An uncertain economy with a highly mobile workforce compels employers to rely heavily on HRD research for empirically based selection criteria and proven predictors of job performance. One of those predictors is the ability to think analytically and critically. Evidence is mounting that heavy use of electronic media may impact the ability to think critically because of increased distractibility and inattention to work related tasks.
The Solution
Collaborative research with medical and educational communities is needed to correlate impacts of heavy electronic media usage to critical thinking and, if confirmed, develop critical thinking measures and curricula that strengthen critical thinking skills in children and young adults entering the workforce.
The Stakeholders
Confirming the effects of heavy electronic media on critical thinking will increase the body of research for medical professionals about brain functioning, inform education researchers about trends in student populations experiencing lower test scores, and provide HRD researchers information about developing engaged and productive employees.
AgostinoA.JohnsonJ.Pascual-LeoneJ. (2010). Executive functions underlying multiplicative reasoning: Problem type matters. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 105, 286-305. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2009.09.006
2.
BaughmanF.Jr. (2006). The ADHD Fraud: How psychiatry makes “patients” of normal children. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: Trafford.
3.
BiswalB. B.MennesM.ZuoX.GohelS.KellyC.SmithS. M.. . . MilhamM. P. (2010). Toward discovery science of human brain function. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107, 4734-4739. doi:10.1073/pnas.0911855107
4.
CarrN. (2010). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
5.
CohnK. H.NewboldP. A. (2009). Innovation in the face of the economic recession. Journal of Healthcare Management, 54, 361-368.
6.
EdelsonD. C. (1996). Learning from cases and questions: The socratic case-based teaching architecture. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 5, 357-410.
7.
FerrerE.ShaywitzB. A.HolahanJ. M.MarchioneK.ShaywitzS. E. (2010). Uncoupling of reading and IQ over time: Empirical evidence for a definition of dyslexia. Psychological Science: A Journal of the American Psychological Society, 21(1), 93-101.
8.
FloersheimB.JohnstonJ. (2010, November12-18). The conceptual speed-bump: Losing potential STEM students in the transition from elementary school to middle school. Paper presented at the 2010 American Society of Mechanical Engineers International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Symposium conducted at the meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
9.
GilbertS. J.DumontheilI.SimonsJ. S.FrithC. D.BurgessP. W. (2007). Comment on “wandering minds: The default network and stimulus-independent thought.”Science, 317(5834), 43b. doi:10.1126/science.1140801
10.
GlassmanM. (2001). Dewey and vygotsky: Society, experience, and inquiry in educational practice. Educational Researcher, 30(4), 3-14.
11.
GreengardS. (2009). Are we losing our ability to think critically?Communications of the ACM, 52(7), 18-19.
12.
HaasL. F. (2003). Hans Berger (1873-1941), Richard Caton (1842-1926), and electroencephalography. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 74(1), 9.
13.
HaleE. S. (2008). A critical analysis of Richard Paul’s substantive trans-disciplinary conception of critical thinking (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org.
14.
HampshireA.OwenA. M. (2006). Fractionating attentional control using event-related fMRI. Cerebral Cortex, 16, 1679-1689. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhj116
KahnemanD. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York, NY: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.
17.
KillackeyH. P. (1989). Static and dynamic aspects of cortical somatotopy: A critical evaluation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 1(1), 3-11.
18.
LancasterL. C.StillmanD. (2010). The M-Factor: Why the millennial generation is rocking the workplace and how you can turn their great expectations into even greater results. Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor Media.
19.
LangJ. W. B.KerstingM.HülshegerU. R.LangJ. (2010). General mental ability, narrower cognitive abilities, and job performance: The perspective of the nested-factors model of cognitive abilities. Personnel Psychology, 63, 595-640. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.2010.01182.x
20.
MerzenichM.NelsonR.StykerM.CynaderM.SchoppmannA.ZookJ. (1984). Somatosensory cortical map changes following digit amputation in adult monkeys. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 224, 591-605.
21.
MeyerM.ToepelU.KellerJ.NussbaumerD.ZyssetS.FriedericiA. D. (2007). Neuroplasticity of sign language: Implications from structural and functional brain imaging. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 25, 335-351.
22.
MullerR.TurnerR. (2010). Leadership competency profiles of successful project managers. International Journal of Project Management, 28, 437-448. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.09.003
23.
Nielsen Company. (2009, July6). Time spent online among kids increases 63 percent in the last five years, according to Nielsen. New York, NY: Author.
24.
OphirE.NassC.WagnerA. D. (2009). Cognitive control in media multitaskers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106, 15583-15587.
25.
SamliA. C. (2010). Developing counterchaos marketing strategies: The key to survival and success in modern chaotic markets. Marketing Review, 10, 185-202. doi:10.1362/146934710X505771
26.
ShaywitzB. A.LyonG. R.ShaywitzS. E. (2006). The role of functional magnetic resonance imaging in understanding reading and dyslexia. Developmental Neuropsychology, 30, 613-632.
27.
SiegelD. J. (2011). Mindsight. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
28.
SmallG. W.MoodyT. D.SiddarthP.BookheimerS. Y. (2009). Your brain on google: Patterns of cerebral activation during internet searching. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry: Official Journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 17(2), 116-126.
29.
TaupinP. (2006). Adult neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 24(1), 9-15.
30.
TaylorS. F.WelshR. C.WagerT. D.Luan PhanK.FitzgeraldK. D.GehringW. J. (2004). A functional neuroimaging study of motivation and executive function. NeuroImage, 21, 1045-1054. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.10.032
31.
WagnerC. G. (2009). Innovation and creativity in a complex world. Bethesda, MD: World Future Society.
32.
ZabitM. (2010). Problem-based learning on students’ critical thinking skills in teaching business education in Malaysia: A literature review. American Journal of Business Education, 3(6), 19.
