(This a continues to be a challenge today for TSA agents, charged with looking at images of the contents of your carry-on items in search of knives, guns, or shampoo bottles larger than 3 oz.) Attention in the context of this type of search task refers to the level of sustained attention or vigilance one can maintain. When watching for a rare event, it is easy to allow concentration to lag. For example, a crucial issue in World War II was how long an individual could remain highly alert and accurate while watching a radar screen for enemy planes, and this problem led psychologists to study how attention works under such conditions. In some respects, we define different types of attention by the nature of the task used to study it. Many aspects of attention have been studied in the field of psychology. Implied in this description is the idea that we seem to have a limited capacity for information processing, and that we can only attend to or be consciously aware of a small amount of information at any given time. Notice that this description touches on the conscious nature of attention, as well as the notion that what is in consciousness is often controlled voluntarily but can also be determined by events that capture our attention. 381–382) Are you reading these words right here right now? If so, it’s only because you directed your attention toward them. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others. Focalization, concentration of consciousness are of its essence. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. An often quoted passage (James, 1890/1983) beautifully captures how intuitively obvious the concept of attention is, while it remains very difficult to define in measurable, concrete terms: Everyone knows what attention is. William James wrote extensively about attention in the late 1800s.
We may refer to a child who is easily distracted as having an attention disorder, although we also are told that Americans have an attention span of about 8 seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000, suggesting that we all have trouble sustaining concentration for any amount of time (from How that number was determined is not clear from the Web site, nor is it clear how attention span in the goldfish-9 seconds!-was measured, but the fact that our average span reportedly is less than that of a goldfish is intriguing, to say the least. “Pay attention!” pleads the weary seventh-grade teacher, not warning about danger (with possible exceptions, depending on the teacher) but urging the students to focus on the task at hand. How would you define attention, or how do you use the term? We certainly use the word very frequently in our everyday language: “ATTENTION! USE ONLY AS DIRECTED!” warns the label on the medicine bottle, meaning be alert to possible danger. \)īefore we begin exploring attention in its various forms, take a moment to consider how you think about the concept.
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