Attentional Shift - Voluntary Vs. Automatic Shifts in Attention

Voluntary Vs. Automatic Shifts in Attention

Attention can be directed either voluntarily, also referred to as endogenous control, or automatically, which is referred to as exogenous or reflexive attention. In endogenous control, attention is directed toward the stimulus voluntarily, usually by interpreting a cue that directs one to the target, whereas in exogenous control, attention is automatically drawn towards a stimulus The neural mechanisms in the brain have been shown to produce different patterns of activity for endogenous and exogenous attention.

Read more about this topic:  Attentional Shift

Famous quotes containing the words voluntary, automatic, shifts and/or attention:

    Her voluntary fruits, free without fees;
    Torquato Tasso (1544–1595)

    Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind’s eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of the watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.
    Richard Dawkins (b. 1941)

    I have rather a strange objection to talking from the back platform of a train.... It changes too often. It moves around and shifts its ground too often. I like a platform that stays put.
    Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)

    If my sons are to become the kind of men our daughters would be pleased to live among, attention to domestic details is critical. The hostilities that arise over housework...are crushing the daughters of my generation....Change takes time, but men’s continued obliviousness to home responsibilities is causing women everywhere to expire of trivialities.
    Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)