Difficulties with alternating and divided attention may be very evident after brain injury. The person may struggle to adapt and change their behaviour in order to carry out required tasks.
Alternating attention refers to the ability to switch between tasks; to stop one task to participate in another and then be able to return to the initial task. This may include activities such as typing an e mail and stopping to answer and deal with a phone call, then being able to accurately and efficiently return to the original task.
Divided attention is the ability to pay attention to two tasks at once such as cooking a meal while talking to a friend or driving a car and talking to a passenger at the same time – neither activity is stopped in order to carry out the other activity. Impairments of alternating and divided attention may cause the person difficulties:
- Participating in conversation whilst walking and finding a route.
- Following written instructions (e.g. a recipe) and carrying out the task the instructions refer to.
- Listening and responding to prompts and information from a carer, nurse or therapist whilst trying to carry out the task at the same time. This can adversely affect their ability to benefit from rehabilitation.
- Managing work, educational and social situations.