Tag: Attention

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The Motivated Brain: Improving Student Attention, Engagement, and Perseverance

What really motivates students to learn? What gets them interested—and keeps them interested—in pursuing knowledge and understanding? Recent neuroscientific findings have uncovered the source of our motivation to learn, or as neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp terms it, the drive to seek. Seeking is what gets us out of bed in the morning, the engine that powers our actions, and the need that manifests as curiosity.

Informed by new findings on the nature of the brain’s seeking system, internationally renowned educators Gayle Gregory and Martha Kaufeldt have identified key brain-friendly strategies for improving student motivation, knowledge acquisition, retention, and academic success. In this book, readers will learn

* The science behind the motivated brain and how it relates to student learning.

* Strategies for preparing a motivational environment and lesson.

* Strategies for creating engaging learning experiences that capitalize on the brain’s natural ways of learning.

* Strategies for improving depth of knowledge, complex thinking, and synthesis to get students into the ever-desired state of flow.

* How attention to the neuroscience of motivation will improve the classroom environment and student learning.

The Motivated Brain shows teachers how to harness the power of their students’ intrinsic motivation to make learning fun, engaging, and meaningful.

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Pre-Suasion: Channeling Attention for Change

The author of the legendary bestseller Influence, social psychologist Robert Cialdini shines a light on effective persuasion and reveals that the secret doesn’t lie in the message itself, but in the key moment before that message is delivered.

What separates effective communicators from truly successful persuaders? Using the same combination of rigorous scientific research and accessibility that made his Influence an iconic bestseller, Robert Cialdini explains how to capitalize on the essential window of time before you deliver an important message. This “privileged moment for change” prepares people to be receptive to a message before they experience it. Optimal persuasion is achieved only through optimal pre-suasion. In other words, to change “minds” a pre-suader must also change “states of mind.”

His first solo work in over thirty years, Cialdini’s Pre-Suasion draws on his extensive experience as the most cited social psychologist of our time and explains the techniques a person should implement to become a master persuader. Altering a listener’s attitudes, beliefs, or experiences isn’t necessary, says Cialdini—all that’s required is for a communicator to redirect the audience’s focus of attention before a relevant action.

From studies on advertising imagery to treating opiate addiction, from the annual letters of Berkshire Hathaway to the annals of history, Cialdini draws on an array of studies and narratives to outline the specific techniques you can use on online marketing campaigns and even effective wartime propaganda. He illustrates how the artful diversion of attention leads to successful pre-suasion and gets your targeted audience primed and ready to say, “Yes.”

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The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy

For readers who made David Allen’s Getting Things Done a perennial bestseller, a fresh and entertaining exploration of a topic that concerns just about everyone over the course of their careers: how to be more productive at work, and in every facet of our lives.

After earning his business degree, Chris Bailey turned down several lucrative job offers to pursue a lifelong dream―to spend a year performing a deep dive experiment into the subject of productivity. Bailey had been fascinated with productivity since he was a young teenager, when he began researching every paper and every book available on the topic. After graduating college, he created a blog to chronicle his year long series of productivity experiments on himself, and well as his continuing research and interviews with some of the world’s foremost experts, from Charles Duhigg to David Allen. Among the experiments that he attempted: Bailey went several weeks with getting by on little to no sleep; he cut out caffeine and sugar; he lived in total isolation for 10 days; he stretched his work week to 90 hours; a late riser, he got up at 5:30 every morning for a month, all the while monitoring the impact of his experiments on the quality and quantity of his work.

This book―The Productivity Project―and the lessons Chris learned―are the result of that year-long journey. Among the many counterintuitive insights Chris discovered that had the biggest impact on his productivity: shrinking or eliminating the unimportant; the rule of three; striving for imperfection; scheduling less time for important tasks; the 20 second rule to distract yourself from distractions; and the concept of productive procrastination. Bailey offers over 30 best practices that will help every one of us to accomplish more.

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Natural Relief for Adult ADHD: Complementary Strategies for Increasing Focus, Attention, and Motivation With or Without Medication

For some people with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), medication may not be the right answer, and for others, medication alone may not be enough.  Natural Relief for Adult ADHD offers an accessible, research-based guide on the most effective non-medication treatments for ADHD.

If you have ADHD, you may find it hard to stay focused on one thing and have trouble with time management and organization. You may also act on impulse—often with negative results. Whether you’re in treatment, on medication, or are looking for alternative ways to get your symptoms under control, this book will provide you with sound, complementary strategies to increase your focus, get organized, and stay motivated.

In the book, you’ll find a ton of information on how to manage your ADHD, such as body awareness techniques to prevent sensory overstimulation common in ADHD; working memory training; massage, acupuncture, acupressure, chiropractic treatment; how food additives can affect ADHD symptoms, particularly certain pesticides; how to incorporate organic food into the diet while on a budget; and much, much more.

If you are looking for proven-effective alternative treatments to get your ADHD under control and take back your life, this book will be your go-to guide.