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Attention span is the amount of concentrated time one can spend on a task without becoming distracted. Most educators such as psychologists agree that the ability to focus attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one's goals.〔Cornish, David, Dianne Dukette, ''The Essential 20: Twenty Components of an Excellent Health Care Team'', RoseDog Books, Pittsburgh, 2009, p.73〕 ==Length of the span== Estimates for the length of human attention span are highly variable and depend on the precise definition of attention being used. * ''Transient attention'' is a short-term response to a stimulus that temporarily attracts/distracts attention. Researchers disagree on the exact amount of human transient attention span; some say it may be as short as 8 seconds.〔 * ''Selective sustained attention,'' also known as focused attention, is the level of attention that produces the consistent results on a task over time. Some state that the average human attention span is approximately 5 minutes;〔http://www.brainrules.net/attention/?scene=1 a study by Hartley and Davies〕 others state that most healthy teenagers and adults are unable to sustain attention on one thing for more than about 20 minutes at a time, although they can choose repeatedly to re-focus on the same thing.〔 This ability to renew attention permits people to "pay attention" to things that last for more than a few minutes, such as long films. Attention span, as measured by sustained attention, or the time spent continuously on task, varies with age. Older children are capable of longer periods of attention than younger children.〔Ruff, H.A. & Lawson, K.R. (1990). Development of sustained, focused attention in young children during free play. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''26'', 85-93.〕 For time-on-task measurements, the type of activity used in the test affects the results, as people are generally capable of a longer attention span when they are doing something that they find enjoyable or intrinsically motivating. Attention is also increased if the person is able to perform the task fluently, compared to a person who has difficulty performing the task, or to the same person when he or she is just learning the task. Fatigue, hunger, noise, and emotional stress reduce the time focused on the task. Common estimates for sustained attention to a freely chosen task range from about five minutes for a two-year-old child, to a maximum of around 20 minutes in older children and adults.〔 After losing attention from a topic, a person may restore it by taking a rest, doing a different kind of activity, changing mental focus, or deliberately choosing to re-focus on the first topic. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Attention span」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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