How long is a pre-schooler's (boy) attention span?

[GreatGooglyMoogly]

Does anyone know of any research on this?

dont know but would be interested in answer. according to preschool ds's is not long enough

my mum (primary school teacher) used to say something about 1 minute for every year of their age ... not sure if that was scientific or made up though...

ranging from miniscule to zilch.

Depends if its something he shouldn't be doing in which case it could be hours.
Trying to get him to concentrate on putting his shoes on lasts all of 2 seconds

Oddly enough my 3 year old ds has more concentration and patience when doing something like a jigsaw than my 5 year old dd.

He was a late talker and is definately a thinker rather than a doer.

Dd has the attention span of a gnat as do the majority of the 4-6 year olds I work with.