Attention
MS. ZASHEER AMAN

Attention is a concept studied in cognitive psychology that refers to
how we actively process specific information in our environment.

As you are reading this, there are numerous sights, sounds, and
sensations going on around you—the pressure of your feet against
the floor, the sight of the street out of a nearby window, the soft
warmth of your shirt, the memory of a conversation you had earlier
with a friend.

All of these sights, sounds, and sensations vie for our attention, but it
turns out that our attentional resources are not limitless.

How do we manage to experience all of these sensations and still
focus on just one element of our environment?

How do we effectively manage the resources we have available in
order to make sense of the world around us?

According to eminent psychologist and philosopher William James

“attention Is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid
form, of one out of what may seem several simultaneously possible
objects or trains of thought. …It implies withdrawal from some things
in order to deal effectively with others.”
Understanding Attention

Think of attention as a highlighter. As you read through a section of
text in a book, the highlighted section stands out, causing you to
focus your interest in that area.

But attention is not just about centering your focus on one
particular thing; it also involves ignoring a great deal of competing
for information and stimuli.

Attention allows you to "tune out" information, sensations, and
perceptions that are not relevant at the moment and instead focus
your energy on the information that's important.

Psychologists began to study attention in the latter part of the 19th
century.

Before this time, philosophers had typically considered attention
within the context of apperception (the mechanism by which new
ideas became associated with existing ideas).

Thus Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz suggested that one’s loss of
awareness of the constant sound of a waterfall illustrates how events
can cease to be apperceived (that is, represented in
consciousness) without specific attention.

Donald Broadbent based the development of the filter model from
findings by Kennith Craik, who took an engineering approach to
cognitive processes. Cherry and Broadbent were concerned with
the issue of selective attention.

Broadbent was the first to describe the human attentional
processing system using an information processing metaphor.

In this view, Broadbent proposed a so-called "early selection" view
of attention, such that humans process information with limited
capacity and select information to be processed early.

Due to this limited capacity, a selective filter is needed for
information processing. Broadbent stated that all stimuli are
processed initially for basic physical properties. These basic
characteristics can include pitch, color, loudness, and direction.

Unlike the physical properties, Broadbent believed semantic
features, due to their complexity, would impose a limited capacity
on the temporary storehouse of incoming stimuli. Therefore, based
on physical characteristics, the selective filter allows for certain
stimuli to pass through the filter for further processing, while
unattended stimuli will be filtered out and lost.

Further, goal-directed behaviour requires attention to be controlled;
hence a high degree of selectivity is put forth in the informationprocessing stream.

When developing his model, Broadbent emphasized the splitting of
incoming stimuli to attended or unattended channels.

Channel selection is guided through attention.

If one is attempting to attend to a stimulus based on their current
goals, they will employ voluntary attention; whereas if a sensory
event catches one's attention, reflexive attention will be employed.

Information selected to pass through the filter is then available for
short-term memory and manipulation of the selected information,
prior to storage in long-term memory.