Data from: Visual environment, attention allocation, and learning in young children: when too much of a good thing may be bad

A large body of evidence supports the importance of focused attention for
encoding and task performance. Yet young children with immature regulation
of focused attention are often placed in elementary-school classrooms
containing many displays that are not relevant to ongoing instruction. We
investigated whether such displays can affect children’s ability to
maintain focused attention during instruction and to learn the lesson
content. We placed kindergarten children in a laboratory classroom for six
introductory science lessons, and we experimentally manipulated the visual
environment in the classroom. Children were more distracted by the visual
environment, spent more time off task, and demonstrated smaller learning
gains when the walls were highly decorated than when the decorations were
removed.