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{{Short description|Psychological focus, perception and prioritising discrete information}}
{{About|the psychological concept of attention}}
{{About|the psychological concept of attention}}
[[File:Scout Girl in Concentration.jpg|thumb|Focused attention]]
{{redirect-distinguish|Attend|attending|attendance|attendant}}
{{redirects here|Interested|the emotion|interest (emotion)|other uses|Interest (disambiguation)}}
{{Cognitive}}
{{Cognitive}}


'''Attention''' or '''focus''', is the concentration of [[awareness]] on some [[phenomenon]] to the exclusion of other stimuli.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/science/attention|title=Attention &#124; Definition, Theories, Aspects, & Facts &#124; Britannica|website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> It is the selective concentration on discrete information, either [[Subjectivity|subjectively]] or [[Objectivity (philosophy)|objectively]]. [[William James]] (1890) wrote 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 [[Train of thought|trains of thought.]] Focalization, concentration, of [[consciousness]] are of its essence."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Principles of Psychology|title-link=The Principles of Psychology|vauthors=James W|date=1890|publisher=Henry Holt|volume=1|location=New York|pages=403–404}}</ref> Attention has also been described as the [[Attention economy|allocation]] of limited cognitive processing resources.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Anderson JR |author-link=John Robert Anderson (psychologist) |year=2004 |title=Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications |edition=6th |publisher=Worth Publishers |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9P4p6eAULMoC |isbn=978-0-7167-0110-1 |pages=519}}</ref> Attention is manifested by an attentional [[Bottleneck (engineering)|bottleneck]], in terms of the amount of data the [[brain]] can process each second; for example, in [[Visual perception|human vision]], less than 1% of the visual input data stream of 1MByte/sec can enter the bottleneck,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book| vauthors = Zhaoping L |title=Understanding vision: theory, models, and data|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2014|isbn=9780199564668|location=United Kingdom}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Goldstein EB |title=Cognitive Psychology: connecting mind, research, and everyday experience|publisher=Cengage Learning|year=2011|isbn=978-1-285-76388-0}}</ref> leading to [[inattentional blindness]].
[[File:Scout Girl in Concentration.jpg|thumb|Focused attention]]


Attention remains a crucial area of investigation within [[education]], [[psychology]], [[neuroscience]], [[cognitive neuroscience]], and [[neuropsychology]]. Areas of active investigation involve determining the source of the [[sensory cue]]s and signals that generate attention, the effects of these sensory cues and signals on the [[neuronal tuning|tuning]] properties of sensory [[neurons]], and the relationship between attention and other behavioral and cognitive processes, which may include [[working memory]] and [[vigilance (psychology)|psychological vigilance]]. A relatively new body of research, which expands upon earlier research within psychopathology, is investigating the diagnostic symptoms associated with [[traumatic brain injury]] and its effects on attention. Attention also varies across cultures.<ref name="Chavajay 1999 1079–1090">{{cite journal | vauthors = Chavajay P, Rogoff B | title = Cultural variation in management of attention by children and their caregivers | journal = Developmental Psychology | volume = 35 | issue = 4 | pages = 1079–90 | date = July 1999 | pmid = 10442876 | doi = 10.1037/0012-1649.35.4.1079 }}</ref>
'''Attention''' is the behavioral and [[cognitive process]] of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether subjective or objective, while ignoring other perceivable information. Attention has also been referred to as the allocation of limited processing resources.<ref>{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=John R. |authorlink=John Robert Anderson (psychologist) |year=2004 |title=Cognitive psychology and its implications (6th ed.) |publisher=Worth Publishers |url= http://books.google.com/?id=9P4p6eAULMoC |isbn=978-0-7167-0110-1 |page=519}}</ref>


The relationships between attention and consciousness are complex enough that they have warranted philosophical exploration. Such exploration is both ancient and continually relevant, as it can have effects in fields ranging from [[mental health]] and the study of [[disorders of consciousness]] to [[artificial intelligence]] and its domains of research.
Attention remains a major area of investigation within [[education]], [[psychology]], [[neuroscience]], [[cognitive neuroscience]], and neuropsychology. Areas of active investigation involve determining the source of the signals that generate attention, the effects of these signals on the [[neuronal tuning|tuning]] properties of sensory [[neurons]], and the relationship between attention and other behavioral and cognitive processes like [[working memory]] and [[vigilance (psychology)|vigilance]]. A relatively new body of research, which expands upon earlier research within neuropsychology, is investigating the diagnostic symptoms associated with [[traumatic brain injuries]] and their effects on attention. Attention also has variational differences among differing cultures.<ref name="Chavajay 1999 1079–1090">{{cite journal|last=Chavajay|first=Pablo|author2=Barbara Rogoff|title=Cultural variation in management of attention by children and their caregivers|journal=Developmental psychology|year=1999|volume=35|issue=4|pages=1079–1090|doi=10.1037/0012-1649.35.4.1079}}</ref>


==Contemporary definition and research==
The relationships between attention and [[consciousness]] are complex enough that they have warranted perennial philosophical exploration. Such exploration is both ancient and continually relevant, as it can have effects in fields ranging from [[mental health]] and the study of [[disorders of consciousness]] to [[artificial intelligence]] and its domains of research and development.
Prior to the founding of [[psychology]] as a scientific discipline, attention was studied in the field of [[philosophy]]. Thus, many of the discoveries in the field of attention were made by philosophers. Psychologist [[John B. Watson]] calls [[Juan Luis Vives]] the father of modern psychology because, in his book ''De Anima et Vita'' (''The Soul and Life''), he was the first to recognize the importance of empirical investigation.<ref name="Johnson 2004 1–24">{{cite book| vauthors = Johnson A |title=Attention: Theory and Practice|year=2004|publisher=SAGE Publications|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|isbn=978-0-7619-2760-0|pages=1–24}}</ref> In his work on memory, Vives found that the more closely one attends to stimuli, the better they will be retained.


By the 1990s, psychologists began using [[positron emission tomography]] (PET) and later [[functional magnetic resonance imaging]] (fMRI) to image the brain while monitoring tasks involving attention. Considering this expensive equipment was generally only available in hospitals, psychologists sought cooperation with neurologists. Psychologist [[Michael Posner (psychologist)|Michael Posner]] (then already renowned for his influential work on visual selective attention) and neurologist [[Marcus Raichle]] pioneered brain imaging studies of selective attention.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | vauthors = Raichle M |title = Positron Emission Tomography |encyclopedia = The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences |date = 1999 |access-date = June 10, 2018 |url = http://ai.ato.ms/MITECS/Entry/raichle.html |publisher = MIT Press |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150117235910/http://ai.ato.ms/MITECS/Entry/raichle.html |archive-date = January 17, 2015 |url-status = dead |df = mdy-all }}</ref> Their results soon sparked interest from the neuroscience community, which until then had been focused on monkey brains. With the development of these technological innovations, [[neuroscientist]]s became interested in this type of research that combines sophisticated experimental paradigms from [[cognitive psychology]] with these new brain imaging techniques. Although the older technique of [[electroencephalography]] (EEG) had long been used to study the brain activity underlying selective attention by [[psychophysiology|cognitive psychophysiologists]], the ability of the newer techniques to measure precisely localized activity inside the brain generated renewed interest by a wider community of researchers. A growing body of such [[neuroimaging]] research has identified a [[dorsal frontoparietal network|frontoparietal attention network]] which appears to be responsible for control of attention.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Scolari M, Seidl-Rathkopf KN, Kastner S | title = Functions of the human frontoparietal attention network: Evidence from neuroimaging | journal = Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences | volume = 1 | pages = 32–39 | date = February 2015 | pmid = 27398396 | pmc = 4936532 | doi = 10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.08.003 }}</ref>
==Background and contemporary research==
Prior to the founding of [[psychology]] as a scientific discipline, attention was studied in the field of [[philosophy]]. Due to this, many of the discoveries in the field of Attention were made by philosophers. Psychologist [[John B. Watson|John Watson]] cites [[Juan Luis Vives]] as the Father of Modern Psychology due to his book ''De Anima et Vita'' ("''The Soul and Life''") in which Vives was the first to recognize the importance of empirical investigation.<ref name="Johnson 2004 1–24">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Addie|title=Attention: Theory and Practice|year=2004|publisher=SAGE Publications|location=United States of America|isbn=978-0-7619-2760-0|pages=1–24}}</ref> In his work on memory, Vives found that the more closely one attends to stimuli, the better they will be retained.


A [[definition]] of a [[psychological construct]] forms a research approach to its study. In scientific works, attention often coincides and substitutes the notion of [[intentionality]] due to the extent of semantic uncertainty in the linguistic explanations of these notions' definitions. Intentionality has in turn been defined as "the power of minds to be about something: to represent or to stand for things, properties and states of affairs".<ref>{{cite web | last=Jacob | first=Pierre | title=Intentionality | website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | date=2003-08-07 | url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intentionality/ | access-date=2024-06-29}}</ref> Although these two psychological constructs (attention and intentionality) appear to be defined by similar terms, they are different notions. To clarify the definition of attention, it would be correct to consider the origin of this notion to review the meaning of the term given to it when the experimental study on attention was initiated. It is thought that the experimental approach began with famous experiments with a 4 x 4 matrix of sixteen randomly chosen letters – the experimental paradigm that informed [[Wilhelm Wundt|Wundt]]'s theory of attention.<ref name="Leahey">{{cite journal | last=Leahey | first=Thomas H. | title=Something old, something new: Attention in Wundt and modern cognitive psychology | journal=Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences | volume=15 | issue=3 | date=1979 | doi=10.1002/1520-6696(197907)15:3<242::AID-JHBS2300150305>3.0.CO;2-O | pages=242–252| pmid=11608282 }}</ref> [[Wilhelm Wundt|Wundt]] interpreted the experimental outcome introducing the meaning of attention as "that psychical process, which is operative in the clear perception of the narrow region of the content of consciousness."<ref>Wilhelm Wundt. (1912). ''Introduction to Psychology,'' trans. Rudolf Pintner (London: Allen, 1912; reprint ed., New York: [[Arno Press]], 1973), p. 16.</ref> These experiments showed the physical limits of attention threshold, which were 3-6 letters observing the matrix during 1/10 s of their exposition.<ref name="Leahey" /> "We shall call the entrance into the large region of consciousness - apprehension, and the elevation into the focus of attention - apperception."<ref>Wilhelm Wundt. (1912). ''Introduction to Psychology,'' trans. Rudolf Pintner (London: Allen, 1912; reprint ed., New York: [[Arno Press]], 1973), pp. 35-36.</ref> Wundt's theory of attention postulated one of the main features of this notion that attention is an active, voluntary process realized during a certain time.<ref name="Leahey" /> In contrast, neuroscience research shows that intentionality may emerge instantly, even unconsciously; research reported to register neuronal correlates of an intentional act that preceded this conscious act (also see [[shared intentionality]]).<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Andelman-Gur | first1=Michal M. | last2=Fried | first2=Itzhak | title=Consciousness: a neurosurgical perspective | journal=Acta Neurochirurgica | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=165 | issue=10 | date=2023-08-18 | issn=0942-0940 | doi=10.1007/s00701-023-05738-9 | pages=2729–2735| pmid=37594639 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1=Fried | first1=Itzhak | last2=Mukamel | first2=Roy | last3=Kreiman | first3=Gabriel | title=Internally Generated Preactivation of Single Neurons in Human Medial Frontal Cortex Predicts Volition | journal=Neuron | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=69 | issue=3 | year=2011 | issn=0896-6273 | doi=10.1016/j.neuron.2010.11.045 | pages=548–562| pmid=21315264 | pmc=3052770 }}</ref> Therefore, while intentionality is a mental state (“the power of the mind to be about something”, arising even unconsciously), the description of the construct of attention should be understood in the dynamical sense as the ability to elevate the clear perception of the narrow region of the content of consciousness and to keep in mind this state for a time. The attention threshold would be the period of minimum time needed for employing perception to clearly apprehend the scope of intention. From this perspective, a scientific approach to attention is relevant when it considers the difference between these two concepts (first of all, between their statical and dynamical statuses).
In the mid-1970s, [[Workload#Theory and modelling|multiple resource models]] were put forth to significantly advance the study and research of attention. These studies showed that it is easier to perform two tasks together when the tasks use different stimulus or response modalities than when they use the same modalities. [[Michael Posner (psychologist)|Michael Posner]] did research on space-based versus object-based approaches to attention in the 1980s. For space-based attention, attention is likened to that of a [[Attentional shift#The Spotlight Theory|spotlight]]. Attention is directed to everything in the spotlight's field.


The growing body of literature shows empirical evidence that attention is conditioned by the number of elements and the duration of exposition. Decades of research on [[subitizing]] have supported Wundt's findings about the limits of a human ability to concentrate awareness on a task.<ref>Freeman FN (1912). "Grouped objects as a concrete basis for the number idea." ''Elem Sch Teach.'' 12: 306-314.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Fernberger | first=Samuel W. | title=A Preliminary Study of the Range of Visual Apprehension | journal=The American Journal of Psychology | volume=32 | issue=1 | date=1921 | pages=121–133 | doi=10.2307/1413479 | jstor=1413479 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1=Kaufman | first1=E. L. | last2=Lord | first2=M. W. | last3=Reese | first3=T. W. | last4=Volkmann | first4=J. | title=The Discrimination of Visual Number | journal=The American Journal of Psychology | volume=62 | issue=4 | date=1949 | pages=498–525 | doi=10.2307/1418556 | jstor=1418556 | pmid=15392567 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Averbach | first=Emanuel | title=The span of apprehension as a function of exposure duration | journal=Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=2 | issue=1 | year=1963 | issn=0022-5371 | doi=10.1016/s0022-5371(63)80068-7 | pages=60–64}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1=Feigenson | first1=Lisa | last2=Carey | first2=Susan | title=Tracking individuals via object-files: evidence from infants' manual search | journal=Developmental Science | volume=6 | issue=5 | date=2003 | issn=1363-755X | doi=10.1111/1467-7687.00313 | pages=568–584}}</ref> Latvian prof. Sandra Mihailova and prof. Igor Val Danilov drew an essential conclusion from the Wundtian approach to the study of attention: the scope of attention is related to cognitive development.<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2023">{{cite journal | author=Academic Center for Coherent Intelligence, Riga, Latvia | last2=Danilov | first2=Igor Val | last3=Mihailova | first3=Sandra | author4=Riga Stradins University, Riga, Latvia | title=A Case Study on the Development of Math Competence in an Eight-year-old Child with Dyscalculia: Shared Intentionality in Human-Computer Interaction for Online Treatment Via Subitizing | journal=OBM Neurobiology | volume=6 | issue=2 | date=2022-01-24 | doi=10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202122 | pages=1| doi-access=free }}</ref> As the mind grasps more details about an event, it also increases the number of reasonable combinations within that event, enhancing the probability of better understanding its features and particularity.<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2023" /> For example, three items in the focal point of consciousness have six possible combinations (3 factorial), and four items have 24 (4 factorial) combinations. This number of combinations becomes significantly prominent in the case of a focal point with six items with 720 possible combinations (6 factorial).<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2023" /> Empirical evidence suggests that the scope of attention in young children develops from two items in the focal point at age up to six months to five or more items in the focal point at age about five years.<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2023" /> As follows from the most recent studies in relation to teaching activities in [[school]], “attention” should be understood as “the state of concentration of an individual’s [[consciousness]] on the process of selecting by his own psyche the information he requires and on the process of choosing an algorithm for response actions, which involves the intensification of sensory and intellectual activities”.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Artiukhov |first=A. A. |year=2024 |title="The System of Prearranged Points" as a Method of Student's Knowledge Evaluation in Course of Teaching Natural-Scientific Subjects in a Secondary School by way of Example of Geography |url=https://research-journal.org/media/articles/13017.pdf |journal=Mezhdunarodny'j nauchno-issledovatel'skij zhurnal [International Research Journal] |volume=6 |language=ru |location=Yekaterinburg, Russia |issue=144 |page=3 |doi=10.60797/IRJ.2024.144.87 |issn=2303-9868}}</ref>
[[Anne Treisman]] developed the highly influential [[feature integration theory]].<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/0010-0285(80)90005-5 | last1 = Treisman | first1 = A. | last2 = Gelade | first2 = G. | year = 1980 | title = A feature-integration theory of attention | url = | journal = Cognitive Psychology | volume = 12 | issue = 1| pages = 97–136 | pmid = 7351125 }}</ref> According to this model, attention binds different features of an object (e.g., color and shape) into consciously experienced wholes. Although this model has received much criticism, it is still widely cited and spawned similar theories with modification, such as Jeremy Wolfe's Guided Search Theory.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Wolfe | first1 = J.M. | year = 1994 | title = Guided search 2.0: a revised model of visual search | url = http://www.psychonomic.org/backissues/4180/0107.pdf | journal = Psychonomic Bulletin & Review | volume = 1 | issue = 2 | pages = 202–238 | doi = 10.3758/BF03200774 }}</ref>


==Selective and visual==
In the 1990s, psychologists began using [[positron emission tomography|PET]] and later [[fMRI]] to image the brain in attentive tasks. Because of the highly expensive equipment that was generally only available in hospitals, psychologists sought for cooperation with neurologists. Pioneers of brain imaging studies of selective attention are psychologist [[Michael Posner (psychologist)|Michael Posner]] (then already renowned for his seminal work on visual selective attention) and neurologist Marcus Raichle.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}} Their results soon sparked interest from the entire neuroscience community in these psychological studies, which had until then focused on monkey brains. With the development of these technological innovations [[neuroscience|neuroscientists]] became interested in this type of research that combines sophisticated experimental paradigms from [[cognitive psychology]] with these new brain imaging techniques. Although the older technique of [[EEG]] had long been used to study the brain activity underlying selective attention by [[psychophysiology|cognitive psychophysiologists]], the ability of the newer techniques to actually measure precisely localized activity inside the brain generated renewed interest by a wider community of researchers. The results of these experiments have shown a broad agreement with the psychological, psychophysiological and the experiments performed on monkeys.{{Citation needed|date=September 2007}}
{{See also|Selective auditory attention}}
[[File:Wikipedia-spotlight.jpg|thumb|200px|right|alt=The spotlight model of attention]]
In [[cognitive psychology]] there are at least two models which describe how visual attention operates. These models may be considered metaphors which are used to describe internal processes and to generate hypotheses that are [[falsifiable]]. Generally speaking, visual attention is thought to operate as a two-stage process.<ref name="Jonides">{{cite journal | vauthors = Jonides J | year = 1983 | title = Further towards a model of the mind's eye's movement | url =http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jjonides/pdf/1983_4.pdf | journal = Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society | volume = 21 | issue = 4| pages = 247–50 | doi=10.3758/bf03334699| doi-access = free }}</ref> In the first stage, attention is distributed uniformly over the external visual scene and processing of information is performed in parallel. In the second stage, attention is concentrated to a specific area of the visual scene (i.e., it is focused), and processing is performed in a serial fashion.


The first of these models to appear in the literature is the spotlight model. The term "spotlight" was inspired by the work of [[William James]], who described attention as having a focus, a margin, and a fringe.<ref name="Eriksen">{{cite journal | vauthors = Eriksen CW, Hoffman JE | year = 1972 | title = Temporal and spatial characteristics of selective encoding from visual displays | journal = Perception & Psychophysics | volume = 12 | issue = 2B| pages = 201–4 | doi = 10.3758/BF03212870 | doi-access = free }}</ref> The focus is an area that extracts information from the visual scene with a high-resolution, the geometric center of which being where visual attention is directed. Surrounding the focus is the fringe of attention, which extracts information in a much more crude fashion (i.e., low-resolution). This fringe extends out to a specified area, and the cut-off is called the margin.
==Selective attention==


The second model is called the zoom-lens model and was first introduced in 1986.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Eriksen CW, St James JD | title = Visual attention within and around the field of focal attention: a zoom lens model | journal = Perception & Psychophysics | volume = 40 | issue = 4 | pages = 225–40 | date = October 1986 | pmid = 3786090 | doi = 10.3758/BF03211502 | doi-access = free }}</ref> This model inherits all properties of the spotlight model (i.e., the focus, the fringe, and the margin), but it has the added property of changing in size. This size-change mechanism was inspired by the [[zoom lens]] one might find on a camera, and any change in size can be described by a trade-off in the efficiency of processing.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Castiello U, Umiltà C | title = Size of the attentional focus and efficiency of processing | journal = Acta Psychologica | volume = 73 | issue = 3 | pages = 195–209 | date = April 1990 | pmid = 2353586 | doi = 10.1016/0001-6918(90)90022-8 }}</ref> The zoom-lens of attention can be described in terms of an inverse trade-off between the size of focus and the efficiency of processing: because attention resources are assumed to be fixed, then it follows that the larger the focus is, the slower processing will be of that region of the visual scene, since this fixed resource will be distributed over a larger area. It is thought that the focus of attention can subtend a minimum of 1° of [[visual angle]],<ref name="Eriksen"/><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Eriksen CW, Hoffman JE | year = 1973 | title = The extent of processing of noise elements during selective encoding from visual displays | journal = Perception & Psychophysics | volume = 14 | issue = 1 | pages = 155–160 | doi = 10.3758/BF03198630 | doi-access = free }}</ref> however the maximum size has not yet been determined.
[[File:Wikipedia-spotlight.jpg|thumb|200px|right|alt=The spotlight model of attention]]


A significant debate emerged in the last decade of the 20th century in which Treisman's 1993 Feature Integration Theory (FIT) was compared to Duncan and Humphrey's 1989 attentional engagement theory (AET).<ref name = "Raftopoulos_2007">{{cite book | vauthors = Raftopoulos A | title= Cognition and Perception |publisher= Oxford University Press|year= 2007| chapter = Visual Processing and Attention }}</ref>{{rp|5–7}} FIT posits that "objects are retrieved from scenes by means of selective spatial attention that picks out objects' features, forms feature maps, and integrates those features that are found at the same location into forming objects." Treismans's theory is based on a two-stage process to help solve the binding problem of attention. These two stages are the preattentive stage and the focused attention stage.
===Visual attention===
In [[cognitive psychology]] there are at least two models which describe how visual attention operates. These models may be considered loosely as metaphors which are used to describe internal processes and to generate hypotheses that are [[falsifiable]]. Generally speaking, visual attention is thought to operate as a two-stage process.<ref name="Jonides">{{cite journal | last = Jonides | first = J. | year = 1983 | title = Further towards a model of the mind's eye's movement | url =http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jjonides/pdf/1983_4.pdf | format=PDF | journal = Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society | volume = 21 | issue = 4| pages = 247–250 | doi=10.3758/bf03334699}}</ref> In the first stage, attention is distributed uniformly over the external visual scene and processing of information is performed in parallel. In the second stage, attention is concentrated to a specific area of the visual scene (i.e. it is focused), and processing is performed in a serial fashion.


# Preattentive Stage: The unconscious detection and separation of features of an item (color, shape, size). Treisman suggests that this happens early in cognitive  processing and that individuals are not aware of the occurrence due to the counter intuitiveness of separating a whole into its part. Evidence shows that preattentive focuses are accurate due to illusory conjunctions.<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Treisman A, Vieira A, Hayes A |date=1992|title=Automaticity and Preattentive Processing|journal=The American Journal of Psychology|volume=105|issue=2|pages=341–362|doi=10.2307/1423032|jstor=1423032|pmid=1621885|issn=0002-9556}}</ref>
The first of these models to appear in the literature is the spotlight model. The term "spotlight" was inspired by the work of [[William James]] who described attention as having a focus, a margin, and a fringe.<ref name="Eriksen">{{cite journal | last1 = Eriksen | first1 = C | last2 = Hoffman | first2 = J. | year = 1972 | title = Temporal and spatial characteristics of selective encoding from visual displays | url =http://psycnet.apa.org/?fa=main.doiLanding&uid=1973-01584-001 | journal = Perception & Psychophysics | volume = 12 | issue = 2B| pages = 201–204 | doi = 10.3758/BF03212870 }}</ref> The focus is an area that extracts information from the visual scene with a high-resolution, the geometric center of which being where visual attention is directed. Surrounding the focus is the fringe of attention which extracts information in a much more crude fashion (i.e. low-resolution). This fringe extends out to a specified area and this cut-off is called the margin.
# Focused Attention Stage: The combining of all feature identifiers to perceive all parts as one whole. This is possible through prior knowledge and cognitive mapping. When an item is seen within a known location and has features that people have knowledge of, then prior knowledge will help bring features all together to make sense of what is perceived. The case of R.M's damage to his parietal lobe, also known as [[Balint's syndrome]], shows the incorporation of focused attention and combination of features in the role of attention.<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Cohen A, Rafal RD |date=1991|title=Attention and Feature Integration: Illusory Conjunctions in a Patient with a Parietal Lobe Lesion|journal=Psychological Science|volume=2|issue=2|pages=106–110|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9280.1991.tb00109.x|jstor=40062648|s2cid=145171384|issn=0956-7976}}</ref>


Through sequencing these steps, parallel and serial search is better exhibited through the formation of conjunctions of objects. Conjunctive searches, according to Treismans, are done through both stages<ref>{{Citation|title=Feature Binding, Attention, and Object Perception|date=2003|work=Essential Sources in the Scientific Study of Consciousness|publisher=The MIT Press|doi=10.7551/mitpress/2834.003.0008|pmc=1692340 |isbn=978-0-262-26750-2|last1=Treisman |first1=A. |volume=353 |issue=1373 |pages=1295–1306 |pmid=9770223 }}</ref> in order to create selective and focused attention on an object, though Duncan and Humphrey would disagree. Duncan and Humphrey's AET understanding of attention maintained that "there is an initial pre-attentive parallel phase of perceptual segmentation and analysis that encompasses all of the visual items present in a scene. At this phase, descriptions of the objects in a visual scene are generated into structural units; the outcome of this parallel phase is a multiple-spatial-scale structured representation. Selective attention intervenes after this stage to select information that will be entered into visual short-term memory."<ref name="Raftopoulos_2007" />{{rp|5–7}} The contrast of the two theories placed a new emphasis on the separation of visual attention tasks alone and those mediated by supplementary cognitive processes. As Rastophopoulos summarizes the debate: "Against Treisman's FIT, which posits spatial attention as a necessary condition for detection of objects, Humphreys argues that visual elements are encoded and bound together in an initial parallel phase without focal attention, and that attention serves to select among the objects that result from this initial grouping."<ref name="Raftopoulos_2007" />{{rp|8}}
The second model that is called the zoom-lens model, and was first introduced in 1986.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Eriksen | first1 = C | last2 = St James | first2 = J. | year = 1986 | title = Visual attention within and around the field of focal attention: A zoom lens model | url = | journal = Perception & Psychophysics | volume = 40 | issue = 4| pages = 225–240 |pmid=3786090 | doi = 10.3758/BF03211502}}</ref> This model inherits all properties of the spotlight model (i.e. the focus, the fringe, and the margin) but has the added property of changing in size. This size-change mechanism was inspired by the [[zoom lens]] you might find on a camera, and any change in size can be described by a trade-off in the efficiency of processing.<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/0001-6918(90)90022-8 | last1 = Castiello | first1 = U | last2 = Umilta | first2 = C. | year = 1990 | title = Size of the attentional focus and efficiency of processing | url = | journal = Acta Psychologica | volume = 73 | issue = 3| pages = 195–209 | pmid = 2353586 }}</ref> The zoom-lens of attention can be described in terms of an inverse trade-off between the size of focus and the efficiency of processing: because attentional resources are assumed to be fixed, then it follows that the larger the focus is, the slower processing will be of that region of the visual scene since this fixed resource will be distributed over a larger area. It is thought that the focus of attention can subtend a minimum of 1° of [[visual angle]],<ref name="Eriksen">{{cite journal | last1 = Eriksen | first1 = C | last2 = Hoffman | first2 = J. | year = 1972 | title = Temporal and spatial characteristics of selective encoding from visual displays | url = | journal = Perception & Psychophysics | volume = 12 | issue = 2B| pages = 201–204 | doi = 10.3758/BF03212870 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Eriksen | first1 = CW | last2 = Hoffman | first2 = JE. | year = 1973 | title = The extent of processing of noise elements during selective encoding from visual displays | url = http://www.psychonomic.org/backissues/21786//pp/vol14-1/pp-14-155.pdf | format=PDF | journal = Perception & Psychophysics | volume = 14 | issue = 1| pages = 155–160 | doi = 10.3758/BF03198630 }}</ref> however the maximum size has not yet been determined.


==Neuropsychological model==
===Selective auditory attention===
In the twentieth century, the pioneering research of Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria led to the three-part model of neuropsychology defining the working brain as being represented by three co-active processes listed as Attention, Memory, and Activation. A.R. Luria published his well-known book ''The Working Brain'' in 1973 as a concise adjunct volume to his previous 1962 book ''Higher Cortical Functions in Man''. In this volume, Luria summarized his three-part global theory of the working brain as being composed of three constantly co-active processes which he described as the; (1) Attention system, (2) Mnestic (memory) system, and (3) Cortical activation system. The two books together are considered by Homskaya's account as "among Luria's major works in neuropsychology, most fully reflecting all the aspects (theoretical, clinical, experimental) of this new discipline."<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Homskaya ED | translator-first = Daria | translator-last = Krotova | title = Alexander Romanovich Luria, A Scientific Biography | series = Plenum Series in Russian Neuropsychology | publisher = Plenum Press | pages = 70–71 | isbn = 978-1-4613-5441-3 | doi = 10.1007/978-1-4615-1207-3 | year = 2001 }}</ref> The product of the combined research of Vygotsky and Luria have determined a large part of the contemporary understanding and definition of attention as it is understood at the start of the 21st-century.
{{main|Selective auditory attention}}


== Multitasking and divided attention ==
== Multitasking and divided attention ==
{{see also|Human multitasking|Distracted driving}}


Multitasking can be defined as the attempt to perform two or more tasks simultaneously; however, research shows that when multitasking, people make more mistakes or perform their tasks more slowly.<ref name=Matlin>{{cite book|title=Cognition|year=2013|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-1-118-14896-9 | vauthors = Matlin MW |edition=8th | type = Textbook }}</ref> Attention must be divided among all of the component tasks to perform them. In divided attention, individuals attend or give attention to multiple sources of information at once or perform more than one task at the same time.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Gopher D, Iani C | chapter = Attention | chapter-url= http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wileycs/attention/0 | veditors = Nadel L | title = Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science | location = London | publisher = Nature Publishing Company | isbn = 978-0-333-79261-2 | date = 2002 | access-date = 27 January 2017 }}</ref>
:''See also: [[Human multitasking]], [[distracted driving]]''


Older research involved looking at the limits of people performing simultaneous tasks like reading stories, while listening and writing something else,<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Spelke E, Hirst W, Neisser U |title=Skills of divided attention |journal=Cognition |year=1976 |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=215–230 |doi=10.1016/0010-0277(76)90018-4 |s2cid=19019411 |url=https://www.msu.edu/~ema/802/Ch3-4-SpelkeEtAl75.pdf }}</ref> or listening to two separate messages through different ears (i.e., [[dichotic listening]]). Generally, classical research into attention investigated the ability of people to learn new information when there were multiple tasks to be performed, or to probe the limits of our perception (c.f. [[Donald Broadbent]]). There is also older literature on people's performance on multiple tasks performed simultaneously, such as driving a car while tuning a radio<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Brown ID | title = Effect of a car radio on driving in traffic | journal = Ergonomics | volume = 8 | issue = 4 | pages = 475–9 | date = October 1965 | pmid = 5854152 | doi = 10.1080/00140136508930828 }}</ref> or driving while being on the phone.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Brown ID, Tickner AH, Simmonds DC | title = Interference between concurrent tasks of driving and telephoning | journal = The Journal of Applied Psychology | volume = 53 | issue = 5 | pages = 419–24 | date = October 1969 | pmid = 5366314 | doi = 10.1037/h0028103 }}</ref>
Multitasking can be defined as the attempt to perform two or more tasks simultaneously; however, research shows that when multitasking, people make more mistakes or perform their tasks more slowly.<ref name=Matlin>{{cite book|title=Cognition|year=2013|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-1-118-14896-9|author=Margaret W. Matlin|edition=8|type=Textbook}}</ref> Attention must be divided among all of the component tasks to perform them.


The vast majority of current research on human multitasking is based on performance of doing two tasks simultaneously,<ref name ="Matlin"/> usually that involves driving while performing another task, such as texting, eating, or even speaking to passengers in the vehicle, or with a friend over a cellphone. This research reveals that the human attentional system has limits for what it can process: driving performance is worse while engaged in other tasks; drivers make more mistakes, brake harder and later, get into more accidents, veer into other lanes, and/or are less aware of their surroundings when engaged in the previously discussed tasks.<ref name="Strahhh & Drews 2007">{{cite book | vauthors = Strayer DL, Drews FA |chapter=Multitasking in the automobile | veditors = Kramer AF, Wiegmann DA, Kirlik A |title=Attention: From Theory to Practice | url = https://archive.org/details/attentionfromthe00kram | url-access = limited |year=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/attentionfromthe00kram/page/n133 121]–33 |isbn=978-0-19-530572-2 }}</ref><ref name="Salvucci & Taatgen 2008">{{cite journal | vauthors = Salvucci DD, Taatgen NA | title = Threaded cognition: an integrated theory of concurrent multitasking | journal = Psychological Review | volume = 115 | issue = 1 | pages = 101–30 | date = January 2008 | pmid = 18211187 | doi = 10.1037/0033-295x.115.1.101 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.140.3655 | s2cid = 14785507 }}</ref><ref name="Collet et al 2009">{{cite journal | vauthors = Collet C, Clarion A, Morel M, Chapon A, Petit C | title = Physiological and behavioural changes associated to the management of secondary tasks while driving | journal = Applied Ergonomics | volume = 40 | issue = 6 | pages = 1041–6 | date = November 2009 | pmid = 19249012 | doi = 10.1016/j.apergo.2009.01.007 }}</ref>
Older research involved looking at the limits of people performing simultaneous tasks like reading stories, while listening and writing something else,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Spelke|coauthors=Hirst, & Neisser|title=Skills of divided attention|journal=Cognition|year=1976|volume=4|issue=3|pages=215–230|doi=10.1016/0010-0277(76)90018-4|url=https://www.msu.edu/~ema/802/Ch3-4-SpelkeEtAl75.pdf}}</ref> or listening to two separate messages through different ears (i.e., [[dichotic listening]]). Generally, classical research into attention investigated the ability of people to learn new information when there were multiple tasks to be performed, or to probe the limits of our perception (c.f. [[Donald Broadbent]]). There is also older literature on people's performance on multiple tasks performed simultaneously, such as driving a car while tuning a radio<ref>{{cite journal|last=Brown|first=I. D.|title=Effect of a car radio on driving in traffic|journal=Ergonomics|year=1965|volume=8|issue=4|pages=475–479|doi=10.1080/00140136508930828}}</ref> or driving while telephoning.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Brown|first=I.D.|author2=Tickner, A. H.|author3=Simmonds, D. C.|title=Interference between concurrent tasks of driving and telephoning|journal=Journal of Applied Psychology|year=1969|volume=53|issue=5|pages=419–424|doi=10.1037/h0028103|url=http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/apl/53/5/419/}}</ref>


There has been little difference found between speaking on a hands-free cell phone or a hand-held cell phone,<ref name="Chabris & Simmons, 2010">{{cite book | vauthors = Chabris CF, Simons DJ |title=The Invisible Gorilla and Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us | url = https://archive.org/details/invisiblegorilla0000chab | url-access = registration |year=2010 |publisher=Crown |location=New York }}</ref><ref name="Folks, 2010">{{cite book | vauthors = Folk CL |chapter=Attention: Divided | veditors = Goldstein EB |title=Encyclopedia of Perception | url = https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaperc00gold | url-access = limited |year=2010 |publisher=Sage |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaperc00gold/page/n131 84]–7 |isbn=9781412940818 }}</ref> which suggests that it is the strain of attentional system that causes problems, rather than what the driver is doing with his or her hands. While speaking with a passenger is as cognitively demanding as speaking with a friend over the phone,<ref name="Strayer et al. 2012">{{cite web | vauthors = Strayer DL, Cooper JM, Turrill J, Coleman J, Medeiros-Ward N, Biondi F |title= Measuring Cognitive Distraction in the Automobile |date= June 2013 |url= https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/MeasuringCognitiveDistractions.pdf |publisher= AAA |type= Research Report |access-date= 2013-11-06 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131028233322/https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/MeasuringCognitiveDistractions.pdf |archive-date= 2013-10-28 |url-status= dead }}</ref> passengers are able to change the conversation based upon the needs of the driver. For example, if traffic intensifies, a passenger may stop talking to allow the driver to navigate the increasingly difficult roadway; a conversation partner over a phone would not be aware of the change in environment.
The vast majority of current research on human multitasking is based on performance of doing two tasks simultaneously,<ref name ="Matlin"/> usually that involves driving while performing another task, such as texting, eating, or even speaking to passengers in the vehicle, or with a friend over a cellphone. This research reveals that the human attentional system has limits for what it can process: driving performance is worse while engaged in other tasks; drivers make more mistakes, brake harder and later, get into more accidents, veer into other lanes, and/or are less aware of their surroundings when engaged in the previously discussed tasks.<ref name="Strahhh & Drews 2007">{{cite book|title=Attention: From theory to practice|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|pages=121–133|author=Strayer, D. L.|chapter=Multitasking in the automobile|author2=Drews, F. A.|editor=A. F. Kramer, D. A. Wiegmann, & A. Kirlik}}</ref><ref name="Salvucci & Taatgen 2008">{{cite journal|last=Salvucci|first=D. D.|author2=Taatgen, N. A.|title=Threaded Cogition: An integrated theory of concurrent multitasking|journal=Psychological Review|year=2008|volume=115|pages=101–130|doi=10.1037/0033-295x.115.1.101}}</ref><ref name="Collet et al 2009">{{cite journal|last=Collet|first=C.|author2=et al.|title=Physiological and behavioral changes associated to the management of secondary tasks while driving|journal=Applied Ergonomics|year=2009|volume=40|pages=1041–1046|doi=10.1016/j.apergo.2009.01.007}}</ref>


There have been multiple theories regarding divided attention. One, conceived by cognitive scientist Daniel [[Daniel Kahneman|Kahneman]],<ref name="Attention & Effort">{{cite book| vauthors = Kahneman D |title=Attention and Effort|year=1973|publisher=Prentice-Hall|location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ|url=http://www.princeton.edu/~kahneman/docs/attention_and_effort/Attention_lo_quality.pdf}}</ref> explains that there is a single pool of attentional resources that can be freely divided among multiple tasks. This model seems oversimplified, however, due to the different modalities (e.g., visual, auditory, verbal) that are perceived.<ref name="Sternberg & Sternberg, 2012">{{cite book|title=Cognitive Psychology|year=2012|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1133313915| vauthors = Sternberg RJ, Sternberg K |type=Textbook}}</ref> When the two simultaneous tasks use the same modality, such as listening to a radio station and writing a paper, it is much more difficult to concentrate on both because the tasks are likely to interfere with each other. The specific modality model was theorized by Cognitive Psychologists David Navon and Daniel [[Daniel Gopher|Gopher]] in 1979. However, more recent research using well controlled dual-task paradigms points at the importance of tasks.<ref name="Wahn & König 2017">{{cite journal | vauthors = Wahn B, König P | title = Is Attentional Resource Allocation Across Sensory Modalities Task-Dependent? | journal = Advances in Cognitive Psychology | volume = 13 | issue = 1 | pages = 83–96 | year = 2017 | pmid = 28450975 | pmc = 5405449 | doi = 10.5709/acp-0209-2 }}</ref>
There has been little difference found between speaking on a hands-free cell phone or a hand-held cell phone,<ref name="Chabris & Simmons, 2010">{{cite book|title=The Invisible Gorilla and Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us|year=2010|publisher=Crown|location=New York|author=Chabris|edition=C. F.|author2=Simmons, D. J.}}</ref><ref name="Folks, 2010">{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Perception|year=2010|publisher=Sage|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|pages=84–87|author=Folk, C. L.|chapter=Attention: Divided|editor=E. B. Goldstein}}</ref> which suggests that it is the strain of attentional system that causes problems, rather than what the driver is doing with his or her hands. While speaking with a passenger is as cognitively demanding as speaking with a friend over the phone,<ref name="Strayer et al. 2012">{{cite web|title=Measuring Cognitive Distraction in the Automobile (June 2013)|url=https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/MeasuringCognitiveDistractions.pdf|publisher=AAA|author=David L. Strayer|author2=Joel M. Cooper |author3=Jonna Turrill |author4=James Coleman |author5=Nate Medeiros-Ward |author6=Francesco Biond |format=Research Report}}</ref> passengers are able to change the conversation based upon the needs of the driver. For example, if traffic intensifies, a passenger may stop talking to allow the driver to navigate the increasingly difficult roadway; a conversation partner over a phone would not be aware of the change in environment.


As an alternative, resource theory has been proposed as a more accurate metaphor for explaining divided attention on complex tasks. Resource theory states that as each complex task is automatized, performing that task requires less of the individual's limited-capacity attentional resources.<ref name="Sternberg & Sternberg, 2012"/> Other variables play a part in our ability to pay attention to and concentrate on many tasks at once. These include, but are not limited to, anxiety, arousal, task difficulty, and skills.<ref name="Sternberg & Sternberg, 2012"/>
There have been multiple theories regarding divided attention. One, conceived by [[Daniel Kahneman|Kahneman]],<ref name="Attention & Effort">{{cite book|last=Kahneman|first=Daniel|title=Attention and Effort|year=1973|publisher=Prentice-Hall|location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ|url=http://www.princeton.edu/~kahneman/docs/attention_and_effort/Attention_lo_quality.pdf}}</ref> explains that there is a single pool of attentional resources that can be freely divided among multiple tasks. This model seems to be too oversimplified, however, due to the different modalities (e.g., visual, auditory, verbal) that are perceived.<ref name="Sternberg & Sternberg, 2012">{{cite book|title=Cognitive Psychology|year=2012|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1133313915|url=http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Psychology-Robert-J-Sternberg/dp/1133313914|author=Sternberg|edition=Robert J.|author2=Sternberg, Karin|format=Textbook}}</ref> When the two simultaneous tasks use the same modality, such as listening to a radio station and writing a paper, it is much more difficult to concentrate on both because the tasks are likely to interfere with each other. The specific modality model was theorized by Navon and Gopher in 1979. Although this model is more adequate at explaining divided attention among simple tasks, resource theory is another, more accurate metaphor for explaining divided attention on complex tasks. Resource theory states that as each complex task is automatized, performing that task requires less of the individual's limited-capacity attentional resources.<ref name="Sternberg & Sternberg, 2012"/>


==Simultaneous==
Other variables play a part in our ability to pay attention to and concentrate on many tasks at once. These include, but are not limited to, anxiety, arousal, task difficulty, and skills.<ref name="Sternberg & Sternberg, 2012"/>
Simultaneous attention is a type of attention, classified by attending to multiple events at the same time. Simultaneous attention is demonstrated by children in Indigenous communities, who [[Observational Learning#Indigenous communities of the Americas|learn]] through this type of attention to their surroundings.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Correa-Chávez | first1=Maricela | last2=Roberts | first2=Amy L.D. | last3=Pérez | first3=Margarita Martínez | title=Advances in Child Development and Behavior | chapter=Cultural Patterns in Children's Learning Through Keen Observation and participation in their communities | publisher=Elsevier | year=2011 | volume=40 | issn=0065-2407 | doi=10.1016/b978-0-12-386491-8.00006-2 | pages=209–241| pmid=21887963 | isbn=978-0-12-386491-8 }}</ref> Simultaneous attention is present in the ways in which children of indigenous backgrounds interact both with their surroundings and with other individuals. Simultaneous attention requires focus on multiple simultaneous activities or occurrences. This differs from multitasking, which is characterized by alternating attention and focus between multiple activities, or halting one activity before switching to the next.


Simultaneous attention involves uninterrupted attention to several activities occurring at the same time. Another cultural practice that may relate to simultaneous attention strategies is coordination within a group. Indigenous heritage toddlers and caregivers in [[San Pedro La Laguna|San Pedro]] were observed to frequently coordinate their activities with other members of a group in ways parallel to a model of simultaneous attention, whereas middle-class European-descent families in the U.S. would move back and forth between events.<ref name="Chavajay 1999 1079–1090"/><ref name=Morelli>{{cite journal| vauthors = Morelli GA, Rogoff B, Angelillo C | title=Cultural variation in young children's access to work or involvement in specialized child-focused activities |doi=10.1080/01650250244000335 |url= http://people.ucsc.edu/~brogoff/Psych247articles/Morelli%20et%20al%20Cultural%20Var%20in%20Young%20Children%27s%20Access.pdf |journal=International Journal of Behavioral Development |year=2003 |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=264–74 | s2cid=145563973 }}</ref> Research concludes that children with close ties to Indigenous American roots have a high tendency to be especially wide, keen observers.<ref name="Silva 2010 898–912">{{cite journal | vauthors = Silva KG, Correa-Chávez M, Rogoff B | title = Mexican-heritage children's attention and learning from interactions directed to others | journal = Child Development | volume = 81 | issue = 3 | pages = 898–912 | year = 2010 | pmid = 20573112 | doi = 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01441.x }}</ref> This points to a strong cultural difference in attention management.
==Bottom-up versus top-down==
Researchers have described two different aspects of how the mind comes to attend to items present in the environment.


==Alternative topics and discussions==
The first aspect is called bottom-up processing, also known as stimulus-driven attention or [[exogeny|exogenous]] attention. These describe attentional processing which is driven by the properties of the objects themselves. Some processes, such as motion or a sudden loud noise, can attract our attention in a pre-conscious, or non-volitional way. We attend to them whether we want to or not.<ref>Theeuwes, J. (1991 Exogenous and endogenous control of attention&nbsp;— the effect of visual onsets and offsets. Perception & Psychophysics 49(1): 83–90.</ref> These aspects of attention are thought to involve [[parietal lobe|parietal]] and [[temporal lobe|temporal]] cortices, as well as the [[brainstem]].<ref name="Posner">Posner, M. I. & Petersen, S. E. (1990) The attention system of the human brain. ''Annual Review of Neuroscience'' 13: 25–42.</ref>


===Overt and covert orienting===
The second aspect is called top-down processing, also known as goal-driven, [[endogeny|endogenous]] attention, [[Attentional Control|attentional control]] or [[executive functions|executive]] attention. This aspect of our attentional orienting is under the control of the person who is attending. It is mediated primarily by the [[frontal lobe|frontal]] cortex and [[basal ganglia]]<ref name="Posner" /><ref>Posner, M.I. & Rothbart, M.K. Attention, self-regulation and consciousness. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B (1998) 353, 1915–1927</ref> as one of the [[executive functions]].<ref name="Posner" /><ref>Posner, M. I. (1980) ORIENTING OF ATTENTION. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 32(FEB): 3–25.
Attention may be differentiated into "overt" versus "covert" orienting.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Wright RD, Ward LM |year= 2008 |title= Orienting of Attention |publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref>
</ref> Research has shown that it is related to other aspects of the executive functions, such as [[working memory]],<ref>Astle, D. E. & Scerif, G. (2009) Using Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience to Study Behavioral and Attentional Control. Developmental Psychobiology 51(2): 107–118.</ref> and conflict resolution and inhibition.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Rueda M. R., Rothbart M. K., McCandliss B. D., Saccomanno L., Posner M. I. | year = 2005 | title = Training, maturation, and genetic influences on the development of executive attention | url = | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 102 | issue = 41| pages = 14931–14936 | doi=10.1073/pnas.0506897102}}</ref>


''Overt orienting'' is the act of selectively attending to an item or location over others by moving the eyes to point in that direction.<ref name="Posner, M. I. 1980">{{cite journal | vauthors = Posner MI | title = Orienting of attention | journal = The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology | volume = 32 | issue = 1 | pages = 3–25 | date = February 1980 | pmid = 7367577 | doi = 10.1080/00335558008248231 | s2cid = 2842391 | url = http://psych.unl.edu/mdodd/Psy498/Posner.pdf }}</ref> Overt orienting can be directly observed in the form of eye movements. Although overt eye movements are quite common, there is a distinction that can be made between two types of eye movements; reflexive and controlled. Reflexive movements are commanded by the [[superior colliculus]] of the [[midbrain]]. These movements are fast and are activated by the sudden appearance of stimuli. In contrast, controlled eye movements are commanded by areas in the [[frontal lobe]]. These movements are slow and voluntary.
==Overt and covert orienting==
Attention may be differentiated into "overt" versus "covert" orienting.<ref>Wright, R.D. & Ward, L.M. (2008). Orienting of Attention. [[Oxford University Press]]</ref>


''Covert orienting'' is the act of mentally shifting one's focus without moving one's eyes.<ref name="Eriksen"/><ref name="Posner, M. I. 1980"/><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Eriksen CW, Colegate RL |title=Selective attention and serial processing in briefly presented visual displays|journal=Perception & Psychophysics|volume=10|issue=5|pages=321–326|year=1971 |doi=10.3758/BF03207451 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Simply, it is changes in attention that are not attributable to overt eye movements. Covert orienting has the potential to affect the output of perceptual processes by governing attention to particular items or locations (for example, the activity of a V4 neuron whose receptive field lies on an attended stimuli will be enhanced by covert attention)<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite journal | vauthors = Gregoriou GG, Gotts SJ, Zhou H, Desimone R | title = High-frequency, long-range coupling between prefrontal and visual cortex during attention | journal = Science | volume = 324 | issue = 5931 | pages = 1207–10 | date = May 2009 | pmid = 19478185 | pmc = 2849291 | doi = 10.1126/science.1171402 | bibcode = 2009Sci...324.1207G }}</ref> but does not influence the information that is processed by the senses. Researchers often use "filtering" tasks to study the role of covert attention of selecting information. These tasks often require participants to observe a number of stimuli, but attend to only one.<br /> The current view is that visual covert attention is a mechanism for quickly scanning the field of view for interesting locations. This shift in covert attention is linked to eye movement circuitry that sets up a slower [[saccade]] to that location.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Carrasco M, McElree B | title = Covert attention accelerates the rate of visual information processing | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 98 | issue = 9 | pages = 5363–7 | date = April 2001 | pmid = 11309485 | pmc = 33215 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.081074098 | bibcode = 2001PNAS...98.5363C | doi-access = free }}</ref>
''Overt orienting'' is the act of selectively attending to an item or location over others by moving the eyes to point in that direction.<ref name="Posner, M. I. 1980">Posner, M. I. (1980). Orienting of attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32, 3–25.</ref> Overt orienting can be directly observed in the form of eye movements. Although overt eye movements are quite common, there is a distinction that can be made between two types of eye movements; reflexive and controlled. Reflexive movements are commanded by the [[superior colliculus]] of the [[midbrain]]. These movements are fast and are activated by the sudden appearance of stimuli. In contrast, controlled eye movements are commanded by areas in the [[frontal lobe]]. These movements are slow and voluntary.


There are studies that suggest the mechanisms of overt and covert orienting may not be controlled separately and independently as previously believed. Central mechanisms that may control covert orienting, such as the [[parietal lobe]], also receive input from subcortical centres involved in overt orienting.<ref name="Posner, M. I. 1980"/> In support of this, general theories of attention actively assume bottom-up (reflexive) processes and top-down (voluntary) processes converge on a common neural architecture, in that they control both covert and overt attentional systems.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Hunt AR, Kingstone A | title = Covert and overt voluntary attention: linked or independent? | journal = Brain Research. Cognitive Brain Research | volume = 18 | issue = 1 | pages = 102–5 | date = December 2003 | pmid = 14659502 | doi = 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2003.08.006 }}</ref> For example, if individuals attend to the right hand corner field of view, movement of the eyes in that direction may have to be actively suppressed.
''Covert orienting'' is the act to mentally shifting one's focus without moving one's eyes.<ref name="Posner, M. I. 1980"/><ref>Eriksen, C. W., & Colegate, R. L. (1971). Selective attention and serial processing in briefly presented visual displays. Perception & Psychophysics, 10, 321–326.</ref><ref>Eriksen, C. W., & Hoffman, J.1. (1972). Temporal and spatial characteristics of selective encoding from visual displays. Perception & Psychophysics, 12, 201–204.</ref> Simply, it is changes in attention that are not attributable to overt eye movements. Covert orienting has the potential to affect the output of perceptual processes by governing attention to particular items or locations, but does not influence the information that is processed by the senses. Researchers often use "filtering" tasks to study the role of covert attention of selecting information. These tasks often require participants to observe a number of stimuli, but attend to only one.<br /> The current view is that visual covert attention is a mechanism for quickly scanning the field of view for interesting locations. This shift in covert attention is linked to eye movement circuitry that sets up a slower [[saccade]] to that location.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}


Covert attention has been argued to reflect the existence of processes "programming explicit ocular movement".<ref name="Rizzolatti Riggio Dascola Umiltá 1987 pp. 31–40">{{cite journal |last1=Rizzolatti |first1=Giacomo |last2=Riggio |first2=Lucia |last3=Dascola |first3=Isabella |last4=Umiltá |first4=Carlo |date=1987 |title=Reorienting attention across the horizontal and vertical meridians: Evidence in favor of a premotor theory of attention |journal=Neuropsychologia |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=31–40 |doi=10.1016/0028-3932(87)90041-8|pmid=3574648 |s2cid=16353514 }}</ref> However, this has been questioned on the grounds that [[N200 (neuroscience)|N2]], "a neural measure of covert attentional allocation—does not always precede eye movements".<ref name="Talcott Kiat Luck Gaspelin 2023 p.">{{cite journal |last1=Talcott |first1=Travis N. |last2=Kiat |first2=John E. |last3=Luck |first3=Steven J. |last4=Gaspelin |first4=Nicholas |date=2023-08-23 |title=Is covert attention necessary for programming accurate saccades? Evidence from saccade-locked event-related potentials |journal=Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics |page= |doi=10.3758/s13414-023-02775-5 |pmid=37612581 |s2cid=261098480 |issn=1943-3921}}</ref> However, the researchers acknowledge, "it may be impossible to definitively rule out the possibility that some kind of shift of covert attention precedes every shift of overt attention".<ref name="Talcott Kiat Luck Gaspelin 2023 p.">{{cite journal |last1=Talcott |first1=Travis N. |last2=Kiat |first2=John E. |last3=Luck |first3=Steven J. |last4=Gaspelin |first4=Nicholas |date=2023-08-23 |title=Is covert attention necessary for programming accurate saccades? Evidence from saccade-locked event-related potentials |journal=Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics |page= |doi=10.3758/s13414-023-02775-5 |pmid=37612581 |s2cid=261098480 |issn=1943-3921}}</ref>
There are studies that suggest the mechanisms of overt and covert orienting may not be as separate as previously believed. This is due to the fact that central mechanisms that may control covert orienting, such as the parietal lobe also receive input from subcortical centres involved in overt orienting.<ref name="Posner, M. I. 1980"/> General theories of attention actively assume bottom-up (covert) processes and top-down (overt) processes converge on a common neural architecture.<ref>{{cite doi|10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2003.08.006 }}</ref> For example, if individuals attend to the right hand corner field of view, movement of the eyes in that direction may have to be actively suppressed.


==Exogenous and endogenous orienting==
===Exogenous and endogenous orienting===
Orienting attention is vital and can be controlled through external (exogenous) or internal (endogenous) processes. However, comparing these two processes is challenging because external signals do not operate completely exogenously, but will only summon attention and eye movements if they are important to the subject.<ref name="Posner, M. I. 1980"/>
Orienting attention is vital and can be controlled through external (exogenous) or internal (endogenous) processes. However, comparing these two processes is challenging because external signals do not operate completely exogenously, but will only summon attention and eye movements if they are important to the subject.<ref name="Posner, M. I. 1980"/>


''Exogenous'' (from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''exo'', meaning "outside", and ''genein'', meaning "to produce") orienting is frequently described as being under control of a stimulus.<ref name="Mayer, A. R. 2004">{{cite doi|10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.06.027}}</ref> Exogenous orienting is considered to be reflexive and automatic and is caused by a sudden change in the periphery. This often results in a reflexive saccade. Since exogenous cues are typically presented in the periphery, they are referred to as ''peripheral cues''. Exogenous orienting can even be observed when individuals are aware that the cue will not relay reliable, accurate information about where a target is going to occur. This means that the mere presence of an exogenous cue will affect the response to other stimuli that are subsequently presented in the cue's previous location.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}
''Exogenous'' (from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''exo'', meaning "outside", and ''genein'', meaning "to produce") orienting is frequently described as being under control of a stimulus.<ref name="Mayer, A. R. 2004">{{cite journal | vauthors = Mayer AR, Dorflinger JM, Rao SM, Seidenberg M | title = Neural networks underlying endogenous and exogenous visual-spatial orienting | journal = NeuroImage | volume = 23 | issue = 2 | pages = 534–41 | date = October 2004 | pmid = 15488402 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.06.027 | s2cid = 42196703 }}</ref> Exogenous orienting is considered to be reflexive and automatic and is caused by a sudden change in the periphery. This often results in a reflexive saccade. Since exogenous cues are typically presented in the periphery, they are referred to as ''peripheral cues''. Exogenous orienting can even be observed when individuals are aware that the cue will not relay reliable, accurate information about where a target is going to occur. This means that the mere presence of an exogenous cue will affect the response to other stimuli that are subsequently presented in the cue's previous location.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Friesen CK, Kingstone A |title=The eyes have it! Reflexive orienting is triggered by nonpredictive gaze|journal=Psychonomic Bulletin & Review |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=490–495 |year=1998 |url= http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/ferber/teaching/visualattention/readings/Oct6/1998_Friesen_Kingstone_PBR.pdf |doi=10.3758/BF03208827 |s2cid=672869|doi-access=free }}</ref>


Several studies have investigated the influence of valid and invalid cues.<ref>Cheal, M., & Lyon, D. R. (1991). Central and peripheral precuing of forced-choice discrimination. "The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 43A," 859–880.</ref><ref>Posner, M. I. (1980). Orienting of attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32, 3–25.</ref><ref>Jonides, J. (1981). voluntary versus automatic control over the mind's eye movement. In J.B. Long & A.D Braddely (Eds.) "Attention and performance IX (pp. 187–203)</ref><ref>Tsal, Y. (1983). Movement of attention across the visual field. "Journal of Experimental Psychology; Human Perception and Performance, 9, " 523–530.</ref> They concluded that valid peripheral cues benefit performance, for instance when the peripheral cues are brief flashes at the relevant location before to the onset of a visual stimulus. Posner and Cohen (1984) noted a reversal of this benefit takes place when the interval between the onset of the cue and the onset of the target is longer than about 300 ms.<ref>Posner, M.I., & Cohen, Y.P.C. (1984) Components of visual orienting. In H. Bouma & D. Bouwhuis (Eds.), "Attention and performance X (pp. 531–566). London: Erlbaum.</ref> The phenomenon of valid cues producing longer reaction times than invalid cues is called [[inhibition of return]].
Several studies have investigated the influence of valid and invalid cues.<ref name="Posner, M. I. 1980"/><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Cheal M, Lyon DR | title = Central and peripheral precuing of forced-choice discrimination | journal = The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology | volume = 43 | issue = 4 | pages = 859–80 | date = November 1991 | pmid = 1775667 | doi = 10.1080/14640749108400960 | s2cid = 13304439 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Jonides J | date = 1981 | chapter = Voluntary versus automatic control over the mind's eye movement | veditors = Long JB, Braddely AD | title = Attention and performance IX | pages = 187–203 | location = London | publisher = Erlbaum }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Tsal Y | title = Movements of attention across the visual field | journal = Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance | volume = 9 | issue = 4 | pages = 523–30 | date = August 1983 | pmid = 6224890 | doi = 10.1037/0096-1523.9.4.523 }}</ref> They concluded that valid peripheral cues benefit performance, for instance when the peripheral cues are brief flashes at the relevant location before the onset of a visual stimulus. Psychologists Michael Posner and Yoav Cohen (1984) noted a reversal of this benefit takes place when the interval between the onset of the cue and the onset of the target is longer than about 300 ms.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Posner MI, Cohen YP | date = 1984 | chapter = Components of visual orienting | veditors = Bouma H, Bouwhuis D | title = Attention and performance X | pages = 531–566 | location = London | publisher = Erlbaum }}</ref> The phenomenon of valid cues producing longer reaction times than invalid cues is called [[inhibition of return]].


''Endogenous'' (from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''endo'', meaning "within" or "internally") orienting is the intentional allocation of attentional resources to a predetermined location or space.<!-- <ref name="Mayer, A.R. 2004" /> ???--> Simply stated, endogenous orienting occurs when attention is oriented according to an observer's goals or desires, allowing the focus of attention to be manipulated by the demands of a task. In order to have an effect, endogenous cues must be processed by the observer and acted upon purposefully. These cues are frequently referred to as ''central cues''. This is because they are typically presented at the center of a display, where an observer's eyes are likely to be fixated. Central cues, such as an arrow or digit presented at fixation, tell observers to attend to a specific location.<ref>{{cite doi|10.1080/027249899390990}}</ref>
''Endogenous'' (from [[Greek language|Greek]] ''endo'', meaning "within" or "internally") orienting is the intentional allocation of attentional resources to a predetermined location or space.<!-- <ref name="Mayer, A.R. 2004" /> ???--> Simply stated, endogenous orienting occurs when attention is oriented according to an observer's goals or desires, allowing the focus of attention to be manipulated by the demands of a task. In order to have an effect, endogenous cues must be processed by the observer and acted upon purposefully. These cues are frequently referred to as ''central cues''. This is because they are typically presented at the center of a display, where an observer's eyes are likely to be fixated. Central cues, such as an arrow or digit presented at fixation, tell observers to attend to a specific location.<ref>{{Cite journal | vauthors = Hodgson TL, Muller HJ | doi = 10.1080/027249899390990 | title = Attentional Orienting in Two-dimensional Space | journal = The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A | volume = 52 | issue = 3 | pages = 615–648 | year = 1999 }}</ref>


When examining differences between exogenous and endogenous orienting, some researchers suggest that there are four differences between the two kinds of cues:
When examining differences between exogenous and endogenous orienting, some researchers suggest that there are four differences between the two kinds of cues:
Line 81: Line 84:
* observers are able to ignore endogenous cues but not exogenous cues;
* observers are able to ignore endogenous cues but not exogenous cues;
* exogenous cues have bigger effects than endogenous cues; and
* exogenous cues have bigger effects than endogenous cues; and
* expectancies about cue validity and predictive value affects endogenous orienting more than exogenous orienting.<ref>Jonides, J. (1981). Voluntary vs. automatic control over the mind’s eye’s movement. In J.B. Long & A.D. Baddeley (Eds.), Attention and performance IX (pp. 187–203). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.</ref>
* expectancies about cue validity and predictive value affects endogenous orienting more than exogenous orienting.<ref>Jonides, J. (1981). Voluntary vs. automatic control over the mind's eye's movement. In J.B. Long & A.D. Baddeley (Eds.), Attention and performance IX (pp. 187–203). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.</ref>


There exist both overlaps and differences in the areas of the brain that are responsible for endogenous and exogenous orientating.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Rosen AC, Rao SM, Caffarra P, Scaglioni A, Bobholz JA, Woodley SJ, Hammeke TA, Cunningham JM, Prieto TE, Binder JR | display-authors = 6 | title = Neural basis of endogenous and exogenous spatial orienting. A functional MRI study | journal = Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience | volume = 11 | issue = 2 | pages = 135–52 | date = March 1999 | pmid = 10198130 | doi = 10.1162/089892999563283 | s2cid = 13573473 }}</ref> Another approach to this discussion has been covered under the topic heading of "bottom-up" versus "top-down" orientations to attention. Researchers of this school have described two different aspects of how the mind focuses attention to items present in the environment. The first aspect is called bottom-up processing, also known as stimulus-driven attention or [[exogeny|exogenous]] attention. These describe attentional processing which is driven by the properties of the objects themselves. Some processes, such as motion or a sudden loud noise, can attract our attention in a pre-conscious, or non-volitional way. We attend to them whether we want to or not.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Theeuwes J | title = Exogenous and endogenous control of attention: the effect of visual onsets and offsets | journal = Perception & Psychophysics | volume = 49 | issue = 1 | pages = 83–90 | date = January 1991 | pmid = 2011456 | doi = 10.3758/bf03211619 | doi-access = free }}</ref> These aspects of attention are thought to involve [[parietal lobe|parietal]] and [[temporal lobe|temporal]] cortices, as well as the [[brainstem]].<ref name="Posner">{{cite journal | vauthors = Posner MI, Petersen SE | title = The attention system of the human brain | journal = Annual Review of Neuroscience | volume = 13 | issue = 1 | pages = 25–42 | year = 1990 | pmid = 2183676 | doi = 10.1146/annurev.ne.13.030190.000325 | s2cid = 2995749 | url = http://cns-web.bu.edu/Profiles/Mingolla.html/cnsftp/cn730-2007-pdf/posner_petersen90.pdf | access-date = 2015-01-10 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150420124015/http://cns-web.bu.edu/Profiles/Mingolla.html/cnsftp/cn730-2007-pdf/posner_petersen90.pdf | archive-date = 2015-04-20 }}</ref> More recent experimental evidence<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Yan Y, Zhaoping L, Li W | title = Bottom-up saliency and top-down learning in the primary visual cortex of monkeys | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 115 | issue = 41 | pages = 10499–10504 | date = October 2018 | pmid = 30254154 | pmc = 6187116 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.1803854115 | bibcode = 2018PNAS..11510499Y | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Zhaoping L | title = Attention capture by eye of origin singletons even without awareness--a hallmark of a bottom-up saliency map in the primary visual cortex | journal = Journal of Vision | volume = 8 | issue = 5 | pages = 1.1–18 | date = May 2008 | pmid = 18842072 | doi = 10.1167/8.5.1 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Zhang X, Zhaoping L, Zhou T, Fang F | title = Neural activities in v1 create a bottom-up saliency map | journal = Neuron | volume = 73 | issue = 1 | pages = 183–92 | date = January 2012 | pmid = 22243756 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.10.035 | doi-access = free }}</ref> support the idea that the [http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Area_V1 primary visual cortex] creates a bottom-up saliency map,<ref name=":1">{{cite journal | vauthors = Li Z | title = A saliency map in primary visual cortex | journal = Trends in Cognitive Sciences | volume = 6 | issue = 1 | pages = 9–16 | date = January 2002 | pmid = 11849610 | doi = 10.1016/s1364-6613(00)01817-9 | s2cid = 13411369 }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> which is received by the [[superior colliculus]] in the [[midbrain]] area to guide attention or gaze shifts.
There exist both overlaps and differences in the areas of the brain that are responsible for endogenous and exogenous orientating.<ref>{{cite doi|10.1162/089892999563283}}</ref>


The second aspect is called top-down processing, also known as goal-driven, [[endogeny|endogenous]] attention, [[Attentional Control|attentional control]] or [[executive functions|executive]] attention. This aspect of our attentional orienting is under the control of the person who is attending. It is mediated primarily by the [[frontal lobe|frontal]] cortex and [[basal ganglia]]<ref name="Posner" /><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Posner MI, Rothbart MK | title = Attention, self-regulation and consciousness | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences| volume = 353 | issue = 1377 | pages = 1915–27 | date = November 1998 | pmid = 9854264 | pmc = 1692414 | doi = 10.1098/rstb.1998.0344 }}</ref> as one of the [[executive functions]].<ref name="Posner, M. I. 1980"/><ref name="Posner" /> Research has shown that it is related to other aspects of the executive functions, such as [[working memory]],<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Astle DE, Scerif G | title = Using developmental cognitive neuroscience to study behavioral and attentional control | journal = Developmental Psychobiology | volume = 51 | issue = 2 | pages = 107–18 | date = March 2009 | pmid = 18973175 | doi = 10.1002/dev.20350 }}</ref> and conflict resolution and inhibition.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Rueda MR, Rothbart MK, McCandliss BD, Saccomanno L, Posner MI | title = Training, maturation, and genetic influences on the development of executive attention | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 102 | issue = 41 | pages = 14931–6 | date = October 2005 | pmid = 16192352 | pmc = 1253585 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.0506897102 | bibcode = 2005PNAS..10214931R | doi-access = free }}</ref>
==Influence of processing load==
One theory regarding selective attention is the [[Cognitive load#Cognitive load theory|cognitive load theory]], which states that there are two mechanisms that affect attention: cognitive and perceptual. The perceptual considers the subject’s ability to perceive or ignore stimuli, both task-related and non task-related. Studies show that if there are many stimuli present (especially if they are task-related), it is much easier to ignore the non-task related stimuli, but if there are few stimuli the mind will perceive the irrelevant stimuli as well as the relevant. The cognitive refers to the actual processing of the stimuli, studies regarding this showed that the ability to process stimuli decreased with age, meaning that younger people were able to perceive more stimuli and fully process them, but were likely to process both relevant and irrelevant information, while older people could process fewer stimuli, but usually processed only relevant information.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lavie | first1 = Nilli | last2 = Hirst | first2 = Aleksandra | last3 = de Fockert | first3 = Jan W. | last4 = Viding | first4 = Essi | year = 2004| title = Load theory of selective attention and cognitive control | url = http://www.icn.ucl.ac.uk/lavielab/reprints/Lavie-etal-04.pdf | journal = Journal of Experimental Psychology | pages = 339–54 | volume = 133| issue = 3| page = |pmid=15355143 | doi = 10.1037/0096-3445.133.3.339 }}</ref>


===Influence of processing load===
Some people can process multiple stimuli, e.g. trained morse code operators have been able to copy 100% of a message while carrying on a meaningful conversation. This relies on the reflexive response due to "overlearning" the skill of morse code reception/detection/transcription so that it is an autonomous function requiring no specific attention to perform.{{Citation needed|date=March 2013}}
A "hugely influential"<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01322|pmid = 27625628|pmc = 5003837|title = Perceptual Load Affects Eyewitness Accuracy and Susceptibility to Leading Questions|journal = Frontiers in Psychology|volume = 7|pages = 1322|year = 2016| vauthors = Murphy G, Greene CM |doi-access = free}}</ref> theory regarding selective attention is the [[Perceptual load theory#Perceptual load theory|perceptual load theory]], which states that there are two mechanisms that affect attention: cognitive and perceptual. The perceptual mechanism considers the subject's ability to perceive or ignore stimuli, both task-related and non task-related. Studies show that if there are many stimuli present (especially if they are task-related), it is much easier to ignore the non-task related stimuli, but if there are few stimuli the mind will perceive the irrelevant stimuli as well as the relevant. The cognitive mechanism refers to the actual processing of the stimuli. Studies regarding this showed that the ability to process stimuli decreased with age, meaning that younger people were able to perceive more stimuli and fully process them, but were likely to process both relevant and irrelevant information, while older people could process fewer stimuli, but usually processed only relevant information.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Lavie N, Hirst A, de Fockert JW, Viding E | title = Load theory of selective attention and cognitive control | journal = Journal of Experimental Psychology. General | volume = 133 | issue = 3 | pages = 339–54 | date = September 2004 | pmid = 15355143 | doi = 10.1037/0096-3445.133.3.339 | s2cid = 10399663 | url = http://www.icn.ucl.ac.uk/lavielab/reprints/Lavie-etal-04.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130626052615/http://www.icn.ucl.ac.uk/lavielab/reprints/lavie-etal-04.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2013-06-26 }}</ref>


Some people can process multiple stimuli, e.g. trained Morse code operators have been able to copy 100% of a message while carrying on a meaningful conversation. This relies on the reflexive response due to "overlearning" the skill of morse code reception/detection/transcription so that it is an autonomous function requiring no specific attention to perform. This overtraining of the brain comes as the "practice of a skill [surpasses] 100% accuracy," allowing the activity to become autonomic, while your mind has room to process other actions simultaneously.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Dougherty KM, Johnston JM | title = Overlearning, fluency, and automaticity | journal = The Behavior Analyst | volume = 19 | issue = 2 | pages = 289–92 | date = October 1996 | pmid = 22478265 | pmc = 2733607 | doi = 10.1007/bf03393171 }}</ref>
==Neuropsychological model==

Within the medical discipline of neurospychology, attention is identified as one of the three major co-active processes of the working brain. A.R. Luria published his well-known book ''The Working Brain'' in 1973 as a concise adjunct volume to his previous 1962 book ''Higher Cortical Functions in Man''. In this volume, Luria summarized his three-part global theory of the working brain as being composed of three constantly co-active processes which he described as the; (1) Attention system, (2) Mnestic (memory) system, and (3) Cortical activation system. The two books together are considered by Homskaya's account as "among Luria's major works in neuropsychology, most fully reflecting all the aspects (theoretical, clinical, experimental) of this new discipline."<ref>Homskaya, Elena, ''A.R. Luria'', Plenum Press, pp 70-71.</ref>
Based on the primary role of the perceptual load theory, assumptions regarding its functionality surrounding that attentional resources are that of limited capacity which signify the need for all of the attentional resources to be used.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cartwright-Finch |first1=Ula |last2=Lavie |first2=Nilli |date=2007-03-01 |title=The role of perceptual load in inattentional blindness |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027706000205 |journal=Cognition |language=en |volume=102 |issue=3 |pages=321–340 |doi=10.1016/j.cognition.2006.01.002 |pmid=16480973 |s2cid=11075314 |issn=0010-0277}}</ref> This performance, however, is halted when put hand in hand with accuracy and reaction time (RT). This limitation arises through the measurement of literature when obtaining outcomes for scores. This affects both cognitive and perceptual attention because there is a lack of measurement surrounding distributions of temporal and spatial attention. Only a concentrated amount of attention on how effective one is completing the task and how long they take is being analyzed making a more redundant analysis on overall cognition of being able to process multiple stimuli through perception.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2023 |title=Supplemental Material for The Mediating Role of Attention in the Association Between Math Anxiety and Math Performance: An Eye-Tracking Study |url=http://supp.apa.org/psycarticles/supplemental/edu0000759/edu0000759_supp.html |journal=Journal of Educational Psychology |language=en |pages=edu0000759.supp |doi=10.1037/edu0000759.supp |s2cid=249802314 |issn=0022-0663|doi-access=free }}</ref>


==Clinical model==
===Clinical model===
Attention is best described as the sustained focus of cognitive resources on information while filtering or ignoring extraneous information. Attention is a very basic function that often is a precursor to all other neurological/cognitive functions. As is frequently the case, clinical models of attention differ from investigation models. One of the most used models for the evaluation of attention in patients with very different [[neurologic]] pathologies is the model of Sohlberg and Mateer.<ref>{{cite book |author=McKay Moore Sohlberg, Catherine A. Mateer |title=Introduction to cognitive rehabilitation: theory and practice |publisher=Guilford Press |location=New York |year=1989 |isbn=0-89862-738-9}}</ref> This hierarchic model is based in the recovering of attention processes of [[brain damage]] patients after [[coma]]. Five different kinds of activities of growing difficulty are described in the model; connecting with the activities those patients could do as their recovering process advanced.
Attention is best described as the sustained focus of cognitive resources on information while filtering or ignoring extraneous information. Attention is a very basic function that often is a precursor to all other neurological/cognitive functions. As is frequently the case, clinical models of attention differ from investigation models. One of the most used models for the evaluation of attention in patients with very different [[neurologic]] pathologies is the model of Sohlberg and Mateer.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Sohlberg MM, Mateer CA | title = Introduction to cognitive rehabilitation: theory and practice | publisher = Guilford Press | location = New York | year = 1989 | isbn = 978-0-89862-738-1 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/introductiontoco00sohl }}</ref> This hierarchic model is based in the recovering of attention processes of [[brain damage]] patients after [[coma]]. Five different kinds of activities of growing difficulty are described in the model; connecting with the activities those patients could do as their recovering process advanced.
* '''Focused attention:''' The ability to respond discretely to specific visual, [[Auditory spatial attention|auditory]] or tactile stimuli.
* '''Focused attention:''' The ability to respond discretely to specific [[sense|sensory]] stimuli.
* '''Sustained attention ([[Vigilance Theory|vigilance]]):''' The ability to maintain a consistent behavioral response during continuous and repetitive activity.
* '''Sustained attention ([[vigilance (psychology)|vigilance]] and [[attentional control|concentration]]):''' The ability to maintain a consistent behavioral response during continuous and repetitive activity.
* '''Selective attention:''' The ability to maintain a behavioral or cognitive set in the face of distracting or competing stimuli. Therefore it incorporates the notion of "freedom from distractibility."
* '''Selective attention:''' The ability to maintain a behavioral or cognitive set in the face of distracting or competing stimuli. Therefore, it incorporates the notion of "freedom from distractibility."
* '''Alternating attention:''' The ability of mental flexibility that allows individuals to shift their focus of attention and move between tasks having different cognitive requirements.
* '''Alternating attention:''' The ability of mental flexibility that allows individuals to shift their focus of attention and move between tasks having different cognitive requirements.
* '''Divided attention:''' This is the highest level of attention and it refers to the ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks or multiple task demands.
* '''Divided attention:''' This refers to the ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks or multiple task demands.


This model has been shown to be very useful in evaluating attention in very different pathologies, correlates strongly with daily difficulties and is especially helpful in designing stimulation programs such as attention process training, a rehabilitation program for neurological patients of the same authors.
This model has been shown to be very useful in evaluating attention in very different pathologies, correlates strongly with daily difficulties and is especially helpful in designing stimulation programs such as attention process training, a rehabilitation program for neurological patients of the same authors.


==Other descriptors for types of attention==
==Neural correlates==
* '''[[Mindfulness]]:''' Mindfulness has been conceptualized as a clinical model of attention.<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Carmody J |date=2009|title=Evolving Conceptions of Mindfulness in Clinical Settings|journal= Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy|volume=23 | issue = 3 |pages=270–280|doi=10.1891/0889-8391.23.3.270|s2cid=143844777}}</ref> [[Mindfulness]] practices are clinical interventions that emphasize training attention functions.<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Kabat-Zinn J |date=2015 | title = Mindfulness |journal=Mindfulness |volume=6 | issue = 6 |pages=1481–1483|doi=10.1007/s12671-015-0456-x|s2cid=255796380 }}</ref>
Most experiments show that one [[neural correlate]] of attention is enhanced firing. If a neuron has a certain response to a stimulus when the animal is not attending to the stimulus, then when the animal does attend to the stimulus, the neuron's response will be enhanced even if the physical characteristics of the stimulus remain the same.
* '''Vigilant attention:''' Remaining focused on a non-arousing stimulus or uninteresting task for a sustained period is far more difficult than attending to arousing stimuli and interesting tasks, and requires a specific type of attention called 'vigilant attention'.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Langner R, Eickhoff SB | title = Sustaining attention to simple tasks: a meta-analytic review of the neural mechanisms of vigilant attention | journal = Psychological Bulletin | volume = 139 | issue = 4 | pages = 870–900 | date = July 2013 | pmid = 23163491 | pmc = 3627747 | doi = 10.1037/a0030694 }}</ref> Thereby, vigilant attention is the ability to give sustained attention to a stimulus or task that might ordinarily be insufficiently engaging to prevent our attention being distracted by other stimuli or tasks.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Robertson IH, O'Connell R | chapter = Vigilant attention. | veditors = Nobre AC, Nobre K, Coull JT| title = Attention and Time | publisher = Oxford University Press |date = 2010 | pages = 79–88 | isbn = 978-0-19-956345-6 }}</ref>


===Neural correlates===
In a 2007 review, Knudsen<ref name="Knudsen">{{cite journal |author=Knudsen, Eric I |title=Fundamental Components of Attention |journal=Annual Review of Neuroscience |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=57–78 |year= 2007 |pmid=17417935 |doi=10.1146/annurev.neuro.30.051606.094256}}</ref> describes a more general [[Conceptual model|model]] which identifies four core processes of attention, with [[working memory]] at the center:
Most experiments show that one [[neural correlate]] of attention is enhanced firing. If a neuron has a different response to a stimulus when an animal is not attending to a stimulus, versus when the animal does attend to the stimulus, then the neuron's response will be enhanced even if the physical characteristics of the stimulus remain the same.

In a 2007 review, Professor Eric Knudsen<ref name="Knudsen">{{cite journal | vauthors = Knudsen EI | title = Fundamental components of attention | journal = Annual Review of Neuroscience | volume = 30 | issue = 1 | pages = 57–78 | year = 2007 | pmid = 17417935 | doi = 10.1146/annurev.neuro.30.051606.094256 | s2cid = 9875095 }}</ref> describes a more general [[Conceptual model|model]] which identifies four core processes of attention, with [[working memory]] at the center:
* [[Working memory]] temporarily stores information for detailed analysis.
* [[Working memory]] temporarily stores information for detailed analysis.
* Competitive selection is the process that determines which information gains access to working memory.
* Competitive selection is the process that determines which information gains access to working memory.
* Through top-down sensitivity control, higher cognitive processes can regulate signal intensity in information channels that compete for access to working memory, and thus give them an advantage in the process of competitive selection. Through top-down sensitivity control, the momentary content of working memory can influence the selection of new information, and thus mediate voluntary control of attention in a recurrent loop (endogenous attention).<ref name="Pattyn">{{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.09.016 | last1 = Pattyn | first1 = N. | last2 = Neyt | first2 = X. | last3 = Henderickx | first3 = D. | last4 = Soetens | first4 = E. | year = 2008 | title = Psychophysiological Investigation of Vigilance Decrement: Boredom or Cognitive Fatigue? | url = | journal = Physiology & Behavior | volume = 93 | issue = | pages = 369–378 }}</ref>
* Through top-down sensitivity control, higher cognitive processes can regulate signal intensity in information channels that compete for access to working memory, and thus give them an advantage in the process of competitive selection. Through top-down sensitivity control, the momentary content of working memory can influence the selection of new information, and thus mediate voluntary control of attention in a recurrent loop (endogenous attention).<ref name="Pattyn">{{cite journal | vauthors = Pattyn N, Neyt X, Henderickx D, Soetens E | title = Psychophysiological investigation of vigilance decrement: boredom or cognitive fatigue? | journal = Physiology & Behavior | volume = 93 | issue = 1–2 | pages = 369–78 | date = January 2008 | pmid = 17999934 | doi = 10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.09.016 | s2cid = 9861215 }}</ref>
* Bottom-up saliency filters automatically enhance the response to infrequent stimuli, or stimuli of instinctive or learned biological relevance (exogenous attention).<ref name="Pattyn"/>
* Bottom-up saliency filters automatically enhance the response to infrequent stimuli, or stimuli of instinctive or learned biological relevance (exogenous attention).<ref name="Pattyn"/>


Neutrally, at different hierarchical levels spatial maps can enhance or inhibit activity in sensory areas, and induce orienting behaviors like eye movement.
Neurally, at different hierarchical levels spatial maps can enhance or inhibit activity in sensory areas, and induce orienting behaviors like eye movement.
* At the top of the hierarchy, the [[frontal eye fields]] (FEF) on the dorsolateral [[frontal cortex]] contain a retinocentric spatial map. [[Microstimulation]] in the FEF induces monkeys to make a [[saccade]] to the relevant location. Stimulation at levels too low to induce a saccade will nonetheless enhance cortical responses to stimuli located in the relevant area.
* At the top of the hierarchy, the [[frontal eye fields]] (FEF) and the [[dorsolateral prefrontal cortex]] contain a retinocentric spatial map. [[Microstimulation]] in the FEF induces monkeys to make a [[saccade]] to the relevant location. Stimulation at levels too low to induce a saccade will nonetheless enhance cortical responses to stimuli located in the relevant area.
* At the next lower level, a variety of spatial maps are found in the [[parietal cortex]]. In particular, the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) contains a saliency map and is interconnected both with the FEF and with sensory areas.
* At the next lower level, a variety of spatial maps are found in the [[parietal cortex]]. In particular, the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) contains a [[saliency map]] and is interconnected both with the FEF and with sensory areas.
*Exogenous attentional guidance in humans and monkeys is by a bottom-up saliency map in the [http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Area_V1 primary visual cortex].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> In lower [[vertebrate]]s, this saliency map is more likely in the [[superior colliculus]] (optic tectum).<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Zhaoping L | title = From the optic tectum to the primary visual cortex: migration through evolution of the saliency map for exogenous attentional guidance | journal = Current Opinion in Neurobiology | volume = 40 | pages = 94–102 | date = October 2016 | pmid = 27420378 | doi = 10.1016/j.conb.2016.06.017 | s2cid = 206952820 | url = https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1503732/ }}</ref>
* Certain automatic responses that influence attention, like orienting to a highly salient stimulus, are mediated subcortically by the [[superior colliculi]].
* Certain automatic responses that influence attention, like orienting to a highly salient stimulus, are mediated subcortically by the [[superior colliculi]].
* At the neural network level, it is thought that processes like lateral inhibition mediate the process of competitive selection.
* At the neural network level, it is thought that processes like [[lateral inhibition]] mediate the process of competitive selection.


In many cases attention produces changes in the [[EEG]]. Many animals, including humans, produce [[gamma wave]]s (40–60&nbsp;Hz) when focusing attention on a particular object or activity.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Kaiser J, Lutzenberger W |title=Induced gamma-band activity and human brain function |journal=Neuroscientist |volume=9 |pages=475–84 |year=2003 |pmid=14678580 |doi=10.1177/1073858403259137 |issue=6}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Siegel M, Donner TH, Oostenveld R, Fries P, Engel AK |title=Neuronal synchronization along the dorsal visual pathway reflects the focus of spatial attention |journal=[[Neuron]] |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=709–719 |date=Mar 2008 |doi=10.1016/j.neuron.2008.09.010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Gregoriou GG, Gotts SJ, Zhou H, Desimone R |title=High-frequency, long-range coupling between prefrontal and visual cortex during attention |journal=[[Science]] |volume=324 |issue=5931 |pages=1207–1210 |date=Mar 2009 |doi=10.1126/science.1171402 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Baldauf D, Desimone R |title=Neural mechanisms of object-based attention |journal=[[Science]] |volume=344 |issue=6182 |pages=424–427 |date=Mar 2014 |pmid=24763592 |doi=10.1126/science.1247003 }}</ref>
In many cases attention produces changes in the [[EEG]]. Many animals, including humans, produce [[gamma wave]]s (40–60&nbsp;Hz) when focusing attention on a particular object or activity.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Kaiser J, Lutzenberger W | title = Induced gamma-band activity and human brain function | journal = The Neuroscientist | volume = 9 | issue = 6 | pages = 475–84 | date = December 2003 | pmid = 14678580 | doi = 10.1177/1073858403259137 | s2cid = 23574844 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Siegel M, Donner TH, Oostenveld R, Fries P, Engel AK | title = Neuronal synchronization along the dorsal visual pathway reflects the focus of spatial attention | journal = Neuron | volume = 60 | issue = 4 | pages = 709–19 | date = November 2008 | pmid = 19038226 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.09.010 | s2cid = 19010227 | doi-access = free | hdl = 2066/71012 | hdl-access = free }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Baldauf D, Desimone R | title = Neural mechanisms of object-based attention | journal = Science | volume = 344 | issue = 6182 | pages = 424–7 | date = April 2014 | pmid = 24763592 | doi = 10.1126/science.1247003 | bibcode = 2014Sci...344..424B | s2cid = 34728448 | doi-access = free }}</ref>


Another commonly used model for the attention system has been put forth by researchers such as [[Michael Posner (psychologist)|Michael Posner]] divides attention into three functional components: alerting, orienting, and [[Executive system|executive attention]].<ref>Posner, M. I., & Boies, S. J. (1971). Components of attention. ''Psychological Review, 78''(5), 391–408.</ref><ref>Posner, M. I., & Peterson, S. E. (1990). The attention system of the human brain. ''Annual Review of Neuroscience, 13'', 25–42.</ref>
Another commonly used model for the attention system has been put forth by researchers such as [[Michael Posner (psychologist)|Michael Posner]]. He divides attention into three functional components: alerting, orienting, and [[Executive system|executive attention]]<ref name="Posner"/><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Posner MI, Boies SJ |title=Components of attention|journal=Psychological Review |volume=78 |issue=5 |pages=391–408 |year=1971 |doi=10.1037/h0031333 }}</ref> that can also interact and influence each other.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Trautwein FM, Singer T, Kanske P | title = Stimulus-Driven Reorienting Impairs Executive Control of Attention: Evidence for a Common Bottleneck in Anterior Insula | journal = Cerebral Cortex | volume = 26 | issue = 11 | pages = 4136–4147 | date = August 2016 | pmid = 27550866 | pmc = 5066828 | doi = 10.1093/cercor/bhw225 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Fan J, Gu X, Guise KG, Liu X, Fossella J, Wang H, Posner MI | title = Testing the behavioral interaction and integration of attentional networks | journal = Brain and Cognition | volume = 70 | issue = 2 | pages = 209–20 | date = July 2009 | pmid = 19269079 | pmc = 2674119 | doi = 10.1016/j.bandc.2009.02.002 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Callejas A, Lupiáñez J, Tudela P | title = The three attentional networks: on their independence and interactions | journal = Brain and Cognition | volume = 54 | issue = 3 | pages = 225–7 | date = April 2004 | pmid = 15050779 | doi = 10.1016/j.bandc.2004.02.012 | s2cid = 775862 }}</ref>
* Alerting is the process involved in becoming and staying attentive toward the surroundings. It appears to exist in the [[Frontal lobe|frontal]] and [[Parietal lobe|parietal]] lobes of the [[right hemisphere]], and is modulated by [[norepinephrine]].<ref>Coull, J. T., Frith, C. D., Frackowiak, R. S. J., & Grasby, P. M. (1996). A fronto-parietal network for rapid visual information processing: A PET study of sustained attention and working memory. ''Neuropsychologia, 34'', 1085–1095</ref><ref>Marrocco, R. T., Witte, E. A., & Davidson, M. C. (1994). Arousal systems. ''Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 4'', 166–170.</ref>
* Alerting is the process involved in becoming and staying attentive toward the surroundings. It appears to exist in the [[Frontal lobe|frontal]] and [[Parietal lobe|parietal]] lobes of the [[right hemisphere]], and is modulated by [[norepinephrine]].<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Coull JT, Frith CD, Frackowiak RS, Grasby PM | title = A fronto-parietal network for rapid visual information processing: a PET study of sustained attention and working memory | journal = Neuropsychologia | volume = 34 | issue = 11 | pages = 1085–95 | date = November 1996 | pmid = 8904746 | doi = 10.1016/0028-3932(96)00029-2 | s2cid = 25430660 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Marrocco RT, Witte EA, Davidson MC | title = Arousal systems | journal = Current Opinion in Neurobiology | volume = 4 | issue = 2 | pages = 166–70 | date = April 1994 | pmid = 7913640 | doi = 10.1016/0959-4388(94)90067-1 | s2cid = 35709525 }}</ref>
* Orienting is the directing of attention to a specific stimulus.
* Orienting is the directing of attention to a specific stimulus.
* Executive attention is used when there is a conflict between multiple attention cues. It is essentially the same as the [[Baddeley's model of working memory#Central executive|central executive]] in [[Baddeley's model of working memory]]. The [[Eriksen flanker task]] has shown that the executive control of attention may take place in the [[anterior cingulate cortex]]<ref>Fan, J., McCandliss, B. D., Flombaum, J. I., Thomas, K. M., & Posner, M. I. (2001). Comparing images of conflict in frontal cortex. Annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, NY.</ref>
* Executive attention is used when there is a conflict between multiple attention cues. It is essentially the same as the [[Baddeley's model of working memory#Central executive|central executive]] in [[Baddeley's model of working memory]]. The [[Eriksen flanker task]] has shown that the executive control of attention may take place in the [[anterior cingulate cortex]]<ref>{{cite web | vauthors = Fan J, McCandliss BD, Flombaum JI, Thomas KM, Posner MI | date = 2001 | url = https://cognet.mit.edu/library/conferences/paper?paper_id=53066 | title = Comparing images of conflict in frontal cortex | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150110125228/https://cognet.mit.edu/library/conferences/paper?paper_id=53066 |archive-date=2015-01-10 | work = Annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society | location = New York, NY }}</ref>


==Cultural variation==
===Cultural variation===
Children appear to develop patterns of attention related to the cultural practices of their families, communities, and the institutions in which they participate.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Correa-Chavez|first=Maricela|author2=Barbara Rogoff|title=Cultural variation in childrens attention and learning|journal=Psychology and the real world: Essays illustrating fundamental contributions to society|year=2009}}</ref>
Children appear to develop patterns of attention related to the cultural practices of their families, communities, and the institutions in which they participate.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Correa-Chavez M, Barbara R |title=Cultural variation in children's attention and learning |journal=Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society |year=2009 }}</ref>


In 1955, [[Jules Henry]] suggested that there are societal differences in sensitivity to signals from many ongoing sources that call for the awareness of several levels of attention simultaneously. He tied his speculation to ethnographic observations of communities in which children are involved in a complex social community with multiple relationships.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal|last=Chavajay|first=Pablo|title=Cultural variation in management of attention by children and their caregivers|journal=Developmental Psychology|year=1999|volume=35|issue=4|pages=1079–1090|doi=10.1037/0012-1649.35.4.1079}}</ref>
In 1955, [[Jules Henry]] suggested that there are societal differences in sensitivity to signals from many ongoing sources that call for the awareness of several levels of attention simultaneously. He tied his speculation to ethnographic observations of communities in which children are involved in a complex social community with multiple relationships.<ref name="Chavajay 1999 1079–1090"/>


Many [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous children in the Americas]] predominantly learn by [[Observational Learning|observing]] and pitching in. There are several studies to support that the use of keen attention towards learning is much more common in Indigenous communities of North and Central America than in a middle-class setting.<ref name="Rogoff 2011 1–18">{{cite journal|last=Rogoff|first=Barbara|author2=Correa-Chavez, M. |author3=Silva, K. G. |title=Cultural variation in children’s attention and learning|journal=Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society|date=2011|pages=1–18|accessdate=22 May 2014}}</ref> This is a direct result of the learning by observing and pitching in model.
Many [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous children in the Americas]] predominantly learn by [[Observational Learning|observing]] and pitching in. There are several studies to support that the use of keen attention towards learning is much more common in Indigenous Communities of North and Central America than in a middle-class European-American setting. This is a direct result of the [[Learning by Observing and Pitching In]] model.


Keen attention is both a requirement and result of learning by observing and pitching-in. Incorporating the children in the community gives them the opportunity to keenly observe and contribute to activities that were not directed towards them. It can be seen from different Indigenous communities and cultures, such as the [[Mayans]] of [[San Pedro La Laguna|San Pedro]], that children can simultaneously attend to multiple events.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Most [[Maya peoples|Maya]] children have learned to pay attention to several events at once in order to make useful observations.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rogoff|first1=Barbara|title=The Cultural Nature of Human Development|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195131338}}</ref>
Keen attention is both a requirement and result of learning by observing and pitching-in. Incorporating the children in the community gives them the opportunity to keenly observe and contribute to activities that were not directed towards them. It can be seen from different Indigenous communities and cultures, such as the [[Mayans]] of [[San Pedro La Laguna|San Pedro]], that children can simultaneously attend to multiple events.<ref name="Chavajay 1999 1079–1090"/> Most [[Maya peoples|Maya]] children have learned to pay attention to several events at once in order to make useful observations.<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Rogoff B |title=The Cultural Nature of Human Development|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195131338|date=2003-02-13}}</ref>


One example is simultaneous attention which involves uninterrupted attention to several activities occurring at the same time. Another cultural practice that may relate to simultaneous attention strategies is coordination within a group. San Pedro toddlers and caregivers frequently coordinated their activities with other members of a group in multiway engagements rather than in a dyadic fashion.<ref name="Chavajay 1999 1079–1090"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Morelli|first=Gilda|author2=Angelillo, Cathy|title=Cultural variation in young children's access to work or involvement in specialised child-focused activities|journal=International Journal of Behavioral Development|year=2003|volume=27|issue=3}}</ref> Research concludes that children with close ties to Indigenous American roots have a high tendency to be especially keen observers.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Silva|first=K.G|author2=Correa-Chavez, M. |author3=Rogoff, B. |title=Mexican-heritage children’s attention and learning from interactions directed to others|journal=Child Development|date=2010|volume=81|issue=3|pages=898–912|accessdate=22 May 2014|doi=10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01441.x}}</ref>
One example is simultaneous attention which involves uninterrupted attention to several activities occurring at the same time. Another cultural practice that may relate to simultaneous attention strategies is coordination within a group. San Pedro toddlers and caregivers frequently coordinated their activities with other members of a group in multiway engagements rather than in a dyadic fashion.<ref name="Chavajay 1999 1079–1090"/><ref name=Morelli/> Research concludes that children with close ties to Indigenous American roots have a high tendency to be especially keen observers.<ref name="Silva 2010 898–912"/>


This learning by observing and pitching-in model requires active levels of attention management. The child is present while caretakers engage in daily activities and responsibilities such as: weaving, farming, and other skills necessary for survival. Being present allows the child to focus their attention on the actions being performed by their parents, elders, and/or older siblings.<ref name="Rogoff 2011 1–18"/> In order to learn in this way, keen attention and focus is required. Eventually the child is expected to be able to perform these skills themselves.
This learning by observing and pitching-in model requires active levels of attention management. The child is present while caretakers engage in daily activities and responsibilities such as: weaving, farming, and other skills necessary for survival. Being present allows the child to focus their attention on the actions being performed by their parents, elders, and/or older siblings. In order to learn in this way, keen attention and focus is required. Eventually the child is expected to be able to perform these skills themselves.


===Modelling===
==Attention modelling==


In the domain of [[computer vision]], efforts have been made to model the mechanism of human attention, especially the bottom-up intentional mechanism<ref name="Li J, Levine MD, An X, Xu X, He H 2012">{{cite journal | vauthors = Li J, Levine MD, An X, Xu X, He H | title = Visual saliency based on scale-space analysis in the frequency domain | journal = IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence | volume = 35 | issue = 4 | pages = 996–1010 | date = April 2013 | pmid = 22802112 | doi = 10.1109/TPAMI.2012.147 | arxiv = 1605.01999 | s2cid = 350786 }}</ref> and its semantic significance in classification of video contents.<ref name="Zang Wang Liu Zhang 2018 pp. 97–108">{{cite book | last1=Zang | first1=Jinliang | last2=Wang | first2=Le | last3=Liu | first3=Ziyi | last4=Zhang | first4=Qilin | last5=Hua | first5=Gang | last6=Zheng | first6=Nanning | title=Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations | chapter=Attention-Based Temporal Weighted Convolutional Neural Network for Action Recognition | publisher=Springer International Publishing | publication-place=Cham | volume=519 | date=2018 | isbn=978-3-319-92006-1 | doi=10.1007/978-3-319-92007-8_9 | pages=97–108}}</ref><ref name="Wang Zang Zhang Niu p=1979">{{cite journal | vauthors = Wang L, Zang J, Zhang Q, Niu Z, Hua G, Zheng N | title = Action Recognition by an Attention-Aware Temporal Weighted Convolutional Neural Network | journal = Sensors | volume = 18 | issue = 7 | pages = 1979 | date = June 2018 | pmid = 29933555 | pmc = 6069475 | doi = 10.3390/s18071979 | bibcode = 2018Senso..18.1979W | url = https://qilin-zhang.github.io/_pages/pdfs/sensors-18-01979-Action_Recognition_by_an_Attention-Aware_Temporal_Weighted_Convolutional_Neural_Network.pdf | doi-access = free }}</ref> Both [[Visual spatial attention|spatial attention]] and [[Visual temporal attention|temporal attention]] have been incorporated in such classification efforts.
In the domain of computer vision, efforts have been made in modelling the mechanism of human attention, especially the bottom-up attentional mechanism.<ref name="Li J, Levine MD, An X, Xu X, He H 2012">{{cite journal |author= Li J, Levine MD, An X, Xu X, He H |title=Visual Saliency Based on Scale-Space Analysis in the Frequency Domain |journal=IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell.|year=2012|doi=10.1109/TPAMI.2012.147}}</ref>


Generally speaking, there are two kinds of models to mimic the bottom-up saliency mechanism. One way is based on the spatial contrast analysis. For example, a center–surround mechanism has been used to define saliency across scales, inspired by the putative neural mechanism.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Laurent Itti, Christof Koch, Ernst Niebur |title=A Model of Saliency-Based Visual Attention for Rapid Scene Analysis |journal=IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell.|year=1998|doi=10.1109/34.730558}}</ref> It has also been hypothesized that some visual inputs are intrinsically salient in certain background contexts and that these are actually task-independent. This model has established itself as the exemplar for saliency detection and consistently used for comparison in the literature;<ref name="Li J, Levine MD, An X, Xu X, He H 2012"/> the other way is based on the frequency domain analysis. This method was first proposed by Hou et al.,<ref>{{cite journal |author= Hou X, Zhang L |title=Saliency Detection: A Spectral Residual Approach |journal=IEEE CVPR |year=2007}}</ref> this method was called SR, and then PQFT method was also introduced. Both SR and PQFT only use the phase information.<ref name="Li J, Levine MD, An X, Xu X, He H 2012"/> In 2012, the HFT method was introduced, and both the amplitude and the phase information are made use of.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Li J, Levine MD, An X, Xu X, He H |title=Visual Saliency Based on Scale-Space Analysis in the Frequency Domain |journal=IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell.|year=2012|doi=10.1109/TPAMI.2012.147 |url=http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~lijian/06243147.pdf}}</ref>
Generally speaking, there are two kinds of models to mimic the bottom-up salience mechanism in static images. One is based on the spatial contrast analysis. For example, a center–surround mechanism has been used to define salience across scales, inspired by the putative neural mechanism.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Itti L, Koch C, Niebur E |title=A Model of Saliency-Based Visual Attention for Rapid Scene Analysis |journal=IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell|volume=20 |issue=11 |pages=1254–1259 |year=1998|doi=10.1109/34.730558 |citeseerx=10.1.1.53.2366 |s2cid=3108956 }}</ref> It has also been hypothesized that some visual inputs are intrinsically salient in certain background contexts and that these are actually task-independent. This model has established itself as the exemplar for salience detection and consistently used for comparison in the literature;<ref name="Li J, Levine MD, An X, Xu X, He H 2012"/> the other kind of model is based on the frequency domain analysis. This method was first proposed by Hou et al..<ref>{{Cite book |vauthors=Hou X, Zhang L |doi=10.1109/CVPR.2007.383267 |chapter-url=http://www.klab.caltech.edu/~xhou/papers/cvpr07.pdf |access-date=2015-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212171627/http://www.klab.caltech.edu/~xhou/papers/cvpr07.pdf |archive-date=2015-02-12 |url-status=dead |title=2007 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition |pages=1–8 |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4244-1179-5 |chapter=Saliency Detection: A Spectral Residual Approach |citeseerx=10.1.1.579.1650 |s2cid=15611611 }}</ref> This method was called SR. Then, the PQFT method was also introduced. Both SR and PQFT only use the phase information.<ref name="Li J, Levine MD, An X, Xu X, He H 2012"/> In 2012, the HFT method was introduced, and both the amplitude and the phase information are made use of.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Li J, Levine MD, An X, Xu X, He H | title = Visual saliency based on scale-space analysis in the frequency domain | journal = IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence | volume = 35 | issue = 4 | pages = 996–1010 | date = April 2013 | pmid = 22802112 | doi = 10.1109/TPAMI.2012.147 | url = http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~lijian/06243147.pdf | arxiv = 1605.01999 | s2cid = 350786 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130301015810/http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~lijian/06243147.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2013-03-01 }}</ref> The Neural Abstraction Pyramid<ref>{{Cite book| vauthors = Behnke S |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/b11963|title=Hierarchical Neural Networks for Image Interpretation|date=2003|publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg|isbn=978-3-540-40722-5|series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science|volume=2766|location=Berlin, Heidelberg|doi=10.1007/b11963|s2cid=1304548}}</ref> is a hierarchical recurrent convolutional model, which incorporates bottom-up and top-down flow of information to iteratively interpret images.


==Hemispatial neglect==
===Hemispatial neglect===
{{Main|Hemispatial neglect}}
{{Main|Hemispatial neglect}}
Hemispatial neglect, also called ''unilateral neglect'', often occurs when people have damage to their right hemisphere.<ref name="Kalat, J. W. 2013">Kalat, J. W. (2013).''Biological Psychology (11th ed''.). Cengage Learning.</ref> This damage often leads to a tendency to ignore the left side of one's body or even the left side of an object that can be seen. Damage to the left side of the brain (the left hemisphere) rarely yields significant neglect of the right side of the body or object in the person's local environments.<ref name="Silveri, M. 2011">Silveri, M., Ciccarelli, N., & Cappa, A. (2011). Unilateral spatial neglect in degenerative brain pathology. ''Neuropsychology, 25''(5), 554–566.</ref>
Hemispatial neglect, also called ''unilateral neglect'', often occurs when people have damage to the right hemisphere of their brain.<ref name="Kalat, J. W. 2013">{{cite book | vauthors = Kalat JW | date = 2013 | title = Biological Psychology | edition = 11th | publisher = Cengage Learning }}</ref> This damage often leads to a tendency to ignore the left side of one's body or even the left side of an object that can be seen. Damage to the left side of the brain (the left hemisphere) rarely yields significant neglect of the right side of the body or object in the person's local environments.<ref name="Silveri, M. 2011">{{cite journal | vauthors = Silveri MC, Ciccarelli N, Cappa A | title = Unilateral spatial neglect in degenerative brain pathology | journal = Neuropsychology | volume = 25 | issue = 5 | pages = 554–66 | date = September 2011 | pmid = 21639641 | doi = 10.1037/a0023957 }}</ref>


The effects of spatial neglect, however, may vary and differ depending on what area of the brain was damaged. Damage to different neural substrates can result in different types of neglect. Attention disorders (lateralized and nonlaterized) may also contribute to the symptoms and effects.<ref name="Silveri, M. 2011"/> Much research has asserted that damage to gray matter within the brain results in spatial neglect.<ref>Karnath, H., Rorden, C., & Ticini, L. F. (2009). Damage to white matter fiber tracts in acute spatial neglect. ''Cerebral Cortex, 19'' (10), 2331–2337.</ref>
The effects of spatial neglect, however, may vary and differ depending on what area of the brain was damaged. Damage to different neural substrates can result in different types of neglect. Attention disorders (lateralized and nonlaterized) may also contribute to the symptoms and effects.<ref name="Silveri, M. 2011"/> Much research has asserted that damage to gray matter within the brain results in spatial neglect.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Karnath HO, Rorden C, Ticini LF | title = Damage to white matter fiber tracts in acute spatial neglect | journal = Cerebral Cortex | volume = 19 | issue = 10 | pages = 2331–7 | date = October 2009 | pmid = 19168667 | pmc = 2742593 | doi = 10.1093/cercor/bhn250 }}</ref>


New technology has yielded more information, such that there is a large, distributed network of frontal, parietal, temporal, and subcortical brain areas that have been tied to neglect.<ref>Buxbaum, L. J. (2006). On the right (and left) track: Twenty years of progress in studying hemispatial neglect.''Cognitive Neuropsychology, 23,'' 184–201.</ref> This network can be related to other research as well; the [[dorsal attention network]] is tied to spatial orienting.<ref>Ptak, R., & Schnider, A. (2010). The dorsal attention network mediates orienting toward behaviorally relevant stimuli in spatial neglect. ''Journal of Neuroscience, 30,'' 12557–12565.</ref> The effect of damage to this network may result in patients neglecting their left side when distracted about their right side or an object on their right side.<ref name="Kalat, J. W. 2013"/>
New technology has yielded more information, such that there is a large, distributed network of frontal, parietal, temporal, and subcortical brain areas that have been tied to neglect.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Buxbaum LJ | title = On the right (and left) track: Twenty years of progress in studying hemispatial neglect | journal = Cognitive Neuropsychology | volume = 23 | issue = 1 | pages = 184–201 | year = 2006 | pmid = 21049327 | doi = 10.1080/02643290500202698 | s2cid = 27750259 }}</ref> This network can be related to other research as well; the [[dorsal attention network]] is tied to spatial orienting.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Ptak R, Schnider A | title = The dorsal attention network mediates orienting toward behaviorally relevant stimuli in spatial neglect | journal = The Journal of Neuroscience | volume = 30 | issue = 38 | pages = 12557–65 | date = September 2010 | pmid = 20861361 | pmc = 6633576 | doi = 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2722-10.2010 }}</ref> The effect of damage to this network may result in patients neglecting their left side when distracted about their right side or an object on their right side.<ref name="Kalat, J. W. 2013"/>


===Attention in social contexts===
==History of the study of attention==


'''Social attention''' is one special form of attention that involves the allocation of limited processing resources in a social context. Previous studies on social attention often regard how attention is directed toward socially relevant stimuli such as faces and gaze directions of other individuals.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Klein JT, Shepherd SV, Platt ML | title = Social attention and the brain | journal = Current Biology | volume = 19 | issue = 20 | pages = R958–62 | date = November 2009 | pmid = 19889376 | pmc = 3387539 | doi = 10.1016/j.cub.2009.08.010 | bibcode = 2009CBio...19.R958K }}</ref> In contrast to attending-to-others, a different line of researches has shown that self-related information such as own face and name automatically captures attention and is preferentially processed comparing to other-related information.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Humphreys GW, Sui J | title = Attentional control and the self: The Self-Attention Network (SAN) | journal = Cognitive Neuroscience | volume = 7 | issue = 1–4 | pages = 5–17 | date = 2016 | pmid = 25945926 | doi = 10.1080/17588928.2015.1044427 | s2cid = 52867757 }}</ref> These contrasting effects between attending-to-others and attending-to-self prompt a synthetic view in a recent Opinion article<ref name="journal.frontiersin.org">{{cite journal | vauthors = Kuang S | title = Two Polarities of Attention in Social Contexts: From Attending-to-Others to Attending-to-Self | journal = Frontiers in Psychology | volume = 7 | pages = 63 | date = 2016 | pmid = 26869965 | pmc = 4734343 | doi = 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00063 | doi-access = free }}</ref> proposing that social attention operates at two polarizing states: In one extreme, individual tends to attend to the self and prioritize self-related information over others', and, in the other extreme, attention is allocated to other individuals to infer their intentions and desires. Attending-to-self and attending-to-others mark the two ends of an otherwise continuum spectrum of social attention. For a given behavioral context, the mechanisms underlying these two polarities might interact and compete with each other in order to determine a saliency map of social attention that guides our behaviors.<ref name="journal.frontiersin.org"/> An imbalanced competition between these two behavioral and cognitive processes will cause cognitive disorders and neurological symptoms such as [[autism spectrum]] disorders and [[Williams syndrome]].
===Philosophical period===
Psychologist [[Daniel Berlyne|Daniel E. Berlyne]] credits the first extended treatment of attention to philosopher [[Nicolas Malebranche]] in his work "The Search After Truth". "Malebranche held that we have access to ideas, or mental representations of the external world, but not direct access to the world itself."<ref name="Johnson 2004 1–24"/> Thus in order to keep these ideas organized, attention is necessary. Otherwise we will confuse these ideas. Malebranche writes in "The Search After Truth", "because it often happens that the understanding has only confused and imperfect perceptions of things, it is truly a cause of our errors.... It is therefore necessary to look for means to keep our perceptions from being confused and imperfect. And, because, as everyone knows, there is nothing that makes them clearer and more distinct than attentiveness, we must try to find the means to become more attentive than we are".<ref>{{cite book|last=Malebranche|first=Nicolas|title=The Search After Truth|year=1674|pages=411–412}}</ref> According to Malebranche, attention is crucial to understanding and keeping thoughts organized.


===Distracting factors===
Philosopher [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]] introduced the concept of [[apperception]] to this philosophical approach to attention. Apperception refers to "the process by which new experience is assimilated to and transformed by the residuum of past experience of an individual to form a new whole."<ref>Runes, Dagobert D. (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy, Littlefield, Adams, and Company, Totowa, NJ, 1972.</ref> Apperception is required for a perceived event to become a conscious event. Leibniz emphasized a reflexive involuntary view of attention known as exogenous orienting. However there is also endogenous orienting which is voluntary and directed attention. Philosopher [[Johann Friedrich Herbart]] agreed with Leibniz's view of apperception however he expounded on it in by saying that new experiences had to be tied to ones already existing in the mind. Herbart was also the first person to stress the importance of applying mathematical modeling to the study of psychology.<ref name="Johnson 2004 1–24"/>

According to Daniel Goleman's book, ''Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence'', there are two types of distracting factors affecting focus – sensory and emotional.

A sensory distracting factor would be, for example, while a person is reading this article, they are neglecting the white field surrounding the text.

An emotional distracting factor would be when someone is focused on answering an email, and somebody shouts their name. It would be almost impossible to neglect the voice speaking it. Attention is immediately directed toward the source. Positive emotions have also been found to affect attention. Induction of happiness has led to increased response times and an increase in inaccurate responses in the face of irrelevant stimuli. Two possible theories as to why emotions might make one more susceptible to distracting stimuli is that emotions take up too much of one's cognitive resources and make it harder to control your focus of attention. The other theory is that emotions make it harder to filter out distractions, specifically with positive emotions due to a feeling of security.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pacheco-Unguetti |first1=Antonia Pilar |last2=Parmentier |first2=Fabrice B. R. |date=August 2016 |title=Happiness increases distraction by auditory deviant stimuli |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12148 |journal=British Journal of Psychology |volume=107 |issue=3 |pages=419–433 |doi=10.1111/bjop.12148 |pmid=26302716 |issn=0007-1269}}</ref>

Another distracting factor to attention processes is insufficient sleep. Sleep deprivation is found to impair cognition, specifically performance in divided attention. Divided attention is possibly linked with the circadian processes.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Drummond | first=S | title=The Effects of Total Sleep Deprivation on Cerebral Responses to Cognitive Performance | journal=Neuropsychopharmacology | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=25 | issue=5 | year=2001 | issn=0893-133X | doi=10.1016/s0893-133x(01)00325-6 | pages=S68–S73| pmid=11682277 }}</ref>

===Failure to attend===
[[Inattentional blindness]] was first introduced in 1998 by Arien Mack and Irvic Rock. Their studies show that when people are focused on specific stimuli, they often miss other stimuli that are clearly present. Though actual blindness is not occurring here, the blindness that happens is due to the perceptual load of what is being attended to.<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Mack A |date=2003|title=Inattentional Blindness: Looking without Seeing|journal=Current Directions in Psychological Science|volume=12|issue=5|pages=180–184|doi=10.1111/1467-8721.01256|jstor=20182872|s2cid=15230550|issn=0963-7214}}</ref> Based on the experiment performed by Mack and Rock, Ula Finch and Nilli Lavie tested participants with a perceptual task. They presented subjects with a cross, one arm being longer than the other, for 5 trials. On the sixth trial, a white square was added to the top left of the screen. The results conclude that out of 10 participants, only 2 (20%) actually saw the square. This would suggest that when a higher focus was attended to the length of the crossed arms, the more likely someone would altogether miss an object that was in plain sight.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Lavie N, Beck DM, Konstantinou N | title = Blinded by the load: attention, awareness and the role of perceptual load | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences | volume = 369 | issue = 1641 | pages = 20130205 | date = May 2014 | pmid = 24639578 | pmc = 3965161 | doi = 10.1098/rstb.2013.0205 | jstor = 24500065 }}</ref>

[[Change blindness]] was first tested by Rensink and coworkers in 1997. Their studies show that people have difficulty detecting changes from scene to scene due to the intense focus on one thing, or lack of attention overall. This was tested by Rensink through a presentation of a picture, and then a blank field, and then the same picture but with an item missing. The results showed that the pictures had to be alternated back and forth a good number of times for participants to notice the difference. This idea is greatly portrayed in films that have continuity errors. Many people do not pick up on differences when in reality, the changes tend to be significant.<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Rensink RA, O'Regan JK, Clark JJ |date=1997|title=To See or Not to See: The Need for Attention to Perceive Changes in Scenes|journal=Psychological Science|volume=8|issue=5|pages=368–373|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9280.1997.tb00427.x|jstor=40063214|s2cid=1945079|issn=0956-7976|url=https://philarchive.org/rec/RENTSO }}</ref>

==History of the study==

===Philosophical period===
Psychologist [[Daniel Berlyne|Daniel E. Berlyne]] credits the first extended treatment of attention to philosopher [[Nicolas Malebranche]] in his work "The Search After Truth". "Malebranche held that we have access to ideas, or mental representations of the external world, but not direct access to the world itself."<ref name="Johnson 2004 1–24"/> Thus in order to keep these ideas organized, attention is necessary.<ref>Andrew Brook and Julian Wuerth
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-mind/</ref> Otherwise we will confuse these ideas. Malebranche writes in "The Search After Truth", "because it often happens that the understanding has only confused and imperfect perceptions of things, it is truly a cause of our errors.... It is therefore necessary to look for means to keep our perceptions from being confused and imperfect. And, because, as everyone knows, there is nothing that makes them clearer and more distinct than attentiveness, we must try to find the means to become more attentive than we are".<ref>{{cite book| vauthors = Malebranche N |title=The Search After Truth|year=1674|pages=411–412}}</ref> According to Malebranche, attention is crucial to understanding and keeping thoughts organized.


Philosopher [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]] introduced the concept of [[apperception]] to this philosophical approach to attention. Apperception refers to "the process by which new experience is assimilated to and transformed by the residuum of past experience of an individual to form a new whole."<ref>{{cite book | veditors = Runes DD | title = Dictionary of Philosophy | publisher = Littlefield, Adams, and Company | location = Totowa, NJ | date = 1972 }}</ref> Apperception is required for a perceived event to become a conscious event. Leibniz emphasized a reflexive involuntary view of attention known as exogenous orienting. However, there is also endogenous orienting which is voluntary and directed attention. Philosopher [[Johann Friedrich Herbart]] agreed with Leibniz's view of apperception; however, he expounded on it in by saying that new experiences had to be tied to ones already existing in the mind. Herbart was also the first person to stress the importance of applying mathematical modeling to the study of psychology.<ref name="Johnson 2004 1–24"/>
It was previously thought in the beginning of the 19th century that people were not able to attend to more than one stimulus at a time. However with research contributions by [[Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet]] this view was changed. Hamilton proposed a view of attention that likened its capacity to holding marbles. You can only hold a certain amount of marbles at a time before it starts to spill over. His view states that we can attend to more than one stimulus at once. [[William Stanley Jevons]] later expanded this view and stated that we can attend to up to four items at a time {{Citation needed|date=June 2013}} .


Throughout the philosophical era, various thinkers made significant contributions to the field of attention studies, beginning with research on the extent of attention and how attention is directed. In the beginning of the 19th century, it was thought that people were not able to attend to more than one stimulus at a time. However, with research contributions by [[Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet]] this view was changed. Hamilton proposed a view of attention that likened its capacity to holding marbles. You can only hold a certain number of marbles at a time before it starts to spill over. His view states that we can attend to more than one stimulus at once. [[William Stanley Jevons]] later expanded this view and stated that we can attend to up to four items at a time.<ref>{{Cite journal| vauthors = Jevons WS |date=9 February 1871|title=The Power of Numerical Discrimination|url=https://archive.org/details/paper-doi-10_1038_003281a0/mode/2up|journal=Nature}}</ref>
During this period of attention, various philosophers made significant contributions to the field. They began the research on the extent of attention and how attention is directed.


===1860–1909===
===1860–1909===
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In 1890, [[William James]], in his textbook ''[[The Principles of Psychology]]'', remarked:
In 1890, [[William James]], in his textbook ''[[The Principles of Psychology]]'', remarked:
{{cquote|''Everyone knows what attention is. 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. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.''<ref>James, W. (1890). ''[[The Principles of Psychology]].'' New York: Henry Holt, Vol. 1, pp. 403–404.</ref>}}
{{cquote|''Everyone knows what attention is. 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. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.''<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = James W | date = 1890 | title = The Principles of Psychology | location = New York | publisher = Henry Holt | volume = 1 | pages = 403–404 | title-link = The Principles of Psychology }}</ref>}}
James differentiated between sensorial attention and intellectual attention. Sensorial attention is when attention is directed to objects of sense, stimuli that are physically present. Intellectual attention is attention directed to ideal or represented objects; stimuli that are not physically present. James also distinguished between immediate or derived attention: attention to the present versus to something not physically present.
James differentiated between sensorial attention and intellectual attention. Sensorial attention is when attention is directed to objects of sense, stimuli that are physically present. Intellectual attention is attention directed to ideal or represented objects; stimuli that are not physically present. James also distinguished between immediate or derived attention: attention to the present versus to something not physically present. According to James, attention has five major effects. Attention works to make us perceive, conceive, distinguish, remember, and shorten reactions time.
According to James, attention has five major effects. Attention works to make us perceive, conceive, distinguish, remember, and shorten reactions time.


===1910–1949===
===1910–1949===
During this period, research in attention waned and interest in behaviorism flourished, leading some to believe, like [[Ulric Neisser]], that in this period, "There was no research on attention". However, Jersild published very important work on "Mental Set and Shift" in 1927. He stated, "The fact of mental set is primary in all conscious activity. The same stimulus may evoke any one of a large number of responses depending upon the contextual setting in which it is placed".<ref>Jersild A.T. (1927). Mental set and shift. Archives of Psychology(Whole No. 89, pp. 5–82)</ref> This research found that the time to complete a list was longer for mixed lists than for pure lists. For example, if a list was names of animals versus a list with names of animals, books, makes and models of cars, and types of fruits, it takes longer to process. This is [[Task switching (psychology)|task switching]].
During this period, research in attention waned and interest in behaviorism flourished, leading some to believe, like [[Ulric Neisser]], that in this period, "There was no research on attention". However, Jersild published very important work on "Mental Set and Shift" in 1927. He stated, "The fact of mental set is primary in all conscious activity. The same stimulus may evoke any one of a large number of responses depending upon the contextual setting in which it is placed".<ref>{{cite journal| vauthors = Jersild AT |year=1927|title= Mental set and shift |journal= Archives of Psychology |volume=14 |issue= 89 |pages= 5–82 |url= https://archive.org/details/mentalsetshift00jers }}</ref> This research found that the time to complete a list was longer for mixed lists than for pure lists. For example, if a list was names of animals versus a list of the same size with names of animals, books, makes and models of cars, and types of fruits, it takes longer to process the second list. This is [[Task switching (psychology)|task switching]].


In 1931, Telford discovered the [[psychological refractory period]]. The stimulation of neurons is followed by a refractory phase during which neurons are less sensitive to stimulation. In 1935 [[John Ridley Stroop]] developed the Stroop Task which elicited the [[Stroop Effect]]. Stroop's task showed that irrelevant stimulus information can have a major impact on performance. In this task, subjects were to look at a list of colors. This list of colors had each color typed in a color different from the actual text. For example the word Blue would be typed in Orange, Pink in Black, and so on.
In 1931, Telford discovered the [[psychological refractory period]]. The stimulation of neurons is followed by a refractory phase during which neurons are less sensitive to stimulation. In 1935 [[John Ridley Stroop]] developed the Stroop Task which elicited the [[Stroop Effect]]. Stroop's task showed that irrelevant stimulus information can have a major impact on performance. In this task, subjects were to look at a list of colors. This list of colors had each color typed in a color different from the actual text. For example, the word Blue would be typed in Orange, Pink in Black, and so on.


Example: '''<span style="color:red">Blue</span> <span style="color:green">Purple</span> <span style="color:blue">Red</span> <span style="color:brown">Green</span> <span style="color:red">Purple</span> <span style="color:purple">Green</span>'''
Example: '''<span style="color:red">Blue</span> <span style="color:green">Purple</span> <span style="color:blue">Red</span> <span style="color:brown">Green</span> <span style="color:red">Purple</span> <span style="color:purple">Green</span>'''
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===1950–1974===
===1950–1974===
In the 1950s, [[Psychologist#Research Psychologists|research psychologists]] renewed their interest in attention when the dominant epistemology shifted from positivism (i.e., [[behaviorism]]) to [[philosophical realism|realism]] during what has come to be known as the "[[cognitive revolution]]".<ref>Harré, Rom. ''Cognitive science: A philosophical introduction''. London: SAGE Publications, 2002. ISBN 0-7619-4746-9.</ref> The cognitive revolution admitted unobservable cognitive processes like attention as legitimate objects of scientific study.
In the 1950s, [[Psychologist#Research Psychologists|research psychologists]] renewed their interest in attention when the dominant epistemology shifted from positivism (i.e., [[behaviorism]]) to [[philosophical realism|realism]] during what has come to be known as the "[[cognitive revolution]]".<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Harré R | title = Cognitive science: A philosophical introduction | location = London | publisher = SAGE Publications | date = 2002 | isbn = 978-0-7619-4746-2 }}</ref> The cognitive revolution admitted unobservable cognitive processes like attention as legitimate objects of scientific study.


[[File:Why is it so hard to stay focused.webm|thumb|thumbtime=44|Lecture by cognitive scientist Marie Postma ([[Tilburg University]]) on focused attention]]
Modern research on attention began with the analysis of the "cocktail party problem" by [[Colin Cherry]] in 1953. At a cocktail party how do people select the conversation that they are listening to and ignore the rest? This problem is at times called "focused attention", as opposed to "divided attention". Cherry performed a number of experiments which became known as [[dichotic listening]] and were extended by [[Donald Broadbent]] and others.<ref>''Understanding cognition'' by Peter J. Hampson, Peter Edwin Morris 1996 ISBN 0-631-15751-4 p. 112.</ref> In a typical experiment, subjects would use a set of [[headphones]] to listen to two streams of words in different [[ears]] and selectively attend to one stream. After the task, the experimenter would question the subjects about the content of the unattended stream.
Modern research on attention began with the analysis of the "[[cocktail party effect|cocktail party problem]]" by [[Colin Cherry]] in 1953. At a cocktail party how do people select the conversation that they are listening to and ignore the rest? This problem is at times called "focused attention", as opposed to "divided attention". Cherry performed a number of experiments which became known as [[dichotic listening]] and were extended by [[Donald Broadbent]] and others.<ref name = "Hampson_1996">{{cite book | title = Understanding cognition | vauthors = Hampson PJ, Morris PE | year = 1996 | publisher = Wiley | isbn = 978-0-631-15751-9 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/understandingcog0000hamp }}</ref>{{rp|112}} In a typical experiment, subjects would use a set of [[headphones]] to listen to two streams of words in different [[ears]] and selectively attend to one stream. After the task, the experimenter would question the subjects about the content of the unattended stream.


[[Broadbent's Filter Model of Attention]] states that information is held in a pre-attentive temporary store, and only sensory events that have some physical feature in common are selected to pass into the limited capacity processing system. This implies that the meaning of unattended messages is not identified. Also, a significant amount of time is required to shift the filter from one channel to another. Experiments by Gray and Wedderburn and later [[Anne Treisman]] pointed out various problems in Broadbent's early model and eventually led to the Deutsch–Norman model in 1968. In this model, no signal is filtered out, but all are processed to the point of activating their stored representations in memory. The point at which attention becomes "selective" is when one of the memory representations is selected for further processing. At any time, only one can be selected, resulting in the ''attentional bottleneck''.<ref>''Understanding cognition'' by Peter J. Hampson, Peter Edwin Morris 1996 ISBN 0-631-15751-4 pp. 115–116.</ref>
[[Broadbent's Filter Model of Attention]] states that information is held in a pre-attentive temporary store, and only sensory events that have some physical feature in common are selected to pass into the limited capacity processing system. This implies that the meaning of unattended messages is not identified. Also, a significant amount of time is required to shift the filter from one channel to another. Experiments by Gray and Wedderburn and later [[Anne Treisman]] pointed out various problems in Broadbent's early model and eventually led to the Deutsch–Norman model in 1968. In this model, no signal is filtered out, but all are processed to the point of activating their stored representations in memory. The point at which attention becomes "selective" is when one of the memory representations is selected for further processing. At any time, only one can be selected, resulting in the ''attentional bottleneck''.<ref name = "Hampson_1996" />{{rp|115–116}}


This debate became known as the early-selection vs. late-selection models. In the early selection models (first proposed by [[Donald Broadbent]]), attention shuts down (in [[Broadbent's Filter Model of Attention|Broadbent's model]]) or attenuates (in [[Broadbent's Filter Model of Attention#Attenuation model of attention|Triesman's refinement]]) processing in the unattended ear before the mind can analyze its semantic content. In the late selection models (first proposed by J. Anthony Deutsch and [[Diana Deutsch]]), the content in both ears is analyzed semantically, but the words in the unattended ear cannot access consciousness.<ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1037/h0039515 | last1 = Deutsch | first1 = J.A. | last2 = Deutsch | first2 = D. | year = 1963 | title = Attention: some theoretical considerations | url = | journal = Psychological Review | volume = 70 | issue = | pages = 80–90 | pmid = 14027390 }}</ref> This debate has still not been resolved.
This debate became known as the early-selection vs. late-selection models. In the early selection models (first proposed by [[Donald Broadbent]]), attention shuts down (in [[Broadbent's Filter Model of Attention|Broadbent's model]]) or attenuates (in [[Broadbent's Filter Model of Attention#Attenuation model of attention|Treisman's refinement]]) processing in the unattended ear before the mind can analyze its semantic content. In the late selection models (first proposed by J. Anthony Deutsch and [[Diana Deutsch]]), the content in both ears is analyzed semantically, but the words in the unattended ear cannot access consciousness.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Deutsch JA, Deutsch D | title = Some theoretical considerations | journal = Psychological Review | volume = 70 | issue = 1 | pages = 80–90 | date = January 1963 | pmid = 14027390 | doi = 10.1037/h0039515 }}</ref> Lavie's [[perceptual load theory]], however, "provided elegant solution to" what had once been a "heated debate".<ref name="pmid15581120">{{cite journal | vauthors = Theeuwes J, Kramer AF, Belopolsky AV | title = Attentional set interacts with perceptual load in visual search | journal = Psychonomic Bulletin & Review | volume = 11 | issue = 4 | pages = 697–702 | date = August 2004 | pmid = 15581120 | doi = 10.3758/BF03196622 | doi-access = free }}</ref>


== See also ==
In the 1960s, Robert Wurtz at the [[National Institutes of Health]] began recording electrical signals from the brains of [[macaque]]s who were trained to perform attentional tasks. These experiments showed for the first time that there was a direct [[neural correlate]] of a mental process (namely, enhanced firing in the [[superior colliculus]]).<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Wurtz | first1= R.H. | last2 = Goldberg | first2 = M.E | year = 1972 | title = The primate superior colliculus and the shift of visual attention. | journal = Invest. Ophthalmol. | volume = 11 | pages = 441–450}}</ref>{{Nonspecific|date=February 2010}}
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

* [[Alertness]]
==See also==
* [[Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder]]
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Attention restoration theory]]
* [[Attention restoration theory]]
* [[Attention seeking]]
* [[Attention seeking]]
* [[Attention span]]
* [[Attention span]]
* [[Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder]]
* [[Attention theft]]
* [[Attentional control]]
* [[Attentional control]]
* [[Attentional shift]]
* [[Attentional shift]]
* [[Binding problem]]
* [[Binding problem]]
* [[Cognitive inhibition]]
* [[Cognitive inhibition]]
* [[Consciousness]]
* [[Crossmodal attention]]
* [[Crossmodal attention]]
* [[Deconcentration of attention]]
* [[Flow (psychology)]]
* [[Focusing]]
* [[Focusing (psychotherapy)]]
*[[Informal Learning]]
* [[Informal learning]]
* [[Joint attention]]
* [[Joint attention]]
*[[Nonverbal Communication]]
* [[Immanuel Kant]]
* [[Meditation]]
*[[Observational Learning]]
* [[Mindfulness]]
* [[Motivation]]
* [[Nonverbal communication]]
* [[Observational Learning]]
* [[Ovsiankina effect]]
* [[Perceptual learning#The role of attention]]
* [[Perceptual learning#The role of attention]]
* [[Philosophy]]
* [[Salience (neuroscience)|Salience]] (also called saliency)
* [[Self]]
* [[Split attention effect]]
* [[Split attention effect]]
* [[Vigilance (psychology)|Vigilance]]
* [[Vigilance (psychology)|Vigilance]]
* [[Visual search]]
* [[Visual search]]
* [[Visual spatial attention]]
* [[Visual temporal attention]]
* [[Working memory]]
{{div col end}}
{{div col end}}


==References==
== References ==
{{reflist|33em}}
{{reflist|30em}}


==Further reading==
== Further reading ==
{{commons category}}
{{Commons category|Attention}}
{{wikiquote}}
*{{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Goleman |authorlink=Daniel Goleman |title= Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence |year=2013 |publisher=Harper |isbn= 0062114867}}
* {{cite EB9 |wstitle= Attention |volume= III |page=52 |short=1}}
* {{cite book | vauthors = Goleman D |author-link=Daniel Goleman |title= Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence |url=https://archive.org/details/focushiddendrive0000gole |url-access=registration |year=2013 |publisher=Harper |isbn= 978-0062114860}}
* {{cite journal | vauthors = Ward LM | year = 2008| title = PDF | journal = [[Scholarpedia]] | volume = 3 | issue = 10| page = 1538 | doi = 10.4249/scholarpedia.1538 | doi-access = free }}


{{Mental processes}}
{{Mental processes}}
{{Memory}}
{{Consciousness}}
{{Media and human factors}}
{{Authority control}}


[[Category:Attention| ]]
[[Category:Attention| ]]
[[Category:Neuropsychological assessment]]
[[Category:Behavioral concepts]]
[[Category:Unsolved problems in neuroscience]]
[[Category:Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder]]
[[Category:Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder]]
[[Category:Behavioral concepts]]
[[Category:Mental processes]]
[[Category:Mental processes]]
[[Category:Neuropsychological assessment]]
[[Category:Unsolved problems in neuroscience]]
[[Category:Philosophy of perception]]
[[Category:Concepts in the philosophy of mind]]

Latest revision as of 14:45, 18 December 2024

Focused attention

Attention or focus, is the concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli.[1] It is the selective concentration on discrete information, either subjectively or objectively. William James (1890) wrote 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. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence."[2] Attention has also been described as the allocation of limited cognitive processing resources.[3] Attention is manifested by an attentional bottleneck, in terms of the amount of data the brain can process each second; for example, in human vision, less than 1% of the visual input data stream of 1MByte/sec can enter the bottleneck,[4][5] leading to inattentional blindness.

Attention remains a crucial area of investigation within education, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychology. Areas of active investigation involve determining the source of the sensory cues and signals that generate attention, the effects of these sensory cues and signals on the tuning properties of sensory neurons, and the relationship between attention and other behavioral and cognitive processes, which may include working memory and psychological vigilance. A relatively new body of research, which expands upon earlier research within psychopathology, is investigating the diagnostic symptoms associated with traumatic brain injury and its effects on attention. Attention also varies across cultures.[6]

The relationships between attention and consciousness are complex enough that they have warranted philosophical exploration. Such exploration is both ancient and continually relevant, as it can have effects in fields ranging from mental health and the study of disorders of consciousness to artificial intelligence and its domains of research.

Contemporary definition and research

[edit]

Prior to the founding of psychology as a scientific discipline, attention was studied in the field of philosophy. Thus, many of the discoveries in the field of attention were made by philosophers. Psychologist John B. Watson calls Juan Luis Vives the father of modern psychology because, in his book De Anima et Vita (The Soul and Life), he was the first to recognize the importance of empirical investigation.[7] In his work on memory, Vives found that the more closely one attends to stimuli, the better they will be retained.

By the 1990s, psychologists began using positron emission tomography (PET) and later functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to image the brain while monitoring tasks involving attention. Considering this expensive equipment was generally only available in hospitals, psychologists sought cooperation with neurologists. Psychologist Michael Posner (then already renowned for his influential work on visual selective attention) and neurologist Marcus Raichle pioneered brain imaging studies of selective attention.[8] Their results soon sparked interest from the neuroscience community, which until then had been focused on monkey brains. With the development of these technological innovations, neuroscientists became interested in this type of research that combines sophisticated experimental paradigms from cognitive psychology with these new brain imaging techniques. Although the older technique of electroencephalography (EEG) had long been used to study the brain activity underlying selective attention by cognitive psychophysiologists, the ability of the newer techniques to measure precisely localized activity inside the brain generated renewed interest by a wider community of researchers. A growing body of such neuroimaging research has identified a frontoparietal attention network which appears to be responsible for control of attention.[9]

A definition of a psychological construct forms a research approach to its study. In scientific works, attention often coincides and substitutes the notion of intentionality due to the extent of semantic uncertainty in the linguistic explanations of these notions' definitions. Intentionality has in turn been defined as "the power of minds to be about something: to represent or to stand for things, properties and states of affairs".[10] Although these two psychological constructs (attention and intentionality) appear to be defined by similar terms, they are different notions. To clarify the definition of attention, it would be correct to consider the origin of this notion to review the meaning of the term given to it when the experimental study on attention was initiated. It is thought that the experimental approach began with famous experiments with a 4 x 4 matrix of sixteen randomly chosen letters – the experimental paradigm that informed Wundt's theory of attention.[11] Wundt interpreted the experimental outcome introducing the meaning of attention as "that psychical process, which is operative in the clear perception of the narrow region of the content of consciousness."[12] These experiments showed the physical limits of attention threshold, which were 3-6 letters observing the matrix during 1/10 s of their exposition.[11] "We shall call the entrance into the large region of consciousness - apprehension, and the elevation into the focus of attention - apperception."[13] Wundt's theory of attention postulated one of the main features of this notion that attention is an active, voluntary process realized during a certain time.[11] In contrast, neuroscience research shows that intentionality may emerge instantly, even unconsciously; research reported to register neuronal correlates of an intentional act that preceded this conscious act (also see shared intentionality).[14][15] Therefore, while intentionality is a mental state (“the power of the mind to be about something”, arising even unconsciously), the description of the construct of attention should be understood in the dynamical sense as the ability to elevate the clear perception of the narrow region of the content of consciousness and to keep in mind this state for a time. The attention threshold would be the period of minimum time needed for employing perception to clearly apprehend the scope of intention. From this perspective, a scientific approach to attention is relevant when it considers the difference between these two concepts (first of all, between their statical and dynamical statuses).

The growing body of literature shows empirical evidence that attention is conditioned by the number of elements and the duration of exposition. Decades of research on subitizing have supported Wundt's findings about the limits of a human ability to concentrate awareness on a task.[16][17][18][19][20] Latvian prof. Sandra Mihailova and prof. Igor Val Danilov drew an essential conclusion from the Wundtian approach to the study of attention: the scope of attention is related to cognitive development.[21] As the mind grasps more details about an event, it also increases the number of reasonable combinations within that event, enhancing the probability of better understanding its features and particularity.[21] For example, three items in the focal point of consciousness have six possible combinations (3 factorial), and four items have 24 (4 factorial) combinations. This number of combinations becomes significantly prominent in the case of a focal point with six items with 720 possible combinations (6 factorial).[21] Empirical evidence suggests that the scope of attention in young children develops from two items in the focal point at age up to six months to five or more items in the focal point at age about five years.[21] As follows from the most recent studies in relation to teaching activities in school, “attention” should be understood as “the state of concentration of an individual’s consciousness on the process of selecting by his own psyche the information he requires and on the process of choosing an algorithm for response actions, which involves the intensification of sensory and intellectual activities”.[22]

Selective and visual

[edit]
The spotlight model of attention

In cognitive psychology there are at least two models which describe how visual attention operates. These models may be considered metaphors which are used to describe internal processes and to generate hypotheses that are falsifiable. Generally speaking, visual attention is thought to operate as a two-stage process.[23] In the first stage, attention is distributed uniformly over the external visual scene and processing of information is performed in parallel. In the second stage, attention is concentrated to a specific area of the visual scene (i.e., it is focused), and processing is performed in a serial fashion.

The first of these models to appear in the literature is the spotlight model. The term "spotlight" was inspired by the work of William James, who described attention as having a focus, a margin, and a fringe.[24] The focus is an area that extracts information from the visual scene with a high-resolution, the geometric center of which being where visual attention is directed. Surrounding the focus is the fringe of attention, which extracts information in a much more crude fashion (i.e., low-resolution). This fringe extends out to a specified area, and the cut-off is called the margin.

The second model is called the zoom-lens model and was first introduced in 1986.[25] This model inherits all properties of the spotlight model (i.e., the focus, the fringe, and the margin), but it has the added property of changing in size. This size-change mechanism was inspired by the zoom lens one might find on a camera, and any change in size can be described by a trade-off in the efficiency of processing.[26] The zoom-lens of attention can be described in terms of an inverse trade-off between the size of focus and the efficiency of processing: because attention resources are assumed to be fixed, then it follows that the larger the focus is, the slower processing will be of that region of the visual scene, since this fixed resource will be distributed over a larger area. It is thought that the focus of attention can subtend a minimum of 1° of visual angle,[24][27] however the maximum size has not yet been determined.

A significant debate emerged in the last decade of the 20th century in which Treisman's 1993 Feature Integration Theory (FIT) was compared to Duncan and Humphrey's 1989 attentional engagement theory (AET).[28]: 5–7  FIT posits that "objects are retrieved from scenes by means of selective spatial attention that picks out objects' features, forms feature maps, and integrates those features that are found at the same location into forming objects." Treismans's theory is based on a two-stage process to help solve the binding problem of attention. These two stages are the preattentive stage and the focused attention stage.

  1. Preattentive Stage: The unconscious detection and separation of features of an item (color, shape, size). Treisman suggests that this happens early in cognitive  processing and that individuals are not aware of the occurrence due to the counter intuitiveness of separating a whole into its part. Evidence shows that preattentive focuses are accurate due to illusory conjunctions.[29]
  2. Focused Attention Stage: The combining of all feature identifiers to perceive all parts as one whole. This is possible through prior knowledge and cognitive mapping. When an item is seen within a known location and has features that people have knowledge of, then prior knowledge will help bring features all together to make sense of what is perceived. The case of R.M's damage to his parietal lobe, also known as Balint's syndrome, shows the incorporation of focused attention and combination of features in the role of attention.[30]

Through sequencing these steps, parallel and serial search is better exhibited through the formation of conjunctions of objects. Conjunctive searches, according to Treismans, are done through both stages[31] in order to create selective and focused attention on an object, though Duncan and Humphrey would disagree. Duncan and Humphrey's AET understanding of attention maintained that "there is an initial pre-attentive parallel phase of perceptual segmentation and analysis that encompasses all of the visual items present in a scene. At this phase, descriptions of the objects in a visual scene are generated into structural units; the outcome of this parallel phase is a multiple-spatial-scale structured representation. Selective attention intervenes after this stage to select information that will be entered into visual short-term memory."[28]: 5–7  The contrast of the two theories placed a new emphasis on the separation of visual attention tasks alone and those mediated by supplementary cognitive processes. As Rastophopoulos summarizes the debate: "Against Treisman's FIT, which posits spatial attention as a necessary condition for detection of objects, Humphreys argues that visual elements are encoded and bound together in an initial parallel phase without focal attention, and that attention serves to select among the objects that result from this initial grouping."[28]: 8 

Neuropsychological model

[edit]

In the twentieth century, the pioneering research of Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria led to the three-part model of neuropsychology defining the working brain as being represented by three co-active processes listed as Attention, Memory, and Activation. A.R. Luria published his well-known book The Working Brain in 1973 as a concise adjunct volume to his previous 1962 book Higher Cortical Functions in Man. In this volume, Luria summarized his three-part global theory of the working brain as being composed of three constantly co-active processes which he described as the; (1) Attention system, (2) Mnestic (memory) system, and (3) Cortical activation system. The two books together are considered by Homskaya's account as "among Luria's major works in neuropsychology, most fully reflecting all the aspects (theoretical, clinical, experimental) of this new discipline."[32] The product of the combined research of Vygotsky and Luria have determined a large part of the contemporary understanding and definition of attention as it is understood at the start of the 21st-century.

Multitasking and divided attention

[edit]

Multitasking can be defined as the attempt to perform two or more tasks simultaneously; however, research shows that when multitasking, people make more mistakes or perform their tasks more slowly.[33] Attention must be divided among all of the component tasks to perform them. In divided attention, individuals attend or give attention to multiple sources of information at once or perform more than one task at the same time.[34]

Older research involved looking at the limits of people performing simultaneous tasks like reading stories, while listening and writing something else,[35] or listening to two separate messages through different ears (i.e., dichotic listening). Generally, classical research into attention investigated the ability of people to learn new information when there were multiple tasks to be performed, or to probe the limits of our perception (c.f. Donald Broadbent). There is also older literature on people's performance on multiple tasks performed simultaneously, such as driving a car while tuning a radio[36] or driving while being on the phone.[37]

The vast majority of current research on human multitasking is based on performance of doing two tasks simultaneously,[33] usually that involves driving while performing another task, such as texting, eating, or even speaking to passengers in the vehicle, or with a friend over a cellphone. This research reveals that the human attentional system has limits for what it can process: driving performance is worse while engaged in other tasks; drivers make more mistakes, brake harder and later, get into more accidents, veer into other lanes, and/or are less aware of their surroundings when engaged in the previously discussed tasks.[38][39][40]

There has been little difference found between speaking on a hands-free cell phone or a hand-held cell phone,[41][42] which suggests that it is the strain of attentional system that causes problems, rather than what the driver is doing with his or her hands. While speaking with a passenger is as cognitively demanding as speaking with a friend over the phone,[43] passengers are able to change the conversation based upon the needs of the driver. For example, if traffic intensifies, a passenger may stop talking to allow the driver to navigate the increasingly difficult roadway; a conversation partner over a phone would not be aware of the change in environment.

There have been multiple theories regarding divided attention. One, conceived by cognitive scientist Daniel Kahneman,[44] explains that there is a single pool of attentional resources that can be freely divided among multiple tasks. This model seems oversimplified, however, due to the different modalities (e.g., visual, auditory, verbal) that are perceived.[45] When the two simultaneous tasks use the same modality, such as listening to a radio station and writing a paper, it is much more difficult to concentrate on both because the tasks are likely to interfere with each other. The specific modality model was theorized by Cognitive Psychologists David Navon and Daniel Gopher in 1979. However, more recent research using well controlled dual-task paradigms points at the importance of tasks.[46]

As an alternative, resource theory has been proposed as a more accurate metaphor for explaining divided attention on complex tasks. Resource theory states that as each complex task is automatized, performing that task requires less of the individual's limited-capacity attentional resources.[45] Other variables play a part in our ability to pay attention to and concentrate on many tasks at once. These include, but are not limited to, anxiety, arousal, task difficulty, and skills.[45]

Simultaneous

[edit]

Simultaneous attention is a type of attention, classified by attending to multiple events at the same time. Simultaneous attention is demonstrated by children in Indigenous communities, who learn through this type of attention to their surroundings.[47] Simultaneous attention is present in the ways in which children of indigenous backgrounds interact both with their surroundings and with other individuals. Simultaneous attention requires focus on multiple simultaneous activities or occurrences. This differs from multitasking, which is characterized by alternating attention and focus between multiple activities, or halting one activity before switching to the next.

Simultaneous attention involves uninterrupted attention to several activities occurring at the same time. Another cultural practice that may relate to simultaneous attention strategies is coordination within a group. Indigenous heritage toddlers and caregivers in San Pedro were observed to frequently coordinate their activities with other members of a group in ways parallel to a model of simultaneous attention, whereas middle-class European-descent families in the U.S. would move back and forth between events.[6][48] Research concludes that children with close ties to Indigenous American roots have a high tendency to be especially wide, keen observers.[49] This points to a strong cultural difference in attention management.

Alternative topics and discussions

[edit]

Overt and covert orienting

[edit]

Attention may be differentiated into "overt" versus "covert" orienting.[50]

Overt orienting is the act of selectively attending to an item or location over others by moving the eyes to point in that direction.[51] Overt orienting can be directly observed in the form of eye movements. Although overt eye movements are quite common, there is a distinction that can be made between two types of eye movements; reflexive and controlled. Reflexive movements are commanded by the superior colliculus of the midbrain. These movements are fast and are activated by the sudden appearance of stimuli. In contrast, controlled eye movements are commanded by areas in the frontal lobe. These movements are slow and voluntary.

Covert orienting is the act of mentally shifting one's focus without moving one's eyes.[24][51][52] Simply, it is changes in attention that are not attributable to overt eye movements. Covert orienting has the potential to affect the output of perceptual processes by governing attention to particular items or locations (for example, the activity of a V4 neuron whose receptive field lies on an attended stimuli will be enhanced by covert attention)[53] but does not influence the information that is processed by the senses. Researchers often use "filtering" tasks to study the role of covert attention of selecting information. These tasks often require participants to observe a number of stimuli, but attend to only one.
The current view is that visual covert attention is a mechanism for quickly scanning the field of view for interesting locations. This shift in covert attention is linked to eye movement circuitry that sets up a slower saccade to that location.[54]

There are studies that suggest the mechanisms of overt and covert orienting may not be controlled separately and independently as previously believed. Central mechanisms that may control covert orienting, such as the parietal lobe, also receive input from subcortical centres involved in overt orienting.[51] In support of this, general theories of attention actively assume bottom-up (reflexive) processes and top-down (voluntary) processes converge on a common neural architecture, in that they control both covert and overt attentional systems.[55] For example, if individuals attend to the right hand corner field of view, movement of the eyes in that direction may have to be actively suppressed.

Covert attention has been argued to reflect the existence of processes "programming explicit ocular movement".[56] However, this has been questioned on the grounds that N2, "a neural measure of covert attentional allocation—does not always precede eye movements".[57] However, the researchers acknowledge, "it may be impossible to definitively rule out the possibility that some kind of shift of covert attention precedes every shift of overt attention".[57]

Exogenous and endogenous orienting

[edit]

Orienting attention is vital and can be controlled through external (exogenous) or internal (endogenous) processes. However, comparing these two processes is challenging because external signals do not operate completely exogenously, but will only summon attention and eye movements if they are important to the subject.[51]

Exogenous (from Greek exo, meaning "outside", and genein, meaning "to produce") orienting is frequently described as being under control of a stimulus.[58] Exogenous orienting is considered to be reflexive and automatic and is caused by a sudden change in the periphery. This often results in a reflexive saccade. Since exogenous cues are typically presented in the periphery, they are referred to as peripheral cues. Exogenous orienting can even be observed when individuals are aware that the cue will not relay reliable, accurate information about where a target is going to occur. This means that the mere presence of an exogenous cue will affect the response to other stimuli that are subsequently presented in the cue's previous location.[59]

Several studies have investigated the influence of valid and invalid cues.[51][60][61][62] They concluded that valid peripheral cues benefit performance, for instance when the peripheral cues are brief flashes at the relevant location before the onset of a visual stimulus. Psychologists Michael Posner and Yoav Cohen (1984) noted a reversal of this benefit takes place when the interval between the onset of the cue and the onset of the target is longer than about 300 ms.[63] The phenomenon of valid cues producing longer reaction times than invalid cues is called inhibition of return.

Endogenous (from Greek endo, meaning "within" or "internally") orienting is the intentional allocation of attentional resources to a predetermined location or space. Simply stated, endogenous orienting occurs when attention is oriented according to an observer's goals or desires, allowing the focus of attention to be manipulated by the demands of a task. In order to have an effect, endogenous cues must be processed by the observer and acted upon purposefully. These cues are frequently referred to as central cues. This is because they are typically presented at the center of a display, where an observer's eyes are likely to be fixated. Central cues, such as an arrow or digit presented at fixation, tell observers to attend to a specific location.[64]

When examining differences between exogenous and endogenous orienting, some researchers suggest that there are four differences between the two kinds of cues:

  • exogenous orienting is less affected by cognitive load than endogenous orienting;
  • observers are able to ignore endogenous cues but not exogenous cues;
  • exogenous cues have bigger effects than endogenous cues; and
  • expectancies about cue validity and predictive value affects endogenous orienting more than exogenous orienting.[65]

There exist both overlaps and differences in the areas of the brain that are responsible for endogenous and exogenous orientating.[66] Another approach to this discussion has been covered under the topic heading of "bottom-up" versus "top-down" orientations to attention. Researchers of this school have described two different aspects of how the mind focuses attention to items present in the environment. The first aspect is called bottom-up processing, also known as stimulus-driven attention or exogenous attention. These describe attentional processing which is driven by the properties of the objects themselves. Some processes, such as motion or a sudden loud noise, can attract our attention in a pre-conscious, or non-volitional way. We attend to them whether we want to or not.[67] These aspects of attention are thought to involve parietal and temporal cortices, as well as the brainstem.[68] More recent experimental evidence[69][70][71] support the idea that the primary visual cortex creates a bottom-up saliency map,[72][4] which is received by the superior colliculus in the midbrain area to guide attention or gaze shifts.

The second aspect is called top-down processing, also known as goal-driven, endogenous attention, attentional control or executive attention. This aspect of our attentional orienting is under the control of the person who is attending. It is mediated primarily by the frontal cortex and basal ganglia[68][73] as one of the executive functions.[51][68] Research has shown that it is related to other aspects of the executive functions, such as working memory,[74] and conflict resolution and inhibition.[75]

Influence of processing load

[edit]

A "hugely influential"[76] theory regarding selective attention is the perceptual load theory, which states that there are two mechanisms that affect attention: cognitive and perceptual. The perceptual mechanism considers the subject's ability to perceive or ignore stimuli, both task-related and non task-related. Studies show that if there are many stimuli present (especially if they are task-related), it is much easier to ignore the non-task related stimuli, but if there are few stimuli the mind will perceive the irrelevant stimuli as well as the relevant. The cognitive mechanism refers to the actual processing of the stimuli. Studies regarding this showed that the ability to process stimuli decreased with age, meaning that younger people were able to perceive more stimuli and fully process them, but were likely to process both relevant and irrelevant information, while older people could process fewer stimuli, but usually processed only relevant information.[77]

Some people can process multiple stimuli, e.g. trained Morse code operators have been able to copy 100% of a message while carrying on a meaningful conversation. This relies on the reflexive response due to "overlearning" the skill of morse code reception/detection/transcription so that it is an autonomous function requiring no specific attention to perform. This overtraining of the brain comes as the "practice of a skill [surpasses] 100% accuracy," allowing the activity to become autonomic, while your mind has room to process other actions simultaneously.[78]

Based on the primary role of the perceptual load theory, assumptions regarding its functionality surrounding that attentional resources are that of limited capacity which signify the need for all of the attentional resources to be used.[79] This performance, however, is halted when put hand in hand with accuracy and reaction time (RT). This limitation arises through the measurement of literature when obtaining outcomes for scores. This affects both cognitive and perceptual attention because there is a lack of measurement surrounding distributions of temporal and spatial attention. Only a concentrated amount of attention on how effective one is completing the task and how long they take is being analyzed making a more redundant analysis on overall cognition of being able to process multiple stimuli through perception.[80]

Clinical model

[edit]

Attention is best described as the sustained focus of cognitive resources on information while filtering or ignoring extraneous information. Attention is a very basic function that often is a precursor to all other neurological/cognitive functions. As is frequently the case, clinical models of attention differ from investigation models. One of the most used models for the evaluation of attention in patients with very different neurologic pathologies is the model of Sohlberg and Mateer.[81] This hierarchic model is based in the recovering of attention processes of brain damage patients after coma. Five different kinds of activities of growing difficulty are described in the model; connecting with the activities those patients could do as their recovering process advanced.

  • Focused attention: The ability to respond discretely to specific sensory stimuli.
  • Sustained attention (vigilance and concentration): The ability to maintain a consistent behavioral response during continuous and repetitive activity.
  • Selective attention: The ability to maintain a behavioral or cognitive set in the face of distracting or competing stimuli. Therefore, it incorporates the notion of "freedom from distractibility."
  • Alternating attention: The ability of mental flexibility that allows individuals to shift their focus of attention and move between tasks having different cognitive requirements.
  • Divided attention: This refers to the ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks or multiple task demands.

This model has been shown to be very useful in evaluating attention in very different pathologies, correlates strongly with daily difficulties and is especially helpful in designing stimulation programs such as attention process training, a rehabilitation program for neurological patients of the same authors.

Other descriptors for types of attention

[edit]
  • Mindfulness: Mindfulness has been conceptualized as a clinical model of attention.[82] Mindfulness practices are clinical interventions that emphasize training attention functions.[83]
  • Vigilant attention: Remaining focused on a non-arousing stimulus or uninteresting task for a sustained period is far more difficult than attending to arousing stimuli and interesting tasks, and requires a specific type of attention called 'vigilant attention'.[84] Thereby, vigilant attention is the ability to give sustained attention to a stimulus or task that might ordinarily be insufficiently engaging to prevent our attention being distracted by other stimuli or tasks.[85]

Neural correlates

[edit]

Most experiments show that one neural correlate of attention is enhanced firing. If a neuron has a different response to a stimulus when an animal is not attending to a stimulus, versus when the animal does attend to the stimulus, then the neuron's response will be enhanced even if the physical characteristics of the stimulus remain the same.

In a 2007 review, Professor Eric Knudsen[86] describes a more general model which identifies four core processes of attention, with working memory at the center:

  • Working memory temporarily stores information for detailed analysis.
  • Competitive selection is the process that determines which information gains access to working memory.
  • Through top-down sensitivity control, higher cognitive processes can regulate signal intensity in information channels that compete for access to working memory, and thus give them an advantage in the process of competitive selection. Through top-down sensitivity control, the momentary content of working memory can influence the selection of new information, and thus mediate voluntary control of attention in a recurrent loop (endogenous attention).[87]
  • Bottom-up saliency filters automatically enhance the response to infrequent stimuli, or stimuli of instinctive or learned biological relevance (exogenous attention).[87]

Neurally, at different hierarchical levels spatial maps can enhance or inhibit activity in sensory areas, and induce orienting behaviors like eye movement.

  • At the top of the hierarchy, the frontal eye fields (FEF) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex contain a retinocentric spatial map. Microstimulation in the FEF induces monkeys to make a saccade to the relevant location. Stimulation at levels too low to induce a saccade will nonetheless enhance cortical responses to stimuli located in the relevant area.
  • At the next lower level, a variety of spatial maps are found in the parietal cortex. In particular, the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) contains a saliency map and is interconnected both with the FEF and with sensory areas.
  • Exogenous attentional guidance in humans and monkeys is by a bottom-up saliency map in the primary visual cortex.[72][4] In lower vertebrates, this saliency map is more likely in the superior colliculus (optic tectum).[88]
  • Certain automatic responses that influence attention, like orienting to a highly salient stimulus, are mediated subcortically by the superior colliculi.
  • At the neural network level, it is thought that processes like lateral inhibition mediate the process of competitive selection.

In many cases attention produces changes in the EEG. Many animals, including humans, produce gamma waves (40–60 Hz) when focusing attention on a particular object or activity.[89][90][53][91]

Another commonly used model for the attention system has been put forth by researchers such as Michael Posner. He divides attention into three functional components: alerting, orienting, and executive attention[68][92] that can also interact and influence each other.[93][94][95]

Cultural variation

[edit]

Children appear to develop patterns of attention related to the cultural practices of their families, communities, and the institutions in which they participate.[99]

In 1955, Jules Henry suggested that there are societal differences in sensitivity to signals from many ongoing sources that call for the awareness of several levels of attention simultaneously. He tied his speculation to ethnographic observations of communities in which children are involved in a complex social community with multiple relationships.[6]

Many Indigenous children in the Americas predominantly learn by observing and pitching in. There are several studies to support that the use of keen attention towards learning is much more common in Indigenous Communities of North and Central America than in a middle-class European-American setting. This is a direct result of the Learning by Observing and Pitching In model.

Keen attention is both a requirement and result of learning by observing and pitching-in. Incorporating the children in the community gives them the opportunity to keenly observe and contribute to activities that were not directed towards them. It can be seen from different Indigenous communities and cultures, such as the Mayans of San Pedro, that children can simultaneously attend to multiple events.[6] Most Maya children have learned to pay attention to several events at once in order to make useful observations.[100]

One example is simultaneous attention which involves uninterrupted attention to several activities occurring at the same time. Another cultural practice that may relate to simultaneous attention strategies is coordination within a group. San Pedro toddlers and caregivers frequently coordinated their activities with other members of a group in multiway engagements rather than in a dyadic fashion.[6][48] Research concludes that children with close ties to Indigenous American roots have a high tendency to be especially keen observers.[49]

This learning by observing and pitching-in model requires active levels of attention management. The child is present while caretakers engage in daily activities and responsibilities such as: weaving, farming, and other skills necessary for survival. Being present allows the child to focus their attention on the actions being performed by their parents, elders, and/or older siblings. In order to learn in this way, keen attention and focus is required. Eventually the child is expected to be able to perform these skills themselves.

Modelling

[edit]

In the domain of computer vision, efforts have been made to model the mechanism of human attention, especially the bottom-up intentional mechanism[101] and its semantic significance in classification of video contents.[102][103] Both spatial attention and temporal attention have been incorporated in such classification efforts.

Generally speaking, there are two kinds of models to mimic the bottom-up salience mechanism in static images. One is based on the spatial contrast analysis. For example, a center–surround mechanism has been used to define salience across scales, inspired by the putative neural mechanism.[104] It has also been hypothesized that some visual inputs are intrinsically salient in certain background contexts and that these are actually task-independent. This model has established itself as the exemplar for salience detection and consistently used for comparison in the literature;[101] the other kind of model is based on the frequency domain analysis. This method was first proposed by Hou et al..[105] This method was called SR. Then, the PQFT method was also introduced. Both SR and PQFT only use the phase information.[101] In 2012, the HFT method was introduced, and both the amplitude and the phase information are made use of.[106] The Neural Abstraction Pyramid[107] is a hierarchical recurrent convolutional model, which incorporates bottom-up and top-down flow of information to iteratively interpret images.

Hemispatial neglect

[edit]

Hemispatial neglect, also called unilateral neglect, often occurs when people have damage to the right hemisphere of their brain.[108] This damage often leads to a tendency to ignore the left side of one's body or even the left side of an object that can be seen. Damage to the left side of the brain (the left hemisphere) rarely yields significant neglect of the right side of the body or object in the person's local environments.[109]

The effects of spatial neglect, however, may vary and differ depending on what area of the brain was damaged. Damage to different neural substrates can result in different types of neglect. Attention disorders (lateralized and nonlaterized) may also contribute to the symptoms and effects.[109] Much research has asserted that damage to gray matter within the brain results in spatial neglect.[110]

New technology has yielded more information, such that there is a large, distributed network of frontal, parietal, temporal, and subcortical brain areas that have been tied to neglect.[111] This network can be related to other research as well; the dorsal attention network is tied to spatial orienting.[112] The effect of damage to this network may result in patients neglecting their left side when distracted about their right side or an object on their right side.[108]

Attention in social contexts

[edit]

Social attention is one special form of attention that involves the allocation of limited processing resources in a social context. Previous studies on social attention often regard how attention is directed toward socially relevant stimuli such as faces and gaze directions of other individuals.[113] In contrast to attending-to-others, a different line of researches has shown that self-related information such as own face and name automatically captures attention and is preferentially processed comparing to other-related information.[114] These contrasting effects between attending-to-others and attending-to-self prompt a synthetic view in a recent Opinion article[115] proposing that social attention operates at two polarizing states: In one extreme, individual tends to attend to the self and prioritize self-related information over others', and, in the other extreme, attention is allocated to other individuals to infer their intentions and desires. Attending-to-self and attending-to-others mark the two ends of an otherwise continuum spectrum of social attention. For a given behavioral context, the mechanisms underlying these two polarities might interact and compete with each other in order to determine a saliency map of social attention that guides our behaviors.[115] An imbalanced competition between these two behavioral and cognitive processes will cause cognitive disorders and neurological symptoms such as autism spectrum disorders and Williams syndrome.

Distracting factors

[edit]

According to Daniel Goleman's book, Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, there are two types of distracting factors affecting focus – sensory and emotional.

A sensory distracting factor would be, for example, while a person is reading this article, they are neglecting the white field surrounding the text.

An emotional distracting factor would be when someone is focused on answering an email, and somebody shouts their name. It would be almost impossible to neglect the voice speaking it. Attention is immediately directed toward the source. Positive emotions have also been found to affect attention. Induction of happiness has led to increased response times and an increase in inaccurate responses in the face of irrelevant stimuli. Two possible theories as to why emotions might make one more susceptible to distracting stimuli is that emotions take up too much of one's cognitive resources and make it harder to control your focus of attention. The other theory is that emotions make it harder to filter out distractions, specifically with positive emotions due to a feeling of security.[116]

Another distracting factor to attention processes is insufficient sleep. Sleep deprivation is found to impair cognition, specifically performance in divided attention. Divided attention is possibly linked with the circadian processes.[117]

Failure to attend

[edit]

Inattentional blindness was first introduced in 1998 by Arien Mack and Irvic Rock. Their studies show that when people are focused on specific stimuli, they often miss other stimuli that are clearly present. Though actual blindness is not occurring here, the blindness that happens is due to the perceptual load of what is being attended to.[118] Based on the experiment performed by Mack and Rock, Ula Finch and Nilli Lavie tested participants with a perceptual task. They presented subjects with a cross, one arm being longer than the other, for 5 trials. On the sixth trial, a white square was added to the top left of the screen. The results conclude that out of 10 participants, only 2 (20%) actually saw the square. This would suggest that when a higher focus was attended to the length of the crossed arms, the more likely someone would altogether miss an object that was in plain sight.[119]

Change blindness was first tested by Rensink and coworkers in 1997. Their studies show that people have difficulty detecting changes from scene to scene due to the intense focus on one thing, or lack of attention overall. This was tested by Rensink through a presentation of a picture, and then a blank field, and then the same picture but with an item missing. The results showed that the pictures had to be alternated back and forth a good number of times for participants to notice the difference. This idea is greatly portrayed in films that have continuity errors. Many people do not pick up on differences when in reality, the changes tend to be significant.[120]

History of the study

[edit]

Philosophical period

[edit]

Psychologist Daniel E. Berlyne credits the first extended treatment of attention to philosopher Nicolas Malebranche in his work "The Search After Truth". "Malebranche held that we have access to ideas, or mental representations of the external world, but not direct access to the world itself."[7] Thus in order to keep these ideas organized, attention is necessary.[121] Otherwise we will confuse these ideas. Malebranche writes in "The Search After Truth", "because it often happens that the understanding has only confused and imperfect perceptions of things, it is truly a cause of our errors.... It is therefore necessary to look for means to keep our perceptions from being confused and imperfect. And, because, as everyone knows, there is nothing that makes them clearer and more distinct than attentiveness, we must try to find the means to become more attentive than we are".[122] According to Malebranche, attention is crucial to understanding and keeping thoughts organized.

Philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz introduced the concept of apperception to this philosophical approach to attention. Apperception refers to "the process by which new experience is assimilated to and transformed by the residuum of past experience of an individual to form a new whole."[123] Apperception is required for a perceived event to become a conscious event. Leibniz emphasized a reflexive involuntary view of attention known as exogenous orienting. However, there is also endogenous orienting which is voluntary and directed attention. Philosopher Johann Friedrich Herbart agreed with Leibniz's view of apperception; however, he expounded on it in by saying that new experiences had to be tied to ones already existing in the mind. Herbart was also the first person to stress the importance of applying mathematical modeling to the study of psychology.[7]

Throughout the philosophical era, various thinkers made significant contributions to the field of attention studies, beginning with research on the extent of attention and how attention is directed. In the beginning of the 19th century, it was thought that people were not able to attend to more than one stimulus at a time. However, with research contributions by Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet this view was changed. Hamilton proposed a view of attention that likened its capacity to holding marbles. You can only hold a certain number of marbles at a time before it starts to spill over. His view states that we can attend to more than one stimulus at once. William Stanley Jevons later expanded this view and stated that we can attend to up to four items at a time.[124]

1860–1909

[edit]

This period of attention research took the focus from conceptual findings to experimental testing. It also involved psychophysical methods that allowed measurement of the relation between physical stimulus properties and the psychological perceptions of them. This period covers the development of attentional research from the founding of psychology to 1909.

Wilhelm Wundt introduced the study of attention to the field of psychology. Wundt measured mental processing speed by likening it to differences in stargazing measurements. Astronomers in this time would measure the time it took for stars to travel. Among these measurements when astronomers recorded the times, there were personal differences in calculation. These different readings resulted in different reports from each astronomer. To correct for this, a personal equation was developed. Wundt applied this to mental processing speed. Wundt realized that the time it takes to see the stimulus of the star and write down the time was being called an "observation error" but actually was the time it takes to switch voluntarily one's attention from one stimulus to another. Wundt called his school of psychology voluntarism. It was his belief that psychological processes can only be understood in terms of goals and consequences.

Franciscus Donders used mental chronometry to study attention and it was considered a major field of intellectual inquiry by authors such as Sigmund Freud. Donders and his students conducted the first detailed investigations of the speed of mental processes. Donders measured the time required to identify a stimulus and to select a motor response. This was the time difference between stimulus discrimination and response initiation. Donders also formalized the subtractive method which states that the time for a particular process can be estimated by adding that process to a task and taking the difference in reaction time between the two tasks. He also differentiated between three types of reactions: simple reaction, choice reaction, and go/no-go reaction.

Hermann von Helmholtz also contributed to the field of attention relating to the extent of attention. Von Helmholtz stated that it is possible to focus on one stimulus and still perceive or ignore others. An example of this is being able to focus on the letter u in the word house and still perceiving the letters h, o, s, and e.

One major debate in this period was whether it was possible to attend to two things at once (split attention). Walter Benjamin described this experience as "reception in a state of distraction." This disagreement could only be resolved through experimentation.

In 1890, William James, in his textbook The Principles of Psychology, remarked:

Everyone knows what attention is. 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. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.[125]

James differentiated between sensorial attention and intellectual attention. Sensorial attention is when attention is directed to objects of sense, stimuli that are physically present. Intellectual attention is attention directed to ideal or represented objects; stimuli that are not physically present. James also distinguished between immediate or derived attention: attention to the present versus to something not physically present. According to James, attention has five major effects. Attention works to make us perceive, conceive, distinguish, remember, and shorten reactions time.

1910–1949

[edit]

During this period, research in attention waned and interest in behaviorism flourished, leading some to believe, like Ulric Neisser, that in this period, "There was no research on attention". However, Jersild published very important work on "Mental Set and Shift" in 1927. He stated, "The fact of mental set is primary in all conscious activity. The same stimulus may evoke any one of a large number of responses depending upon the contextual setting in which it is placed".[126] This research found that the time to complete a list was longer for mixed lists than for pure lists. For example, if a list was names of animals versus a list of the same size with names of animals, books, makes and models of cars, and types of fruits, it takes longer to process the second list. This is task switching.

In 1931, Telford discovered the psychological refractory period. The stimulation of neurons is followed by a refractory phase during which neurons are less sensitive to stimulation. In 1935 John Ridley Stroop developed the Stroop Task which elicited the Stroop Effect. Stroop's task showed that irrelevant stimulus information can have a major impact on performance. In this task, subjects were to look at a list of colors. This list of colors had each color typed in a color different from the actual text. For example, the word Blue would be typed in Orange, Pink in Black, and so on.

Example: Blue Purple Red Green Purple Green

Subjects were then instructed to say the name of the ink color and ignore the text. It took 110 seconds to complete a list of this type compared to 63 seconds to name the colors when presented in the form of solid squares.[7] The naming time nearly doubled in the presence of conflicting color words, an effect known as the Stroop Effect.

1950–1974

[edit]

In the 1950s, research psychologists renewed their interest in attention when the dominant epistemology shifted from positivism (i.e., behaviorism) to realism during what has come to be known as the "cognitive revolution".[127] The cognitive revolution admitted unobservable cognitive processes like attention as legitimate objects of scientific study.

Lecture by cognitive scientist Marie Postma (Tilburg University) on focused attention

Modern research on attention began with the analysis of the "cocktail party problem" by Colin Cherry in 1953. At a cocktail party how do people select the conversation that they are listening to and ignore the rest? This problem is at times called "focused attention", as opposed to "divided attention". Cherry performed a number of experiments which became known as dichotic listening and were extended by Donald Broadbent and others.[128]: 112  In a typical experiment, subjects would use a set of headphones to listen to two streams of words in different ears and selectively attend to one stream. After the task, the experimenter would question the subjects about the content of the unattended stream.

Broadbent's Filter Model of Attention states that information is held in a pre-attentive temporary store, and only sensory events that have some physical feature in common are selected to pass into the limited capacity processing system. This implies that the meaning of unattended messages is not identified. Also, a significant amount of time is required to shift the filter from one channel to another. Experiments by Gray and Wedderburn and later Anne Treisman pointed out various problems in Broadbent's early model and eventually led to the Deutsch–Norman model in 1968. In this model, no signal is filtered out, but all are processed to the point of activating their stored representations in memory. The point at which attention becomes "selective" is when one of the memory representations is selected for further processing. At any time, only one can be selected, resulting in the attentional bottleneck.[128]: 115–116 

This debate became known as the early-selection vs. late-selection models. In the early selection models (first proposed by Donald Broadbent), attention shuts down (in Broadbent's model) or attenuates (in Treisman's refinement) processing in the unattended ear before the mind can analyze its semantic content. In the late selection models (first proposed by J. Anthony Deutsch and Diana Deutsch), the content in both ears is analyzed semantically, but the words in the unattended ear cannot access consciousness.[129] Lavie's perceptual load theory, however, "provided elegant solution to" what had once been a "heated debate".[130]

See also

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Further reading

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