Each school day, students must produce (or give back) what they have learned. Students answer questions on a wide range of topics, write down what they know in essays or during quizzes or tests, perform in physical education class, create objects in electives, and relate to their peers and teachers throughout the day. The production controls of attention help students to produce effectively in each of these situations.

The production controls comprise the following five functions:

  1. Anticipating or predicting an outcome to guide actions or strategies (previewing)
  2. Inhibiting a first response in order to think about the best strategy to guide production (facilitation and inhibition)
  3. Utilizing understanding of time and effort to enhance efficiency (tempo control)
  4. On-going quality control of work (self-monitoring)
  5. Activating past experiences to guide current actions or strategy use (reinforcement control)
Necessary SubSkills Common Obstacles Helpful Tips
Student is able to predict or preview the outcomes of tasks and actions before starting the task or taking the action. Student fails to preview the effects of statements or actions, or to predict the outcomes of tasks or activities. view
Student stops and thinks before starting tasks. Student is able to come up with an appropriate strategy or technique for starting a task. Student begins tasks and activities or makes statements with little or no apparent thought. Student has difficulty coming up with the right strategy or technique for the task. view
Student understands time and how to work efficiently, and makes good use of the time he/she has available. Student often appears to be in a time warp, which sometimes results in frenetic work patterns or ineffective use of time. view
Student self-monitors his/her actions regularly, making adjustments to strategies if he/she is not making progress. Student does not monitor the quality of his/her work, and rarely, if ever, modifies his/her strategies. view
Student utilizes past successes and failures to guide current actions or selection of strategies. Student does not seem to reflect on past successes and failures, or use them to guide current behavior, actions, or strategies. view