Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things. Attention has also been referred to as the allocation of processing resources. Attention also has variations amongst cultures. Voluntary attention develops in specific cultural and institutional contexts through engagement in cultural activities with more competent community members.
Attention is one of the most intensely studied topics within psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Attention remains a major area of investigation within education, psychology and neuroscience. Areas of active investigation involve determining the source of the signals that generate attention, the effects of these signals on the tuning properties of sensory neurons, and the relationship between attention and other cognitive processes like working memory and vigilance. A relatively new body of research is investigating the phenomenon of traumatic brain injuries and their effects on attention.
Read more about Attention: Examples of The Exercise of Attention, Selective Attention, Bottom-Up Vs Top-Down, Overt and Covert Attention, Influence of Processing Load, Neural Correlates of Attention, Attention Modelling, Cultural Variation in Indigenous Communities
Famous quotes containing the word attention:
““The unities, sir,’ he said, “are a completeness—a kind of universal dovetailedness with regard to place and time—a sort of general oneness, if I may be allowed to use so strong an expression. I take those to be the dramatic unities, so far as I have been enabled to bestow attention upon them, and I have read much upon the subject, and thought much.””
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“As for fowling, during the last years that I carried a gun my excuse was that I was studying ornithology, and sought only new or rare birds. But I confess that I am now inclined to think that there is a finer way of studying ornithology than this. It requires so much closer attention to the habits of the birds, that, if for that reason only, I have been willing to omit the gun.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I decided that if the shaking of her breasts could be stopped,
some of the fragments of the afternoon might be collected, and
I concentrated my attention with careful subtlety to this end.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)