In general, attention spans are shrinking. People blame excess screen time, social media, and the advertising landscape to name a few of the culprits. Brainscape offers study tools, so they have a special interest in the state of attention spans. Their research shows fascinating trends in changing attention spans and shows a shocking result: their students, people who are serious about studying and improving their mental capacity, are improving their attention spans rather than declining like the rest of the population.
Brainscape’s data shows that each year, their students have had longer and longer average study sessions. In 2024, the average study session on their app was around 14 minutes long. This shows far better focus than the general average attention span of .67 minutes. What makes these students different? Brainscape credits the techniques and features they employ in their app, including spaced repetition, active recall, metacognition, accessibility for practice, and visible study metrics.