CHARACTERISTICS

• Attention is always changing.

• Attention is always an active center of our experience.

• It is selective.

• Attention is continuous.

• Attention increases the clarity of the object.

• It is indivisible.

• The limitation of attention somewhat depends upon relation between the things.

MENTAL ACTIVITY:
The process of focussing attention on any object or aim is performed
by the mind, but the activity of the mind requires that the aim of
concentrating upon the object or the goal should be clear

SELECTIVENSS OF ATTENTION;
Our attention does not focus upon a number of objects
simultaneously; instead, at any one moment our attention focusses
upon one specific object. This explains why, from among a class of 30
or 40 students, the teacher’s attention often directs itself primarily
towards the naughty or the extremely dull students.

SHIFTING NATURE:
It is the nature of attention that it is unstable or shifting. The
individual focusses his attention upon one particular object only with
effort, and even then he manages to keep it fixed upon that object for
hardly three or four seconds. However, there are notable exceptions to
this, specially observable among students preparing for examination
or devotees singing religious songs these being situations in which
persons concentrate their attention for many hours continuously.

4. Narrow Span:
The span of attention, at the moment of its initiation, is quite limited.
As soon as the task is completed or when a particular series is
completed, attention automatically changes to some other object.
Adults can usually concentrate attention upon number of things
 CHARACTERISTICS

simultaneously, whereas children focus their attention upon single

objects.

MOBILITY:
The turning of attention from one object or activity to another is called
its mobility.
8. Motor Adjustment:
Whatever the object on which our attention is focussed, our sense
organs and motor organs adapt themselves to take part in the activity
required. As soon as the students seat themselves in the class, their
ears, eyes, necks and their bodily positions adapt themselves with
reference to the teacher. As N.L. Munn has put, “The act of attending
is characterised by reporter adjustment, postural adjustment, muscle
tension and central neural adjustment.”
9. Purposiveness:
It is a universal truth that we focus our attention only upon those
objects which satisfy our needs or serve our interests, and that, for the
achievement of our goals, we become completely attentive. During
examinations, students focus their entire attention on their studies
because their interest lies in passing the examination.