ATTENDING THE

WORLD
Unit-2
By: Dr. Khusboo
FLUCTUATION
 According to Guildford, “ attention is the process of focusing on one or few
objects, persons or situations from among many from the field of awareness.
 The pendulum of attention continues to swing like a clock’s pendulum. We cannot
focus on a single stimulus for an extended amount of time. For a brief moment, or
attention switches to another stimulus before returning to the original stimulus.
This is referred to as attention fluctuation. Factors such as exhaustion, boredom,
the attractiveness of another stimulus, and so on can cause attention to fluctuate.
 Doe example, when you pay attention to what your teacher is teaching, your
attention might temporarily shifts to a friend sitting beside you or to a peon
standing in the corridor and again you pay attention to what your teacher is
teaching.
 We can fix our attention to a particular thing or object. For
example: when we like the subject we tend to pay attention more
than the other subjects while studying.
 While paying attention to an object, event or person, it is
impossible to fix it on that object, with the same intensity for a long
duration. The nature of attention is such that it is continuous but
always changing in both direction and degree. Attention is also
thought of as ‘waxing and waning’ that is rising and falling like a
wave. In the course of time, the centre of our consciousness shifts
from:
 One stimulus to another
 One part of the same stimulus to another part
 Paying attention, to not paying attention, and
 Paying least or less attention; randomly.
HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?
 How does this happen? Our consciousness at a particular moment, may be
divided into two parts namely central consciousness and peripheral
(surrounding) consciousness.
 When our consciousness is focused on television, it is in our central
consciousness and the other objects and activities in the same room remain in
our peripheral consciousness.
 We are partly conscious or aware of the things which are in our peripheral
consciousness. Both fields of consciousness are interchangeable. An object of
attention at a given moment may shift to peripheral consciousness and vice-
versa. Hence, the process of changing our focus of attention is quite flexible
and dynamic.
EXPERIMENTAL RECORDING
OF FLUCTUATION
 The phenomenon of fluctuation of attention was experimentally recorded for the first
time by the psychologist Urbantschitsch in 1875. While testing the auditory sensation
he observed that the subject was not able to continuously hear the sound of an alarm
clock placed at a distance. At times he was able to hear the ticking of the clock, but at
other times the sound disappeared from his attention.
 Fluctuation of visual attention can be experimentally measured with the help of a
device called Masson’s disc. Masson’s Disc is a circular cardboard with 5 ink-circles
put in a line along one radius. When the disc is rotated on an electric spindle, each dot
appears to be a circle. The subject is asked to concentrate on any one circle, and to
report when it is clearly seen, and when it blurs/disappears. It is observed that the rate
of fluctuation of visual attention is 8-10 seconds on an average.
ATTENTIONAL SHIFT
 Moving the focus of attention from one location to other or from one object to another
is known as shifting of attention. It is alternating an individual's attention back and
forth between two distinct tasks that need the use of different brain parts. Individuals
always need sudden changes in their activities which need to shift their attention. In
some cases, attention shifts can be made intentionally or caused automatically by the
sudden arrival of a stimulus.
 Shifting attention is necessary as it permits an individual to redirect attention to
aspects of the environment they want to concentrate on and process in due course.
According to some research, processing operates more effectively when an object or
an area is attended to.
 One example of shifting attention is reading a recipe and then trying out the recipe.
PROCESSES OF ATTENTIONAL
SHIFT
 Shifting of attention involves three parts: attention must be
disengaged, shifted to a new location, and re-engaged.
 Attention shifting is almost similar to shifting gears in a
car with a manual transfer. Steeping on the clutch pedal
responds to the disengaging of attention, and moving the
shift knob to transfer attention to a new location and
releasing the clutch is re-engaging.
 A jerk itself responds to the shift of attention, and re-
establishing fixation happens at the end of the jerk.
THE SPOTLIGHT AND
GRADIENT THEORIES
 In attention research, one prominent theory attempting to explain how visual attention is
shifted is the moving-spotlight theory. The primary idea being that attention is like a movable
spotlight that is directed towards intended targets, focusing on each target in a serial manner.
When information is illuminated by the spotlight, hence attended, processing proceeds in a
more efficient manner, directing attention to a particular point and inhibiting input from any
stimuli outside of the spotlight. However, when a shift of spatial attention occurs, the spotlight
is, in effect, turned off while attention shifts to the next attended location.
 Attention, however, has also been proposed to adhere to a gradient theory in which attentional
resources are given to a region in space rather than a spotlight, so that attentional resources are
most concentrated at the center of attentional focus and then decrease the further a stimuli is
from the center. Attention in this theory reflects both current and previous attentional
allocation, so that attention can build up and decay across more than one attentional fixation
over time. This means that time to detect a target may be dependent upon where attention was
directed before the target was presented and attention needed to be shifted.
AN EXAMPLE

Focus you attention on just the colour of the symbols.

Now look at the second pair of symbols noticing their shapes.
Observe how your attention shifted from one point of focus to another
without noticing that both sides have exactly same symbols.
SUSTAINED ATTENTION
 Sustained attention is the ability to focus on an activity or stimulus over a long
period of time. It is what makes it possible to concentrate on an activity for as
long as it takes to finish, even if there are other distracting stimuli present.
 Sustained attention is usually divided into vigilance (detecting the appearance
of a stimulus) and concentration (focusing on the stimulus or activity). This
important cognitive skill helps us efficiently and successfully carry out tasks
and activities in our daily lives, especially those that take a long time to
complete.
EXAMPLES
• Air traffic controllers are notorious for their necessary sustained attention skills, as their job is
to pay close attention to monotonous activities for long periods of time. If an air traffic
controller has poor sustained attention, there is a potential for life-threatening consequences.
However, most jobs require at least the most basic sustained attention, any many require it to
be highly developed.
• Students at school have to pay attention when they're in class and when they're studying at
home. Poor sustained attention could result in poor academic performance.
• Driving for any amount of time requires sustained attention, as you have to constantly keep
your eye on the road and watch for potential accidents. Fatigue or distractions on the road
could have fatal consequences, which is one of the reasons why this skill is important for
driving.
• Many of the tasks that we come across in our daily lives require some level of sustained
attention, whether it be watching a movie, making food, or taking a shower. In fact, you're
using your sustained attention now as you read this text.
DIVIDED ATTENTION
 In cognitive psychology, divided attention refers to situations where a person is
attempting to engage in two or more tasks simultaneously.
 While ‘divided attention’ might have a neutral or even negative connotation, the term
‘multitasking’ refers to the same phenomenon with a more positive spin.
 We use divided attention when we drive and talk, study with background noise, cook
multiple dishes, listen to a lecture and take notes, watch TV and text, mind our
children while washing the dishes, and so much more.
 Recent psychological research (e.g. Wickens, McCarley and Gutzwiller, 2022)
demonstrates that the human brain to rarely actually divide attention (focus on two
tasks or concepts simultaneously), but rather we tend to flick attention between each
task (aka alternating attention). Flicking between foci has a draining effect, leading to
cognitive overload, exhaustion, and shallow processing.