ATTENTION. The term is employed in psychology some times. in a wider, and sometimes in a narrower sense. In the narrower sense, which coincides more or less with the popular use of the term, attention means that mental process by which some object comes to be apprehended more clearly or distinctly than before it was attended to, or by which one object occupies the focus of consciousness while others (to which attention is not directed) are in the margin or periphery of consciousness. In the wider sense of the term attention denotes the mental process in virtue of which anything becomes an object of consciousness at all, as compared with the multitude of stimuli which never find entry into consciousness, although they are within reach of the observer. The wider sense is the more convenient, provided it is recognized that there are many degrees of attention varying from what is commonly called inattention (that is, a very low degree of attention) to the highest concentration. Attention in all its forms, and especially in its higher forms, is a process of selec tion, a form of preferential treatment—some things are admitted into consciousness whereas others are not, or some are placed in the very centre of consciousness whereas others are relegated to the margin. It is largely by the exercise and distribution of atten tion that the human mind may be said to assert itself against becoming the passive target of external stimulations.
The general effect of attention is that a certain object is ad mitted into consciousness while others are excluded, or that an object which receives more attention is apprehended more clearly. The resulting difference is not a difference in intensity but a differ ence in clearness. When, e.g., special attention is concentrated on the first violin in a trio its notes do not become louder but clearer. One rarely mistakes an increase in clearness for an in crease in intensity. Only some people confuse the two merely because both changes have the same kind of effect in so far as the object in question is helped to occupy a more central place in consciousness. For, as will be pointed out presently, the intensity of a stimulus, and therefore an increase in intensity, is one of the conditions which help to determine attention or to attract atten tion to the stimulus, and so give it a prominent place in conscious ness. A negative result of attention directed to any object is that other objects receive either no attention or less attention than they would otherwise receive, that is to say they are either ex cluded from the field of consciousness or are relegated to a back place.
The conditions which influence the direction of attention to some objects rather than to others are of two principal kinds. The direction of attention is determined partly by the nature of the objects claiming attention, and partly by the disposition and char acter of the individual mind or subject exercising attention. The two sets of conditions may accordingly be described as the ob jective and the subjective conditions respectively.
The objective conditions of attention are to be sought mainly in the intensity, volume, duration, and novelty of the objective stimulus claiming attention. A brilliant light or a shrill noise is more likely to attract attention than a feeble light or a soft sound. Again, within certain limits, a stimu lus of longer duration is more likely to attract attention than a momentary one. Similarly a large object is more likely to be noticed than a small one. But most important of all the objective conditions is novelty, or change from preceding stimulation. Though the duration of a stimulus is favourable to its being noticed, yet a point is soon reached when its very sameness leads to its being ignored in favour of some new stimulus or some change in an existing stimulus. Change as such tends to attract attention. The sudden cessation in the motion of a mill or in the ticking of a clock will be noticed when the preceding uniform sound of either has ceased to attract attention. The importance of change of stimulus (including movement or apparent move ment) in attracting attention is realized and exploited by the purveyors of luminous advertisements.
The subjective conditions of atten tion turn mainly on the momentary pre-occupations or the perma nent interests of the individual mind. We may distinguish several forms in which such pre-occupations or interests may influence the direction of attention. First, there is the influence of the idea or experience which happens to occupy our attention at the mo ment, or did so shortly before. If we happen to be thinking of an object, it will attract our attention even under conditions in which it would otherwise have escaped our notice. Similarly a distant aeroplane though difficult to locate at first may be easily followed once it has been observed or spotted. Secondly, there is the mental attitude of the individual at the moment. A mental attitude is a kind of limited orientation. It favours whatever appears relevant to it, and resists everything else. In its simplest and most obvious form the general nature of a mental attitude is exemplified when a question occurs to one spontaneously, or is put to us by somebody else. The effect is a certain kind of ex pectancy and preparedness for anything that may help to answer the question or to solve the problem. If one is asked, or asks himself, about the architectural character of a clock-tower in front of him. he will attend to its architectural character. and probably fail to note the time indicated by the clock; if he is asked the time, he will note this, and probably fail to observe the architectural form of the tower, or even the character of the numerals on the face of the clock, until he is asked whether they are Roman or Arabic, etc. On the whole it is remarkable how little most people really notice for which their mental attitude is not set. This is not altogether to be regretted, for it means a certain economy of mental effort. Lastly, there is the influence of one's entire previous training, that is, one's general mental outlook or orientation, or his dominant disposition or permanent interests, as determined by his whole previous education, in the widest sense of the term. In a miscellaneous exhibition different people will direct their attention to different exhibits according to their knowledge of the different fields of interest to which the objects belong. Of the miscellaneous contents of a newspaper different parts will similarly attract the attention of different people according to their previous training. Even if they all read the major portion of the newspaper, they will read the several parts each in a different order.
Psychologists usually distin guish various kinds of attention, and the classification is based on various grounds. Sometimes the classification is based on the differences in the kind of objects to which attention is directed. In this case we get the distinction between sensorial attention and ideational attention, according as the object attended to is a sensible object or an idea. More important are the distinctions based on the effort exerted. This distinction, however, is inti mately bound up with that of interest. And the otherwise laud able attempt to combine both these bases in one scheme of classification has led to a somewhat inconsistent use of terms in this connection, the trouble being mainly due to the ambiguity of the epithet "voluntary," which is sometimes used in the sense of "involving volition" or effort, and sometimes in the sense of "free" or "willing" or "spontaneous," "not constrained." The most important distinctions may be indicated as follows : It is a familiar experience that we sometimes pay attention to something because it interests us, whereas at other times we attend to things by an effort of will. The former is called attention from interest, the latter is called attention from effort. The former is usually spontaneous and easy, the latter is often unpleasant and a strain. The former, again, is frequently called spontaneous attention, the latter volitional or voluntary attention. Again, attention is some times attracted by the mere intensity of some external stimulus such as a loud noise or a flash of light. The attention in this case involves no effort at all, and the object may or may not prove interesting. Such attention is often called involuntary attention, because it is often exercised in spite of our wish to attend to something else.
The concentration of atten tion upon some object or thought may continue for a considerable time among normal people. But what is commonly called an object or a thought is something very complex having many parts or aspects, and our attention really passes from part to part, backwards and forwards all the time. Our attention to what can be seriously called a single thing, affording no opportunities for the movement of attention from part to part, say a small patch of colour, cannot be held for more than about a second without serious risk of falling into a hypnotic trance or some similar pathological condition.
How many objects can be attended to at one time? Many people have the impression that they can attend to a number of things at the same time. What really happens in such cases is that their attention alternates from one object to another, so that they really do attend to a multiplicity of things within a given time, only successively. But if the expres sion "at one time" is taken strictly, then it seems very doubtful whether more than one object (or at most a group of four or five things forming one object) can be attended to at once. When, in experiments on attention, objects are exposed for a small fraction of a second, then as a rule only one object is apprehended. Even when with somewhat longer exposures four or five objects appear to be apprehended by the subject there is some ground for supposing that most of them are really observed in the form of after-images rather than as direct percepts.
In normal life one does not always concentrate one's attention on anything special, but scatters it somewhat diffusely over a number of objects, passing more or less rapidly from one thing to another. This is healthy up to a point—it is a form of mental relaxation. But when such a state of comparative inattention becomes chronic, it is a symp tom of a pathological mental condition. There are so-called "scatter-brained" people who are constitutionally incapable of concentrating attention on anything for long. If they enquire about anything their interest in it seems exhausted by the time they have put the question, and they proceed to put another question before the first has been answered. This condition is sometimes a passing phase with children, but chronic with the feeble-minded, or the mentally unstable. The opposite abnormal ity to such instability of attention is seen in people suffering from "fixed ideas." Even in normal life people sometimes con centrate attention on some one object or problem to such an extent that, for the time being, they are absorbed in it, and oblivi ous of everything else. This state of mind often betrays itself in what is called absent-mindedness, that is, inattention to most things because of special concentration on others. Up to a point this state, too, is healthy and effective. But when it becomes chronic and excessive it ends in a variety of abnormalities ranging from the harmless crank, to the fanatic, and the person suffering from fixed ideas and illusions from which he cannot divert his attention.
Pillsbury, Attention (1908) ; W. James, PrinBibliography.-W. B. Pillsbury, Attention (1908) ; W. James, Prin- ciples of Psychology (189o) ; G. F. Stout, Manual of Psychology (3rd ed., 1913) ; J. Ward, Psychological Principles (1918) ; article PsY CHOLOGY. (A. WO.)
