I think everyone who works in the research-to-practice area has a persistent myth that annoys them the most. Mine is unquestionably the goldfish attention span one.
Here’s my pass at a video to address that (note: contains a shameless marketing plug):
If you’d like to learn more about how to engage learners, check out our course at https://designbetterlearning.com/
References:
Patti Shank’s detailed investigation: https://elearningindustry.com/8-second-attention-span-organizational-learning
Ken McCall’s Linkedin writeup (he actually ordered the book to investigate the claim, which is a gold star in my estimation):
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140418171300-15742110-writing-for-goldfish/
The Ceros folks did the deepest dive into the origins, even checking the internet archive (hashtag nerdrespect!)
https://www.ceros.com/originals/no-dont-attention-span-goldfish/
Props to Entrepreneur and the BBC for not propagating the myth:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/321266
Love this, thank you for it! You may find this blog on the subject interesting too – https://www.transition.co.uk/single-post/2017/10/04/The-Attention-Span-Crisis
Thanks Ashleigh! That’s a great article to add — some nice references 🙂