ADHD symptomology varies from individual to individual but generally is characterized by the two factors captured in its acronym; hyperactivity and “attentional deficit”.  

Professor Joordens will be focusing on the attention deficit component and will specifically address the following important questions: 

• Do those with ADHD symptomology have a shorter span of attention, or are they simply more prone to distraction?  
• If the latter, is there anything they can do to reduce the impact of their symptomology in contexts where it is important that they show their optimal performance?

Joordens will begin his consideration of these questions with a discussion of human attention systems.  That is, attentional processes bring information from the environment or from our memory systems into our minds.  

Critically, there are two ways this happens.   

First, sudden onsets in our environment capture our attention without our conscious control and bring things into our mind whether we want that to happen or not.  

Alternatively, when we have well-formed goals we can consciously direct attention, controlling what does and does not get into our minds.  

These two systems are continually competing but, without an explicit directed effort, the automatic capture of attention by the environment will tend to win out.

With this as context, Joordens will describe how this knowledge maps onto ADHD, especially the attention deficit aspect of it.  

He will argue that those who suffer from ADHD do not have a short attention span nor an ability to focus.  Rather, the much more likely possibility is that they are oversensitive to distraction.  

He will describe how such an oversensitivity to distraction would play out, which would be in symptomology very similar to that characteristic of ADHD.

Understanding ADHD in this way is empowering because while distractions can indeed be debilitating, they can also be defended against.  That is, there are some clear steps anyone with ADHD symptomology could take to shield themselves from distraction at times when it's critical they perform at their best.  

You will walk away with concrete strategies and tips for managing your attention.