Close-up: May I have your attention for a moment?

Can you do two things at once? In the research workshop 'Attention!' at UMU (University Museum Utrecht), families do research together on attention and multitasking. A ‘Kennismaker’ (museum educator) tells more about the Utrecht research on the effect of distributing attention, then families get to work themselves.

“In the family workshop on attention, we start from a well-known and surprising theme that fits well with the perception of our target group. On the basis of Utrecht research on multitasking, by Prof Stefan van der Stigchel (Faculty of Social Sciences) and others, families will research together. The participants alternate between test subject and researcher. By doing some simple tasks with and without a ‘distractor’, they will find out whether it is actually possible: doing two things at the same time. It’s great to see families exploring together out of curiosity, fun and equality.”

Hester Ketel worked as education coordinator at UMU until the end of 2023
Een gezin doet mee aan de workshop over aandacht
Photo: Ivar Pel
Photo: Lize Kraan

Text: Eline Dondorp

Close-up

This article is also published in the fourth edition of the magazine Close-up, full of inspiring columns, background stories and experiences of researchers and support staff.

Go to Close-up #4