Sherlock Holmes and Covert Thieves of Attention

I recently returned from an absolutely lovely trip to London and Windsor, where I presented at The Teaching and Learning Summit at Eton College, hosted by InnerDrive. I was provided 22 minutes to speak on a subject that is near and dear to my heart as a teacher. I chose to present about attention contagion in the classroom; what it is and how it can negatively impact learning. As a full-time classroom teacher myself, I believe this topic is so important to teachers and learners to understand, as it is something we all probably notice in the classroom, but don’t fully understand its ramifications with respect to learning. 

I started off my presentation by asking attendees to do something perhaps a little odd:

Be a little bit more like Sherlock Holmes.

I love Sherlock Holmes. I love the character. I love the tales. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle really did an incredible job creating a world of crime and suspense in his four novels and fifty-six short stories featuring Mr. Holmes. For those of you who may not know, Sherlock has a knack for seeing what others don’t see and stringing together seemingly meaningless clues to solve crimes. His ‘sidekick’ of sorts is a Dr. Watson. The two end up sharing a flat in London and working to solve crimes for the British police and government, monarchs, aristocrats, and others. And most capers involve Sherlock putting the pieces of the case together and setting up a dramatic final scene that leaves both his fellow detectives and the perpetrator dumbfounded as they cannot believe he’s bested them. 

In one particular scene from A Scandal in Bohemia (1), Dr. Watson walks into their upstairs flat (at 221b Baker Street) and Sherlock immediately comments on how he knows that Watson has been walking outside lately and that his maid is rather clumsy. Watson replies that he had been for a walk, but had changed his clothes and that his maid was ‘incorrigible’. Watson wonders how Sherlock could possibly know these things simply from his walking into the room. Sherlock replies that it is ‘simplicity itself’. On the inside of Watson’s left shoe are six cuts. Obviously they are the product of someone whose boots have been recently polished, but because of the cuts, they were done rather clumsily. Thus. Sherlock was able to make both deductions.

Watson follows with this, “When I hear you (Sherlock) give your reasons, the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled, until you explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good as yours.” 

This prompts a fantastic statement from Sherlock:

Whew. That’s a good one. And the sentence that really resonated with me with respect to covert thieves of attention in the classroom. More on this later.

To further prove his point, Sherlock asks Dr. Watson how many steps there are up to their flat, a flight of stairs he’s covered hundreds of times. Of course, Watson has no idea. Sherlock says that there are seventeen. And he knows there are seventeen because he has both seen and observed. 

I know I’m a nerd, but this sort of stuff as a fan of Sherlock Holmes and as a teacher really resonate. 

How often do we see in the classroom, but not observe? I think we notice a lot in the classroom. But do we understand and consider the ramifications of what we see? I’m not so sure.

I think this is especially true when it comes to seemingly innocuous student behavior and its impact on attention in the classroom. This brings me to attention contagion in the classroom. This was the central focus of my talk at the conference. I have already written about three different studies on attention contagion on my website. These three studies look at how attentive and/or inattentive behaviors spread throughout a setting. One study focuses on attention contagion in the lab. One focuses on it in the virtual classroom. And one focuses on attention contagion in the lecture hall. While all three studies are different, there are some commonalities that are important for teachers and students to understand. 

All studies included confederates; people who were part of the research team, but appeared to be regular participants. They provided either attentive or inattentive behaviors and researchers studied whether those actions spread to others in the learning environment and impacted their behaviors. What I think is especially interesting about the inattentive behaviors in all three studies that, to differing degrees, spread to other members and negatively impacted their behaviors and assessment score is that they are not outwardly disruptive behaviors. It would be a surprise to no one if a child performed some overtly disruptive behavior like screaming in class and that stole other students’ attention and negatively impacted others…we know that will be the case. But these studies tasked inattentive confederates to perform behaviors that are less visually and auditorily stimulating…they were quite covert in nature. “We emphasized to confederates that their inattentive behaviors should be less active and engaged than their attentive behaviors.” (2) Notice the behaviors that both the attentive and inattentive confederates in the studies performed:

The attentive behaviors are probably exactly what one would expect from students who are paying attention and properly participating in a lesson. Pay close attention to those inattentive behaviors, though. They are the actions of a student that is simply not doing what they are supposed to be doing…but they are not being disruptive, really. Again, they are fairly covert in nature. And, if I’m being honest, I would once see students performing some of these behaviors and just ignore them, thinking that if they want to not take their notes…that’s on them. At least they’re not bothering anyone else. But what these studies on attention contagion show us is that these somewhat ‘lazy’ behaviors do impact those around them. 

Here are some of the general findings from all three studies:

These covert thieves of attention are not harmless. They negatively impact student motivation, student rating of how important the lesson is, how many notes are taken, and how students perform on assessments. What is especially alarming is the finding that students are pretty good at recognizing whether those around them are attentive or inattentive, but they do not seem to recognize that those behaviors have an impact on themselves. 

So, what’s a teacher to do to combat these covert thieves of attention?

1. Teachers need to be on the lookout for the inattentive student and redirect them to the lesson at hand. I suspect students sometimes don’t even realize when they aren’t participating appropriately in class. By doing this, we not only redirect the singular student, but it is a reminder to others in class to make sure they are locked in to the lesson. This, in turn, helps to create better study and learning habits for students.
2. Teachers need to tell students about this type of research. Show them the studies. Let them know why you’re doing what you’re doing in the classroom. And, just as teachers appreciate being treated like the professionals they are, students also respond positively to being treated like scholars. In particular with these studies of attention contagion, it will help students to know that their inattentive behaviors have an effect on those around them. And, it will also alert students to watch their own behaviors when they are around inattentive students. They don’t want those covert thieves of attention to negatively impact their proper student behaviors.

So, just like I asked the attendees at The Teaching and Learning Summit to be a little more like Sherlock Holmes, I’m going to challenge you to do the same. Don’t just see, observe. Put together the more covert clues of inattention and recognize their impact before they become contagious in your classroom. 

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If you’d like more information on topics of memory, attention, and learning strategies to create a more effective classroom…boy do I have the book for you. Okay, so I’m a little biased because I wrote it. : ) It’s called Do I Have Your Attention? Understanding Memory Constraints and Maximizing Learning. If you access this link, you can find more information on the book, endorsements from Dr. John Hattie, Dr. John Sweller, Dr. Dan Willinham, and more, and methods to order in both the US and UK.

I have also presented at many conferences and to many faculties on these topics.  If you are interested in collaborating, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can find me on Twitter, Bluesky, or feel free to contact me through my website.

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1.  Doyle, A. C. (2021). A scandal in Bohemia. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing.
2. Forrin, N. D., Huynh, A. C., Smith, A. C., Cyr, E. N., McLean, D. B., Siklos-Whillans, J., … & MacLeod, C. M. (2021). Attention spreads between students in a learning environment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 27(2), 276.

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Feature image by Eric Neil Vázquez from Pixabay.