Attention is a cognitive process that allows you to perform everyday activities by selecting the stimuli to be given importance and excluding others.
attention is a cognitive process by which we select the stimuli for us the most important – from a biological or psychological point of view – and rework them to hold them in the short or long-term memory .
It is therefore a fundamental mechanism for all supervisory tasks and indispensable for other cognitive processes such as memory and thinking. There are different types of attention: selective, divided, widespread . Let’s see what it is.
Types of attention: selective attention
Many have happened to find themselves in situations where, in order to carry on a conversation with a person of particular interest, it was necessary to isolate themselves from other environmental noises and not be distracted by them.
Let’s imagine two people who start talking at a party : if the conversation stimulates mutual interest, in a short time both of them will most likely find themselves focused exclusively on the interactive exchange without paying attention to the other people in the room, to the voices of others guests or background music. In other words: they are so involved in their conversation that the other environmental elements do not disturb because it is as if they have isolated themselves from what is happening around them.
The mechanism of selective attention works in this way thanks to the ability of the human mind to operate a sort of “filter” of incoming sensory information.
This means that, in all probability, all incoming sensory information is still processed in a rough way, but only some of it is then codified in an advanced way in order to reach our consciousness in such a way that we can attribute meanings to it, compare it. with information already known and use it to guide us in relationships, thoughts, decision making.
This filter system therefore works very efficiently because it allows us to exclude from our awareness contextual elements that at that moment would disturb what we are doing, but it also guarantees us that, as soon as some of the stimuli coming from the environment will take on a ‘ sudden relevance , immediately leap to the forefront of our minds (and Deutsh Deutsh, 1963; Norman, 1975).
L ‘ selective attention is important, for example, while studying to maintain the concentration of what is read without being distracted by other thoughts or environmental stresses. The indiscriminate use of smartphones and tablets, however, risks sabotaging this attentional mechanism by accustoming our mind to always remaining on “alert” waiting for a notification and disturbing our ability to maintain concentration.
For this it would be better to turn off or mute the phone and store it in a place out of sight, reserving the right to check it only during breaks …
Types of attention: divided attention
By divided attention we mean the ability to perform multiple tasks at the same time, in other words: to be multitasking ! It is an inherent capacity in our cognitive potential which, however, must not be abused. We could ask ourselves: how does this mechanism happen?
Do we quickly switch from one activity to another or do we really do two tasks simultaneously by literally dividing our attention between one and the other? Apparently there is no certain rule, it basically depends on the effort that what we are doing requires of us: if we are dedicating ourselves to several fairly simple activities our attention can easily be divided among them, but if the level of commitment required increases , the two tasks will soon conflict and we will be forced to make a choice: we will be able to effectively devote our attention to only one at a time (Khaneman, 1973).
A not insignificant corollary of this concept is the fact that even the sensory channel engaged in paying attention to something has its importance: we can easily rearrange a drawer while we are talking on the phone, but it will be rather difficult for us to make the same phone call while we are at station and we have to listen to the announcements of train arrivals …
We can more easily divide our attention into two tasks, not too demanding, which occupy two different sensory channels , otherwise these will conflict and we will not be able to do well either.
Types of attention: widespread attention
L ‘ widespread attention , or sustained, is involved when we have to pay attention to something for an extended period of time maintaining our high physiological activation system.
It is the example of those who have to drive for a large number of hours and risk falling prey to drowsiness and boredom seeing their vigilance threshold progressively lower . L
attention falls especially if we are grappling with a demanding task or with a monotonous performance (how driving the car actually is) and this would begin to happen already after the first 30 minutes (Mackworth, 1948).
One of the best ways to preserve one’s attention and vigilance skills in situations of this type is first of all to recognize their limitations .
Yes, because there is nothing more dangerous to safety than driving for a long distance, or late at night , without recognizing the potential vulnerability of one’s vigilance capacity in a situation of this kind.
Taking this into account instead helps to plan breaks (which break the monotony and allow you to rest your mind and body), implement strategies that help support vigilance from a physical or psychic point of view (chewing gum rather than listening to an audiobook, etc. ), prevent a drastic drop in attention by avoiding drinking alcohol or eating in an accessory way in the previous hours
