Attention

 

Attention

Meaning

Attention is the term used or given to the perceptual processes that select certain inputs for inclusion in our conscious experience, or awareness at any given time. It is the process involving the act of listening, and concentrating on a topic, object or event for the attainment of desired end.

Definition

—  “Attention is the concentration of consciousness upon one object other than upon another”—Dumville.

—  “Attention is the process of getting an object or thought clearly before the mind”—Ross.

—  “Attention is being keenly alive to some specific factors in our environment. It is a preparatory adjustment for response”—Morgan.

—  Thus attention is essentially process and not a product.

—  It helps in our awareness or consciousness of our environment, which is of selective kind, because in a given time,

—   we can concentrate or focus our consciousness on a particular object only.

Thus attention is a process which is carried out through cognitive abilities and helped by emotional and behavioural factors to select something out of the various stimuli present in one’s environment and bring it in the centre of one’s consciousness in order to perceive it clearly for deriving the desired end.

The concentration provided by the process of attention helps us in the clarity of the perception of the perceived object or phenomenon. Thus attention is not merely a cognitive factor but is essentially determined by emotions, interest, attitude and memory.

Nature of Attention

In order to understand how attention works and how it affects your perception and experience of the world, it's essential to remember a few important points about how attention works. Here are three aspects of attention.

1. Limited

—  There has been a tremendous amount of research looking at exactly how many things we can attend to and for how long.

—  Key variables that impact our ability to stay on task include how interested we are in the stimulus and how many distractors we experience and attention is limited in terms of both capacity and duration.

—  The illusion that attention is limitless has led many people to practice multitasking. Researches has pointed out how multitasking seldom works well because our attention is, in reality, limited

2. Selective

—  Since attention is a limited resource, we have to be selective about what we decide to focus on.

—  Not only must we focus our attention on a specific item in our environment, but we must also filter out an enormous number of other items.

—  We must be selective in what we attend to, a process that often occurs so quickly that we don't even notice that we have ignored certain stimuli in favour of others.

3.Part of the Cognitive System

—  Attention is a basic component of our biology, present even at birth. Our orienting reflexes help us determine which events in our environment need to be attended to, a process that aids in our ability to survive.

—  Newborns attend to environmental stimuli such as loud noises. A touch against the cheek triggers the rooting reflex, causing the infant to turn his or her head to nurse and receive nourishment.

—  These orienting reflexes continue to benefit us throughout life.

—  The honk of a horn might alert us about an oncoming car.

—   The smell of smoke might warn you that the milkpan you put on the stove is burning.

—  All of these stimuli grab our attention and inspire us to respond to our environment

Characteristics of attention

—  It is a selective mental activity

—  It constantly shifts from one object to another or from one aspect to another.

—  Attention is focus of the consciousness on one particular object.

—  Attention is the state of preparedness or alertness of

—  Attention requires some motor and sensory adjustments on the part of the person being attentive.

—  Narrow span

Determinants of Attention

 

       I.            External Factors or Condition

These conditions are generally those characteristics of outside situation or stimuli which make the strongest aid for capturing our attention.

These can be classified as:

1. Nature of the stimulus:

2. Intensity and size of the stimulus

3. Contrast, change and variety:

4. Repetition of stimulus:

5. Movement of the stimulus:

1. Nature of the stimulus

—  All types of stimuli are not able to bring the same degree of attention. A picture attracts attention more readily than words.

—   Among the pictures, the pictures of human beings invite more attention  and those of human beings related to beautiful women or handsome men, who attract more attention.

—  In this way an effective stimulus should always be chosen for capturing maximum attention.

Intensity and size of the stimulus

                Stimulus which are more intense, bigger, louder, brighter are noticed first

—  In comparison with the weak stimulus, the immense stimulus attracts more attention of an individual.

—  Our attention become easily directed towards a loud sound, a bright light or a strong smell, and also a large building will be more readily attended to, than a small one.

3. Contrast, change and variety:

—  Change and variety strike attention more easily than sameness and absence of change,

—  e.g. we do not notice the ticking sound of a clock put on the wall until it stops ticking, that is any change in the attention to which you have been attracted immediately capture your attention.

—  The factor, contrast or change is highly responsible for capturing attention of the organism and contributes more than the intensity, size or nature of the stimulus.

4. Repetition of stimulus:

—  Repetition is the factor of great importance in securing attention.

—  Because one may ignore a stimulus at first instance, but if it is repeated for several times it captures our attention,

—  e.g. a miss-spelled word is more likely to be noticed, if it occurs twice in the same paragraph than, if it occurs only once. While giving lecture the important aspects of the speech are often repeated so that the attention of the audience can be easily directed to the valuable points.

5. Movement of the stimulus

—  The moving stimulus catches our attention more quickly than a stimulus that does not move. We are more sensitive to objects that move in our field of vision, e.g. advertisers make use of this fact and try to catch the attention of people through moving electric lights.

II. Internal or Subjective Factors:

—  These factors predispose the individual to respond to objective factors, to attend to those activities that fulfill his desires and motives and suit his interest and attitude. It is the mental state of the perceiver.

Some of the subjective factors are:

1. Interest:

2. Motives:

3. Mind set:

4. Moods and attitudes:

 

1.Interest:

—  Interest is said to be the mother of attention. We attend to objects in which we have interest. We would like to watch a movie or a serial in TV because we are interested in the subject around which the movie or serial revolves.

—  In any get-together if any subject of our interest is discussed that attracts our attention easily and makes us to participate in the discussion.

—   In our day-to-day life we pay attention to the stimulus we are interested in.

2. Motives:

—  Our basic needs and motives to a great extent, determine our attention, thirst, hunger, sex, curiosity, fear are some of the important motives that influence attention,

—   e.g. small children get attracted towards eatables.

3. Mind set:

—  Person’s readiness to respond determines his attention.

—  If we are expecting a stimulus, occurrence of that stimulus along with many other stimuli may not come in the way of attending to that particular stimulus.

—   At a time when students are expecting the examination time table by the end of the semester the time table put out on the notice board along with other notices would attract their attention easily.

4. Moods and attitudes:

—  What we attend to is influenced by the moods and attitudes.

—  When we are disturbed or in angry mood, we notice the smallest mistake of others very easily.

—  Likewise our favourable and unfavourable attitudes also determine our attention.

—  After discussing subjective and objective factors, we realize that these factors are interrelated. How much or in what way we attend to a stimulus depends on subjective as well as objective factors.

 

 

Other Internal Factors

—  Past experience: Learning and previous experience facilitate attention. — If we find that certain thing has been beneficial in the past we give more attention to it in the present.

—  Emotion: The emotional state of he individual determines the attention the person will put to any certain stimuli.

—  Habits: Habit is also an important determinant of attention. — A person develops a habit of attending to important things and a habit of not attending to the unimportant things.

—  Aims: The personal Aims of the person also guides his ability to attend to certain stimuli.

—  Meaning : The internal meaning of the stimuli also deposits the meaning to the methods.

—  Disposition and temperament of the person.

Educational Implications:

Attention plays a vital role in teaching learning process. Without attention learning cannot be effective. It helps a child to grasp things better. It is a must to learn a skill. Lesson studied with greater attention lasts long. Thus, attention is quite vital to learning.

The following are the educational implications of attention:

1.      The teacher should try to secure attention of the children in teaching-learning situation.

2.    The teacher should create a conducive environment at the time of teaching in order to concentrate full attention among the children.

3.    The learning atmosphere should be free from all possible distracting factors.

4.    In order to create attention the teacher should try to motivate the students at each stage of teaching.

5.     Diagrams, figures and pictures should be drawn at the time of need.

6.    Audio-visual aids should be used properly.

7.     The teacher should move use of gestures, postures, actions and demonstrations at the time of teaching.

8.    The students should be involved actively in teaching-learning activities.

9.    Fear of punishment and rude behaviour of teacher should be avoided.

10.                        The teacher should show a fair and impartial treatment to all the students in the class.