Research Proposal

Title:
Most Effective Breaks for Getting Focused
Introduction and Background:
There are two types of attention span, Transitive attention and Selective Sustained attention. Selective Sustained attention is the type of attention
span that allows you to stay focused on an activity for a prolonged measure of time. I'd like to figure out what activity during a break from
working or studying is most effective to allowing you to get refocused on your task.
Question (Science) or Problem (Engineering) Being Addressed:
I'd like to help students with their study method by revealing to them the most effective break to take while studying.
Scientific Hypothesis or Engineering Goal:
I think that activities including motion and little strain on the brain will prove most effective.
Experimental Design Diagram (EDD): - science projects only
Independent Variable
Levels of Independent Variable
Dependent Variable
Constants
Number of Repeated Trials
Control

Type of activity
5; Laundry,Volleyball, Classical Music, Rock Music, and Netflix.
How easily subject gets back on task
Number of study breaks in one study session, Length of break
Five times per activity
None

Method or Procedure:
I am planning to visit the subject's house and not to interrupt as much as possible. I wish to be there simply as an observer. I am going to
previously have asked the subject to have ready one of the five activities that day. Then I will have them work for half and hour, take a break with
the activity they have ready, and work for another half hour. I will observe how much they get focused or unfocused throughout, at what points
they get distracted and and what points that they are completely focused. After the session is done, I will ask them a few questions about the
session.
"How focused, on a scale from one to ten, did you feel you were right before we began the break?"
"How easily, on a scale from one to ten, was it to get back on task after the break?"
"At approximately what point would you say that you felt most focused?"
"And at what point did you feel most distracted?"
"Did you ever think about how long it was until the break? If so, how did you feel when you realized that it was only a couple of minutes or a
long period of time before the break?"
I will then repeat this for each activity for each subject. I plan to have five subjects, all varying in age and ethnicity. I will video tape the sessions
and record data at home when I watch the video. When I have gathered all of the data, I will compare it all to each other and see which activity
tends to help the general population with studying.
Bibliography:
"Attention Span Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. Seth Harden, n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2014. <http://www.statisticbrain.com/attention-span-statistics/>.
Graber, Diana. "Kids, Tech and Those Shrinking Attention Spans." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 Feb. 2014. Web. 7 Oct.
2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-graber/kids-tech-and-those-shrinking-attention-spans_b_4870655.html>.
Small, Gary . "Attention span." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Sept. 2014. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Attention_span