It would be completely impossible for a productive and purposeful flow of mental processes without focusing on a perceived object or phenomenon. A person can look at an object located near him and not notice or have a poor perception of it. Remember, when you are busy with your thoughts, deeply immersed in introspection, you don’t understand the essence of conversations that are carried out nearby, although the sounds of words reach your auditory analyzer.
There are times when a person may not feel pain if his attention is fixed on something else. The characteristics of attention in psychology occupy a significant area for research, because thanks to this cognitive process , the productive work of all others is ensured. What is the essence of this mental phenomenon?
Definition of a concept
Psychologists determine attention as a mental process characterized by the focus and concentration of human consciousness on any phenomenon, object or activity. What is meant by focus? This is the choice of an item among many other items. Concentration indicates the ability of a person not to be distracted from the chosen subject by others that are not related to it. This is attention.
Attention characteristics help a person to successfully navigate in the external environment and provide a more complete and clear reflection of it in mental reality. The subject on which human attention is directed occupies a central place in consciousness, and a person perceives everything else fuzzy and weakly. But the main characteristics of attention indicate that a person can switch, and different objects will occupy a central place in the consciousness.
Attention is a non-independent cognitive process, because we cannot observe it outside of other psychic phenomena. A person can listen, think, do, watch with attention or carelessly. In this regard, attention is only a property belonging to other cognitive processes.
Physiological background of the presented process
Attention is provided by the functioning of those centers of the nervous system that are involved in the cognitive processes that accompany attention. A specialized nerve center responsible for the implementation of this process is absent, but the appearance of visual, tactile and other sensations involves the activity of certain parts of the cerebral cortex.
Studying higher nervous activity, scientists found that nerve formations located in different parts of the brain cannot have the same level of excitement or inhibition. Cognitive processes occur in the cortex, and this is expressed in the activity of some areas of one or another intensity.
Optimal excitability according to I.P. Pavlov
The psychological characterization of attention was made by both psychologists and physiologists. I.P. Pavlov argued that if we could look through the human skull and areas with optimal excitability on the brain glowing, we would see how fast this luminous dot moves along the cerebral hemispheres, making different broken shapes.
Physiology under attention refers to the nervous activity of a certain part of the brain that currently has optimal excitability, while other areas have lower excitability.
A general characteristic of attention, according to IP Pavlov, is that in the places of optimal excitability new conditioned reflex connections are easily established and new differentiations are successfully formed. The clarity and distinctness of cognitive processes can be explained with the help of this particular feature.
The cortex in areas where optimal excitability is manifested becomes a creative place in the brain. These areas are constantly changing due to the movement of optimal excitability in connection with the received irritations of various nature in the process of activity. There is also a change and constant movement of areas with a low level of excitability.
Places of the cerebral cortex, which have high and low excitability, have a relationship in the form of the law of negative induction, characteristic of such a mental process as attention. The characteristics of attention are determined by the action of this physiological law, which says the following: the strong excitation of some parts of the cerebral cortex due to induction causes inhibition processes, the completion of the nervous process in general, therefore optimal excitability arises in some places, and inhibition in others.
The principle of dominance A. A. Ukhtomsky
In addition to the research of I.P. Pavlov, A. A. Ukhtomsky was also responsible for explaining the physiological mechanisms of attention . This scientist put forward the theory of the principle of dominance. According to this doctrine, at some point in the cerebral cortex, a certain area appears, characterized by a high level of excitability, which dominates other areas, inhibiting their activity. Also, excitability can be enhanced by going pulses of a different nature.
A rhythmic faint sound can cause an indicative reflex in a normal situation, but in the event of a dominance associated with reading a book, this sound will increase attention, or rather its concentration. But if the nervous excitement located in the dominant focus reaches its maximum value, then impulses of a different nature lead not to concentration, but to parabiotic inhibition.
Attention Properties and Characterization
This mental process has certain characteristics that have different expressions in different people. So, the main characteristics of attention are the following properties:
- Concentration or concentration. Human consciousness selects an object and directs attention to it.
- Sustainability. This characteristic helps a person to resist distractions, so that a person can focus on a specific object or action for a long time. The amount of attention is characterized by the number of elements that a person can perceive at the same time.
- Distribution. This property is responsible for the ability to observe several objects or perform several multidirectional actions at the same time.
- Switching is a psychological characteristic of attention, the essence of which is to move attention from one object to another, new.
- Distraction and attentiveness. In the first embodiment, the human consciousness is not directed at any object, but is scattered. And mindfulness, on the contrary.
Attributes of attention are all of the above properties. Now we will consider in more detail the last two features. So let's get started.
What is distraction?
Distraction is not a general characteristic of attention, but rather a specific one. Scientists distinguish two basic types of this property. The first arises as a product of the instability of the mental process. This characteristic of attention and memory is characteristic of children of primary school age, but can also occur in adults. The causes of this phenomenon may be weakness of the nervous system, high fatigue and lack of sleep. If a person does not have the habit of focusing his attention on work, then the first type of distraction can develop in this case.
The second type of the phenomenon of "distracted attention" has a different character. The characteristics of attention in this case are represented by a serious concentration on one or the other and unnoticed by other surrounding objects. Such distraction is characteristic of enthusiastic people - scientists, writers, fans of their craft.
Care Attribute
Two other characteristics of attention in psychology are attentiveness and inattention. In principle, we can say that these are two aspects of one property. From childhood, a child is taught to do everything carefully, and over time, attention becomes a constant feature of a person - mindfulness. Possessing such a feature, people present themselves in society only on the positive side. This trait is also accompanied by observation, the ability to better perceive the environment. An attentive person is distinguished by a quick reaction to events and a deeper experience, good learning abilities.
Mindfulness is related to the productive development of a process such as attention. Attention characteristics (namely, volume, concentration, stability, distribution) help to qualitatively develop the above property. Such a person has no problems with focusing or involuntary attention.
Psychologists say that interest plays a major role in work or school. It is much easier for an attentive person to mobilize his strength if there is no interest in the case. C. Darwin, I. Pavlov, L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov and M. Gorky were distinguished by the described property.
Attention and its types
Psychologists have developed several classifications of the types of this mental process. The most popular criterion is the activity of the individual in the process of organizing attention. According to this, 3 types of it are distinguished: involuntary, arbitrary and after-random.
Involuntary attention
The characteristic of involuntary attention is that it is an unfocused process of concentrating consciousness on a specific stimulus. This is the primary species that develops in ontogenesis during the period of preschool age. It proceeds without the participation of volitional regulation.
Involuntary attention is characterized by the absence of a struggle of motives, interests inherent in arbitrary, where a person can be torn by competing motives that have different directions and which can attract and hold the consciousness of the individual.
Arbitrary attention
The characteristic of voluntary attention shows that this is a conscious and regulated process of concentration of consciousness on an object that meets the requirements of activity. This species begins its development from primary school age, when the child begins to learn.
A person focuses not only on emotionally pleasing situations, but also on what is included in his duties and does not bring much pleasure. After 20 minutes, the nervous processes get tired - the person begins to be distracted. This fact should be taken into account in the process of training and work.
A person makes an informed choice in favor of this or that interest with the help of volitional efforts and directs all his attention to one object, and suppresses other impulses.
After-attention
This type of attention is considered the most productive, since a person continues to function voluntary attention, but volitional efforts are no longer necessary. This happens during a passion for work.
According to psychological characteristics, the presented kind of attention is similar to involuntary. But the main difference is that post-spontaneous attention is due to interest not in the subject itself, but in the orientation of the individual. Activity becomes a need, and its product is of great importance to the individual. The duration of such attention is not limited.
Other types of attention
In addition to the above, there are also the following types:
- Natural attention. A person selectively reacts to stimuli from the external and internal environment, which carry informational novelty. The basic mechanism in this case becomes an orientation reflex.
- Social attention is formed as a result of educational and training measures. There is volitional regulation and selective conscious response.
- Direct attention directly depends on the actual object.
- Indirect attention depends on specialized methods and means (gesture, word, index sign, etc.).
- Sensual attention has a connection with the emotional sphere and selective focus on the senses.
- Intellectual attention is associated with the mental activity of man.
Conclusion
In the presented article, such a mental phenomenon as attention was considered. It is not a separate cognitive process, but rather accompanies and serves the activity of memory, thinking, imagination and others.