Attention Tracking Breakout Session

I am hosting a breakout session on attention tracking at the [Quantified Self conference][], this weekend May 28-29 in Mountain View, CA. Consider this a last-minute advertisement for my session along with some advance material to spark discussion.

So, what about attention?

In the seminal Principles of Psychology, William James defines attention:

Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French > is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.

I think it's safe to say that everyone knows what it means to pay attention. They've felt the internal state where all of their mental resources dedicate themselves to a single task. Similarly, I think everyone has felt that they've lost that quality or could not sustain it at one point or another. However, while the act of paying attention may be a universal experience, it isn't necessarily easy to define, let alone quantify.

The simplest definition I can think of is how attention tracking would differ from time tracking. If I used a program like RescueTime, it might tell me that during an hour I spent 10 minutes reading and reply to email and 50 minutes doing another activity. I spend 1/6 of my time on email, regardless of how I allocated it.

On the other hand, attention tracking would be a finer-grained measure of that involved some understanding of the time required to switch between activities. Replying to my email in a single 10-minute block at the end of the hour would be vastly different than if I checked it 20 times, every 2 minutes. In short, how do our attempts at multitasking erode our ability to perform any single task to the best of our ability? Culturally, we suffer from an epidemic of continuous partial attention.

My personal background in the matter is how to approach dealing with my attention-deficit tendencies. I can minimize/block external stimuli, but still have to contend with my mind generating new distractions. My primary interest is the relatively simple goal of building tools to measure how often I switch away from whatever the task at hand with the hope this will help me understand what causes me to be more distracted. Especially while at the computer.

However, this means of measuring attention is just one interpretation based on my experience and difficulties with the number and time between changing activities. What about more complex (and difficult to measure attributes)? Would a better approach include a means of quantifying the degree of focus during an activity, not simply how frequently one was distracted from the activity at hand. Or is attention something more abstract, like mindfulness or flow?

Then, once defined, there is the separate issue of how to track attention without adding more distraction? Is it best to treat attention tracking like sleep, where only passive measurements are taken during the activity itself? What other tools can help, especially away from the computer such as eye-tracking or EEG readings (2)?

At this point, I can honestly I have at least as many questions as answers. Come share your interpretations and experiences tracking attention, however you define it and kick off a good discussion. If you plan to attend or have something you'd like to share, please get in touch with me: contact@matttrent.com.