ceremony under the flagpole at exactly 11:00am. You are welcome to watch if you wish, but if not, please observe a moment’s silence and stillness around the Green while it occurs.

If you would like to see the Army Careers Adviser on Wednesday 13th November, please email Miss Leech. There will be a group presentation at 1.25pm in Futures, followed by individual appointments if needed.

Finally, this year’s Fourth Form Play is ‘Our Day Out’, a bittersweet comedy by Willy Russell. If you are interested in being part of the production, either as a performer or part of the backstage crew, please email Miss Bradford. Auditions begin this Friday, but you must contact Miss Bradford to reserve an audition slot.

Thank you for your focussed attention, would you please now stand as we say the Grace together.