attention

Examples of attention in the following topics:

• The Role of Attention in Memory

  • In order to encode information into memory, we must first pay attention, a process known as attentional capture.
  • In order for information to be encoded into memory, we must first pay attention to it.
  • When a person pays attention to a particular piece of information, this process is called attentional capture.
  • There are two main types of attentional capture: explicit and implicit.
  • Research suggests a close link between working memory and attentional capture, or the process of paying attention to particular information.

• Attention

  • There are two major models for understanding how visual attention operates.
  • Generally speaking, visual attention is thought to operate as a two-stage process.
  • Surrounding the focus is the fringe of attention, which extracts information in a much more crude fashion.
  • Attention requires working memory; therefore devoting attention to something increases cognitive load.
  • Each task increases cognitive load; attention must be divided among all of the component tasks to perform them.

• Selection

  • A simple example comes from a short-term drive, like hunger: the smell of cooking food will catch the attention of a person who hasn't eaten for several hours, while a person who is full might not attend to that detail.
  • Emotional drives can also influence the selective attention humans pay to stimuli.
  • Selective attention shows up across all ages.
  • Some examples of messages that catch people’s attention include personal names and taboo words.
  • A stimulus that is particularly intense, like a bright light or bright color, a loud sound, a strong odor, a spicy taste, or a painful contact, is most likely to catch your attention.

• Introduction to Sleep

  • decreased attention, slower reaction times, and the inability to remember new information.
  • Sleep deprivation negatively affects brain chemistry, growth, healing, attention, memory, and the ability to operate machinery, among other things.
  • The negative effects of sleep deprivation on alertness and cognitive performance suggest decreases in brain activity and function, primarily in the thalamus, a structure involved in alertness and attention, and in the prefrontal cortex, a region sub-serving alertness, attention, and higher-order cognitive processes.

• Developmental Psychology

  • Cognitive development involves learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity.
  • Lawrence Kohlberg turned his attention to moral development: he said that we pass through three levels of moral thinking that build on our cognitive development.

• History of Cognition

  • Cognition is the set of all mental abilities and processes related to knowledge, including attention, memory, judgment, reasoning, problem solving, decision making, and a host of other vital processes.
  • The term "cognition" covers a wide swath of processes, everything from memory to attention.

• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

  • The first official recognition of the disorder was "attention deficit disorder with and without hyperactivity," in the DSM-III (published in 1980).
  • Revisions to the DSM eventually renamed the disorder as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
  • Often people refer to ADHD-PI as "attention deficit disorder" (ADD); however, the latter has not been officially accepted since the 1994 revision of the DSM.
  • Many children with ADHD are unable to pay attention at school, leading to poor academic performance and sometimes isolation from peers.

• Biology of Emotion

  • The amygdala, located in the left and right temporal lobes of the brain, has received a great deal of attention from researchers investigating the biological basis of emotions, particularly of fear and anxiety (Blackford & Pine, 2012; Goosens & Maren, 2002; Maren, Phan, & Liberzon, 2013).
  • The central nucleus plays a role in attention.
  • The RAS is involved with arousal and attention, sleep and wakefulness, and the control of reflexes.
  • The reticular activating system is involved in arousal and attention, sleep and wakefulness, and the control of reflexes.

• Factitious Disorders

  • In factitious disorder imposed on the self, the affected person exaggerates or creates symptoms of illnesses in themselves to gain examination, treatment, attention, sympathy, and/or comfort from medical personnel.
  • Münchausen syndrome is related to Münchausen syndrome by proxy, now known as "factitious disorder imposed on another"; this refers to the abuse of another person, typically a child, in order to seek attention or sympathy for the abuser.
  • Individuals with factitious disorder might be motivated either as a patient or by proxy as a caregiver to obtain attention, nurturance, sympathy, and leniency that often accompany the "sick role" and that are seen as not obtainable any other way.

• Cognitive Development in Adolescence

  • Improvements are seen in selective attention (the process by which one focuses on one stimulus while tuning out another), as well as divided attention (the ability to pay attention to two or more stimuli at the same time).