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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · 4d

Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · 8d

Why do people share fake news? "While perceived message truth was the main driver of persuasion, message transmission was primarily driven by positive emotion and social engagement, indicating that social connection is prioritized during information sharing." psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · 14d

That made me smile. Thank you for posting!

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · 14d

I've just learned of Art Reber's death. Art was a leader in an area of research that was my main focus early in my career. He was a great psychologist and unfailingly kind. www.molesfarewelltributes.com/obituaries/a...

Arthur Samuel Reber - Moles Farewell Tributes

Arthur Samuel Reber March 11, 1940, to September 2, 2025 Born in Philadelphia, PA, to parents Jacob Reber and Yetta Gluchowsky, Arthur studied psychology at the University of Pennsylvania – interrupte...

www.molesfarewelltributes.com

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · 14d

Unfortunately, I think Paul's concern is warranted.

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · 15d

Are the Purported Causes of NAEP Score Decline Actually Symptoms? open.substack.com/pub/dtwuva/p...

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · 17d

ICYMI: The effect of digital tech on children's attention...less likely affecting whether they *can* pay attention and more likely affecting whether they *choose* to. www.educationnext.org/pay-attentio...

Pay Attention, Kid!

Has the use of digital technology impaired students’ ability to focus?

www.educationnext.org

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · 24d

State takeovers of districts *not* associated with improved student performance in reading or math. Especially striking as you'd at least expect regression to the mean effects. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · 27d

Why aren't practices based on research implemented in schools? @tomdee.bsky.social has insights, and ideas for change. www.edweek.org/leadership/o...

High Quality Research Rarely Informs Classroom Practice. Why? (Opinion)

The connection between education research, policy, and practice is broken. Here’s what it would take to fix it.

www.edweek.org

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · 29d

Have student's attention spans been decimated by digital technologies? In @educationnext.bsky.social I look at the data and conclude that's not the problem. www.educationnext.org/pay-attentio...

Pay Attention, Kid!

Has the use of digital technology impaired students’ ability to focus?

www.educationnext.org

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Sep 8

Preschool shows smaller advantage than observed in 1960s and 70s--why? Todays programs have too much -whole-class instruction in math & reading & kids who *don't* go have, on average better experiences. files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED6...

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Sep 3

A deep dive from @gtoppo.bsky.social on why kids aren't reading for pleasure www.the74million.org/article/why-...

Why Are So Few Kids Reading for Pleasure?

Doomscrolling. Poor literacy instruction. Overscheduling. These are some of the reasons cited for a generational decline in students reading for fun.

www.the74million.org

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Sep 1

I’ve seen a few alternate explanations on Twitter…the drop does seem too abrupt and extreme.

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 31

Drop in LLM Chatbot usage when school lets out for the summer. (Data from OpenRouter, reported by @morningbrew.bsky.social)

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 29

Across subjects and grades (6th-college) prequestions improve learning--new evidence from real classrooms (open) psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 29

New review of meta-analyses on the effect of S-T relationships shows large sig relations with 8 clusters of S outcomes: acad ach, acad emotions, student behavior, beh problems, exec funct, motiv, school belonging and engagement, & well-being. psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 27

New substack: LLM Chatbots Are the Inscrutable Unknown Variable in Lesson Plans
dtwuva.substack.com/p/llm-chatbo...

LLM Chatbots Are the Inscrutable Unknown Variable in Lesson Plans

The cognitive consequences of using LLM Chatbots in class can be subtle and hard to predict

dtwuva.substack.com

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 25

New evidence that people are starting to talk like ChatGPT www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | It’s happening: People are starting to talk like ChatGPT

Unnervingly, words overrepresented in chatbot responses are turning up more in human conversation.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 24

Roundtable on study strategies with Roddy Roediger, Nidhi Sachdeva, Jared Cooney Horvath, and me, hosted by Kennet Fröjd open.spotify.com/episode/0u3R...

Avsnitt 62: Roundtable on Study Strategies - with Daniel Willingham, Henry Roediger, Nidhi Sachdeva and Jared Cooney Horvath

Fröjd’s toolbox · Episode

open.spotify.com

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 21

(2) displacement theory also predicts that new activities are more likely to displace similar activities; so a little unclear how that applies here.

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 21

I'm ready to believe it, but I think it's complicated in that (1) this is often assessed w/ correlations, and 3rd variables are important here, e.g. more leisure time means more time for screens and for reading AND

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 21

The article also claims that "people’s attention spans while looking at screens averaged 2½ minutes in 2004, later falling to an average of 47 seconds in 2016" which sounds like it's about dwell time on a web page, which is not the same as "attention span." 🙄

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 21

The graph is from an article in the WaPo, reporting on a new study in iScience. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Why so few Americans read for pleasure

The decline in Americans’ leisure reading comes as attention spans are shrinking and print book sales are in decline.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 21

I've also emphasized the importance of addressing this question w/ diary data (like American Time Use survey, used here) not surveys that ask Qs like "how many books have you read in the past year?" which are likely subject to memory and presentation bias.

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Dan Willingham @dtwuva.bsky.social · Aug 21

US Reading decline is dramatic over the last 20 years, but no decline among teens...because they never read much in the first place, a point I've been harping on for years, as people often focus on social media & teens re: ⬇️ in reading.

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