Keynote

Keynote speaker: Beth Morling

Shared attention, please!

What does the Asch conformity study have to do with teaching and learning? I'll describe the surprising connections they have. This talk will explore the phenomenon of shared attention—situations in which two or more people are aware that we are attending to some stimulus or situation at the same time. While psychologists have occasionally conceptualized humans’ quest for meaning is separate from their drive for connection, research on shared attention (and a related concept, shared reality) argues differently. For humans, meaning and belonging are impossible to separate. Meaning is social, and close relationships thrive on shared understandings. I will share some current science on shared attention and shared reality and introduce some fresh, evidence-based ways of thinking about face-to-face and online spaces. I hope attendees will feel curious, interested, and inspired to think more about the attention environments they participate in every day.

Beth Morling, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Delaware and director of undergraduate education for the department. She is the author of Research Methods in Psychology (2021, W. W. Norton).

Morling focuses on both undergraduate teaching and cultural psychology research. She regularly teaches courses on research methods, cultural psychology, the self-concept, and the teaching of psychology. Her most recent scholarly research has focused on how culture shapes human motivation and social life, as well as where cultural differences are located and measured—whether within the person, or in cultural products such as media, texts, or buildings.

Morling is a Fulbright scholar, having lectured and conducted research in Kyoto, Japan from 2010-11. She is the Delaware State Professor of the Year (2014), an award from CASE and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

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