Hmm I don't know what to make of this, it seems like mostly a question of semantics of the scientific vs. casual use of the words attention span. The scientific use seem to refer strictly to the biological capacity to pay attention. But the laymen seem to report that they feel and act as if though they have short attention span. The science description of this phenomenon seems to be "short attention habits". So they argue that it is not about biological capacity, but the societal reward structures which enforce short attention behavior.

As a layman it is not particularly obvious to me, why they define attention span to relate to the capacity and not the habit or behavior in the first place?