Attention

"Attention is the focusing of mental activity on a particular object, thought or task."

Nature of attention

• Selective; dynamic and active; involves concentration of consciousness.
• Influenced by internal and external factors; limited in capacity; varies between people.
• Closely related to perception, interest and motivation; easily distracted.

Attention is therefore not a single spotlight but a set of functions: it can select, sustain, divide and shift from moment to moment.

Types of attention

• Voluntary (directed / intentional) attention — conscious effort and purpose (e.g. studying, listening to a lecture).
• Involuntary (auto / passive) attention — attracted automatically without conscious effort (e.g. a sudden loud noise).

A useful sub-distinction contrasts voluntary with non-voluntary attention — the state of being absorbed by a compelling stimulus (a gripping film) without deliberately choosing to attend. Voluntary attention is effortful and fatigues; involuntary attention costs little and is captured by the stimulus itself.

Determinants of attention

The likelihood that a stimulus will capture or hold attention depends on a set of stimulus properties and personal dispositions:

1. Intensity · 2. Size · 3. Novelty · 4. Movement · 5. Contrast · 6. Repetition · 7. Emotional value · 8. Personal needs and motives · 9. Past experience · 10. Surrounding/background.

The first six are largely properties of the stimulus; the last four depend on the perceiver, which is why the same advertisement attracts one person and is ignored by another.

Factors affecting attention

Span of attention

The span of attention is the amount of time a person can maintain attention on a single stimulus or task. It is limited and varies among individuals:

• Adults: about 10–20 minutes for a single task.
• Children: shorter (5–10 minutes).

Closely related is the span of apprehension — the number of items that can be grasped in a single glance — which is small (roughly four to five items) and overlaps with the capacity limits of short-term memory.

Division of attention

Division of attention is the ability to attend to two or more stimuli or tasks at the same time (e.g. listening to a lecture while taking notes). It requires practice and skill, is possible when tasks are simple or well learned, and reduces efficiency compared to single attention. The classic demonstration is shadowing while a second task is performed, where performance on at least one task usually suffers.

Fluctuation of attention

Attention is not constant — it rises and falls over time. Even when trying to concentrate, the focus repeatedly sharpens and blurs, an effect early psychologists called the fluctuation of attention. Sustained, vigilant attention across long periods is called sustained attention, and its decline over time is responsible for the vigilance decrement seen in tasks such as air-traffic or radar monitoring.

Selective attention and its models

Selective attention is the process of focusing on one message or stream while filtering out others. The pivotal phenomenon is the cocktail party effect described by Colin Cherry (1953): in a noisy room, a listener can follow one conversation yet still notice their own name spoken in an unattended one. Models attempt to explain where and how the filter operates:

• Broadbent's filter model (1958) — an early filter selects information on the basis of physical characteristics before meaning is processed; unattended input is blocked out entirely.
• Treisman's attenuation model (1964) — rather than blocking, the filter attenuates (weakens) unattended channels; some meaningful content can still break through, as with one's own name.
• Deutsch & Deutsch's late-selection model — all input is processed for meaning, and selection occurs only at the response stage.
• Kahneman's capacity model (1973) — attention is a limited pool of mental resources allocated flexibly among tasks according to demands and arousal.

The models disagree mainly about where in the stream selection happens:

Key takeaways

• Attention is the selective focusing of mental activity; it is active, limited in capacity and easily distracted.
• It is either voluntary (intentional) or involuntary (automatic), and is shaped by both stimulus and person factors.
• Span of attention is roughly 10–20 minutes for adults and 5–10 minutes for children.
• Division of attention is possible for simple or well-learned tasks but costs efficiency; attention also fluctuates over time.
• The cocktail party effect shows selection is not all-or-nothing; filter (Broadbent), attenuation (Treisman) and capacity (Kahneman) models debate where the filter sits.
• Attention is the gateway to perception [blocked] and memory [blocked], so managing it is central to learning.

Sources & further reading

• Selective Attention Theory — Simply Psychology
• Attention — APA Dictionary of Psychology
• Attention — Britannica
• Inattentional Blindness — Simply Psychology