What is Attention?

Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the external or internal environment while ignoring other aspects. William James offered an early definition in his 1890 book Principles of Psychology, stating that attention 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". Attention involves focusing on one thing while filtering out distractions. It plays a crucial role in perception, as we often fail to notice details unless we specifically direct our attention to them. For example, you may not be able to recall the color of your neighbor's shirt unless you consciously focus your attention on it.

Factors Influencing Attention

Several factors can influence attention, including:

• Salience: This refers to how much an item stands out from its surroundings. For instance, a red object among green objects will be more salient than a red object among other red objects.
• Context and priming: Previous experiences and the current situation can make certain stimuli more likely to capture our attention.
• Subjective importance: We are more likely to pay attention to things we find interesting or important.

Change Blindness and Inattentional Blindness

Two phenomena that demonstrate the selective nature of attention are:

• Change Blindness: This occurs when we fail to notice changes in a visual scene because our attention is not focused on the area where the change is happening. A common example is the "flicker paradigm," where a brief blank screen disrupts our bottom-up processing, making it difficult to detect changes unless we deliberately search for them.
• Inattentional Blindness: This occurs when we fail to notice an unexpected object or event because our attention is narrowly focused elsewhere. A famous example is the "invisible gorilla" experiment, where participants focused on counting ball passes often miss a gorilla walking through the scene.

Both phenomena illustrate how much information we miss in our visual world without focused observation. These concepts have implications for areas such as eyewitness testimony, driving, and human-machine interaction. 

Some types of attention

• Voluntary Attention: This is when you consciously choose to focus on something. It is a goal-directed, top-down process. For example, you are using voluntary attention when you are studying for an exam and choose to focus on the textbook material while ignoring distractions like your phone or television.
• Involuntary Attention: This is when something captures your attention without you consciously choosing to focus on it. This is often driven by salient stimuli, meaning stimuli that stand out from their surroundings. For example, you might be reading a book when you hear a loud noise, causing you to involuntarily shift your attention to the source of the noise.
• Selective Attention: This is the ability to focus on one input while excluding other inputs. It requires actively allocating your cognitive resources to a specific stimulus and ignoring distractions. For example, during a lecture, you might use selective attention to listen to the professor's voice while filtering out the noise of classmates talking or typing on their laptops.
• Focal Attention: This refers to the specific point within the field of attention where you are concentrating your cognitive resources. It's a flexible aspect of attention but places significant demands on brain capacity. Imagine you're searching for a friend in a crowded place; your focal attention would shift from face to face until you locate your friend.
• Sustained Attention: This is the ability to maintain focus on a task or stimulus over time. The duration of sustained attention varies depending on age and other factors. For instance, a two-year-old child may only maintain sustained attention for about five minutes, while an adult can typically sustain attention for about 20 minutes.
• Divided Attention: This refers to the ability to perform two or more tasks concurrently. It involves splitting your attention between multiple inputs or activities. An example is driving a car while also engaging in a conversation with a passenger. Divided attention can also be directed inward, where mental focus is split between multiple ideas, sometimes referred to as multitasking.
• Effortless Attention: This occurs when you are fully engaged in an activity that you find enjoyable and relaxing. You are absorbed in the task and experience a sense of "flow." Examples of this type of attention can be found in activities like reading an engaging book, playing a musical instrument, or participating in a hobby you're passionate about.