Introduction

The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that the psychology of attention is one of the classical areas of psychology. It was studied by N. N. Lange, P. Ya. Galperin, N. F. Dobrynin and many others. Its arsenal has accumulated a large number of methods that allow you to explore and diagnose different aspects of attention, a lot of general recommendations and specific techniques for the active development of the attention of children of different ages and adults. attention physiological concentration

A certain difficulty that confronts a person who wants to understand the psychology of attention is that, on the one hand, the answer to the question of what attention, attentiveness and inattention is, at a practical, everyday level, is known not only by any adult, but almost every child. On the other hand, attention is a very complex section of psychological knowledge, which has recently attracted more and more interest from psychologists and gives rise to complex and ambiguous theories of explanation.

The problem of attention is often considered only in connection with other mental functions: memory, thinking, imagination, perception. Indeed, manifestations of attention cannot be seen separately from them, in their pure form. Therefore, in many psychology textbooks, attention is treated as a kind of secondary, auxiliary mental function. Without attention as the ability to actively focus on one thing, the main thing, discarding everything random, unnecessary at the moment, life is impossible.

The concept of attention in psychology

Attention is the focus and concentration of our consciousness on a particular object. Anything can be the object of attention - objects and their properties, phenomena, relationships, actions, thoughts, feelings of other people and one's own inner world.

Attention is not an independent mental function; it cannot be observed by itself. This is a special form of human mental activity, and it is included as a necessary component in all types of mental processes. Attention is always a characteristic of some mental process: perception, when we listen, examine, sniff, trying to distinguish any visual or sound image, smell; thinking when we solve some problem; memory, when we remember something specific or try to remember; imagination, when we try to visualize something clearly. Thus, attention is the ability of a person to choose what is important for himself and focus his perception, thinking, recollection, imagination, etc. on it.

Attention is a necessary condition for the quality performance of any activity. It performs the function of control and is especially necessary in learning, when a person is faced with new knowledge, objects, phenomena.

Both the schoolboy and the student, no matter how talented or capable they may be, will always have gaps in knowledge if their attention is not sufficiently developed and they are often inattentive or distracted in class. Attention largely determines the course and results of educational work.

The physiological basis of attention is orienting-exploratory reflexes, which are caused by new stimuli or unexpected changes in the situation. I. P. Pavlov called them “what is it?” reflexes. He wrote: “Every minute every new stimulus that falls on us causes a corresponding movement on our part in order to better, more fully inquire about this stimulus.

Types of attention

Attention can be involuntary (unintentional) or voluntary (intentional). The term "arbitrary" is formed not from the word "arbitrariness", but from the word "volition", meaning will, desire. Involuntary attention does not depend on our desire, nor on our will or intentions. It happens, arises as if by itself, without any effort on our part.

What can attract involuntary attention? There are a lot of such objects and phenomena, they can be divided into two groups.

Firstly, this is everything that attracts attention with its external properties:

Bright light phenomena (lightning, colorful advertising, lights suddenly turned on or off);

Unexpected taste sensations (bitterness, acidity, unfamiliar taste);

Something new (a friend's dress, a passing car of an unknown brand, a changed expression on the face of a person who was just talking to, etc.);

Objects and phenomena that cause surprise, admiration, delight in a person (paintings by artists, music, various manifestations of nature: sunset or sunrise, picturesque river banks, gentle calm or a formidable storm at sea, etc.), while many aspects of reality seem to fall out of his sight.

Secondly, everything that is interesting and important for this person. For example, we are watching an interesting movie or TV show, and all our attention is directed to the screen. An ordinary person will not pay attention to any traces in the forest, but the attention of a hunter, a ranger will be literally absorbed by these traces, and the attention of a mushroom picker will be directed to mushrooms.

A book on dog breeding will arouse the involuntary attention of a cynologist (a person who professionally breeds dogs), but the same book will be uninteresting and will not attract the attention of a person who is indifferent to dogs.

Most often, what is interesting for a person is what is connected with his main, favorite activities in life, with the business that is important to him.

Involuntary attention can also be caused by the internal state of the body. A person experiencing a feeling of hunger cannot but pay attention to the smell of food, the sound of dishes, the sight of a plate of food.

When it comes to involuntary attention, we can say that we do not pay attention to certain objects, but they themselves capture our attention. But sometimes, and very often, you have to make an effort on yourself - to break away from an interesting book or other activity and start doing something else, intentionally switch your attention to another object. Here we are already dealing with arbitrary (intentional) attention, when a person sets a goal for himself and makes efforts to achieve it. In other words, a person has certain intentions, and he tries (himself, of his own free will) to carry them out. Conscious goal, intention is always expressed in words.

The ability to arbitrarily direct and maintain attention developed in a person in the process of labor, since without this it is impossible to carry out a long and systematic labor activity.

The implementation of educational activities places high demands on the level of development of voluntary attention. A number of conditions for organizing educational activities contribute to the development and strengthening of the voluntary attention of schoolchildren:

Awareness by the student of the significance of the task: the more important the task, the stronger the desire to complete it, the more attention is attracted;

Interest in the final result of the activity makes you remind yourself that you need to be careful;

Raising questions in the course of performing activities, the answers to which require attention;

Verbal report of what has been done and what still needs to be done;

Certain organization of activities.

Voluntary attention sometimes turns into so-called post-voluntary attention. One of the conditions for such a transition is an interest in a particular activity. As long as the activity is not very interesting, volitional efforts are required from a person to focus on it. For example, in order for a person to solve a mathematical problem, he must constantly keep his attention on it. However, sometimes the solution of a problem becomes so interesting for a person that the tension is weakened, and sometimes disappears completely, all attention itself is focused on this activity, and he is no longer distracted by the conversations of other people, the sounds of music, etc. Then we can say that attention from voluntary it turned again into involuntary, or post-voluntary (post-voluntary).

The topic “Properties of attention” from the section “Psychology of human cognition of the surrounding world”, 6 hours are provided for studying attention according to the program - this is the second lesson on the topic. The main stage is the study of new material, using the conversation method based on the life experience of students).

1. To acquaint students with all the properties of attention, based on the acquired knowledge of this cognitive process. Learn to determine the switching and distribution of attention.

2. Develop thinking, attention.

3. Cultivate a desire to know yourself and the world around you.

EQUIPMENT: cards with the properties of attention, stimulus material for determining the switching and distribution of attention.

STUDY PROCESS

Good afternoon! Today we will talk about a familiar cognitive process - attention. We talked about the types of attention, but the qualitative content of the process of attention is determined by its properties. It is about the properties and will be discussed.

The main properties of attention are: VOLUME, OSCILLATION, SWITCHING, CONCENTRATION, STABILITY, DISTRIBUTION.

We characterize the content of each property.

-VOLUME attention - is determined by the number of objects that are grasped by the human consciousness in a short period of time (0.1 - 0.01 sec.). the study of attention span is usually carried out by presenting several objects for a short period of time. For this purpose, as a rule, they use a device called a takhitoscope (from the Greek takhito - fast, skoneo - I look). What is a person's attention span? The scientist Muller determined that it is equal to 7 + 2 disparate, unsystematized objects or objects.

If objects are presented, for example, like this 1111111 111111111111, then the person embraces 7+2 sticks with his consciousness. If this row is grouped as follows, then consciousness covers groups 7 + 2

111 111 111 111 111 111 111

Therefore, the amount of attention strongly depends on the structure and location of perceived objects. On the other hand, the amount of attention of a person depends on his individual abilities and, also, on the specifics of the activity that a person performs. For example, the attention span of a driver will be greater than that of a watchmaker, since their activities are different and their performance requires a different amount of attention.

What can change the amount of attention?

The amount of attention can change depending on the requirement of the activity that the person is performing.

-STABILITY attention is determined by the strength and stability of keeping consciousness on objects for a long time. Therefore, this is a temporal characteristic of attention. Sustainability of attention develops in a person throughout life and especially develops in those people who perform activities where this property is required.

Example - drivers, operators, etc.

-CONCENTRATION attention is determined by the degree of concentration of consciousness on an object or object and distraction from side stimuli. We can say that this is a characteristic of the noise immunity of the human psyche. Many types of activities that a person performs require a strong concentration of attention from him, require that a person be able to distract himself from everything and perform only one operation, action, etc. For example, a watchmaker will not be able to work well if he does not have this property of attention. Concentration of attention can be formed by practicing this.

- DISTRIBUTION attention is determined by the ability of a person to distribute his consciousness to several objects at the same time. This property is the opposite of the property of concentration.

Imagine a lesson taught by a teacher who has a pronounced property of concentration of attention and no manifestation of the property of distribution of attention!

What will happen?

Imagine a driver who cannot pay attention to situations on the road, devices, etc. This property develops in a person throughout life.

-SWITCHING attention is determined by the time that a person spends on a conscious transfer of attention from one object to another. For example, you wrote in a notebook. And then you need to listen to the teacher's story.

What needs to be done?

Transfer consciousness from a notebook, letters in it, to a story.

How much time is spent on such a transfer of consciousness?

Firstly, it depends on the individual characteristics of a person, and to a greater extent, on his temperament. For example, a sanguine person will switch very quickly, and a phlegmatic person will switch slowly.

Have you met with such a situation? Give examples.

Mom is a very fast person, i.e. - choleric. She asks her daughter to do something, and her daughter is phlegmatic. She very slowly gets up, walks and starts to do, as a result - a conflict.

It is based on the difference in switching attention.

Secondly, switching attention depends on the age of the person. Young children can switch from one activity to another in 10 seconds or more.

Attention switching time, no doubt, decreases in a person throughout life, but it must be understood that it will be different due to the difference in people's temperaments.

-SHAKE attention differs in its content from switching in that it is caused by an unconscious transfer of attention from one object to another. Let's explain this with a simple example. You are offered a drawing of a truncated quadrangular pyramid. Focus your attention on the center of the pyramid.

What do you notice? At one time, a truncated pyramid will be in the field of view, then a “corridor” will appear in the field of view. If you look at the drawing for a long time, you will notice the sequence of changing objects in the field of consciousness.

What mechanism underlies the fluctuation of attention? The fluctuation of attention is determined by physiological mechanisms, i.e. features of the work of nerve cells in the brain. Scientists have proven that brain cells work alternately - some of the cells work, some are in an inhibited state. Therefore, depending on the change in the work of cells in the visual center of the cerebral cortex, the background and subject of the perceived object will change, i.e. or pyramid, or "corridor".

On the other hand, the time of attention fluctuation will differ in different people, due to the peculiarities of the work of the nervous system. For some people, the change of background and subject of perception will occur quickly, for others - slowly. A person cannot change this property, since it is determined by the strength and mobility of the processes of excitation and inhibition in nerve cells.

Let's repeat all the properties of attention.

Theoretically, we got acquainted with all the properties of attention, and now we will carry out practical work on switching and distribution of attention, we will play a game on the concentration of auditory attention.

CONFIGURATION OF THE STUDYED MATERIAL

PRACTICAL WORK

Subject: Changing attention shift times

Equipment: Tables for the study of switching attention, stopwatches.

Progress of work: Students must be divided into pairs, where one is the subject, the other is the experimenter.

Instruction to the subject: You need to complete three tasks:

1. show on the table with a pen Arabic numerals in ascending order from 1 to 25;
2. show Roman numerals in descending order from XXIV to I;
3. show alternately Arabic numerals in ascending order and Roman numerals in descending order.

For example: 1, XXIV 2, XXIII 3, XXII 4, etc. the experimenter notes the time of each display and monitors the correctness of its implementation. The data is entered into the protocol.

Table for the study of attention switching time

PROTOCOL

Results processing:

t1 is the time spent by the subject on naming and showing 1 row;

t2 - display time and naming of 2 rows;

t3 – display time and title of 1st and 2nd rows at the same time;

t switching - the time spent on one switching

t lane \u003d t3 - (t1 + t2) 24

CONCLUSIONS: Compare and analyze the switching time obtained from all members of the group.

TOPIC: The study of the distribution of attention.

Equipment: sheet of paper, pen, table.

Instruction: Here is a table with numbers from 1 to 40. But in total, 25 numbers are shown on the table, and 15 numbers are missing. On the control sheet, we have written a series of numbers from 1 to 40. In 2 minutes, try to cross out in the control sheet those numbers that are missing in the table. (corrections are not allowed).

Definition of attention

Definition

The ability of a person to concentrate his "cognitive processes" on one object in order to study (cognition).

Attention is the concentration and focus of mental activity on a specific object. Distinguish between involuntary (passive) and voluntary (active) attention, when the choice of the object of attention is made consciously, intentionally. Characteristics of attention: stability, volume (the number of objects that can be perceived and captured by a person in a relatively short time), distribution (the ability to simultaneously hold objects of various activities in the field of consciousness), the ability to switch.

Process essence

Attention is one of those cognitive processes, regarding the essence and the right to independent consideration of which there is still no agreement among psychologists. Some scientists argue that attention does not exist as a special, independent process, that it acts only as a side or moment of any other mental process or human activity. Others believe that attention is a completely independent mental state of a person, a specific internal process that has its own characteristics.

Attention can be defined as a psychophysiological process, a state that characterizes the dynamic features of cognitive activity. This is the process of consciously or unconsciously selecting one information coming through the senses and ignoring the other.

Classification

Human attention has five main properties:

Stability (the ability to maintain a state of attention on any object for a long time),

Concentration (the ability to focus one's attention on one object while distracting from others),

Switchability (transfer from one object to another, from one type of activity to another),

Distribution (the ability to spread attention over a large area while performing several activities in parallel),

Volume (the amount of information that a person is able to keep in the area of ​​increased attention).

Process Development

Attention, like all other mental processes, has lower and higher forms. The former are represented by involuntary attention, while the latter are arbitrary.

A person's attention is formed from birth, and in the process of its formation, an interconnected development of memory, speech, etc. takes place.

Stages of development

1. The first two weeks of life - the manifestation of the orienting reflex as an objective, innate sign of the child's involuntary attention.

2. The end of the first year of life - the emergence of tentative research activity as a means of the future development of voluntary attention.

3. The beginning of the second year of life - the beginnings of voluntary attention under the influence of adult speech instructions.

4. The second - third year of life - the development of voluntary attention.

5. Four and a half - five years - directing attention to the complex instructions of an adult.

6. Five - six years - the emergence of an elementary form of voluntary attention under the influence of self-instructions.

7. School age - the development and improvement of voluntary attention.

Definition, types, functions of attention. Attention in the classical psychology of consciousness and its modern understanding. Basic properties and their experimental studies. Attention disorders.

Response plan

Definition of attention.

types of attention.

attention functions.

Properties and experiments.

Attention disorders.

Answer:

Definition of attention.

Attention is the focus of the psyche, consciousness on a specific object that has a stable or situational significance for the individual. It involves an increase in the functioning of sensory, memory, and intelligence. Attention can be directed to the processes occurring within us and to the objects of the world around us. Attention provides a positive delay in activity on a particular subject. The setting determines the choice of certain impressions, events, the concentration of psychic energy on them. Thus, attention is a specific human mental activity that serves to transform certain attitudes of impulsive behavior. Attention is a cross-cutting mental process, since it never appears separately, but only together with any activity, as its side or characteristic. Attention has no special content, it is within all processes. The essence of attention lies in the direction, which determines the selection of information, which implies an arbitrary and involuntary choice of objects and a longer processing that remains in the mind. The essence also lies in the concentration of the subject on the object.

types of attention.

There are (Dobrynin) three types of attention:

1 - involuntary attention as an inadvertently arising orienting reaction;

2- arbitrary attention associated with purposeful volitional efforts; And

3 - post-voluntary attention, when, as a result of a shift in motive to a goal, the performance of an action is carried out without significant volitional efforts.

In the involuntary allocate:

forced - determined by the species experience of the subject and due to external environmental factors;

involuntary - depends on individual experience, manifests itself in moments of rest, can be long and stable with strong interest, attracts its objects that are closest, more significant and more conspicuous;

habitual - due to the subject's attitudes and intention to perform a particular activity, attention to the activity algorithm (driver - signs).

In an arbitrary:

volitional - manifests itself in conditions of interference, when there is a conflict between want and need;

expectant - manifests itself in all vigilance tasks;

actually arbitrary - conscious attention, but flowing quite easily, with a minimum of effort;

spontaneous - the highest form of development of attention, similar to post-voluntary, this is when it is difficult for us to start something, but having started, there is no need to make efforts.

attention functions.

(a) selectivity of activity - selection of material

(b) focus of activities

(c) activity activity

(d) improving the quality of any activity

(e) selection and retention of significant impacts

(f) regulation and control of activity - we direct energy (integration, embedding, expansion and deepening of knowledge)

Attention in the psychology of consciousness and modern understanding.

1. Attention and psychology of consciousness.

Since attention was a fundamental property of consciousness, the central subject in this school, much research has been devoted to attention.

In the psychology of consciousness, there were three metaphors of consciousness and three metaphors of attention associated with it:

1. Structural metaphor of Wundt's consciousness:

Wundt "Consciousness and Attention".

Attention is a process that occurs with a clearer perception of the limited in comparison with the entire field of the contents of consciousness.

“Attention is defined as a state of consciousness, the degree of consciousness that provides an improvement in the efficiency of activity. A state of interest (affective experience) is associated with attention, as well as a certain complex of skin and kinesthetic sensations that can be represented as an empirical reality for the colloquial term attention. In consciousness, all its contents are restructured according to the principle of clarity and finding contents in focus or on the periphery.In this sense, attention becomes identical to sensory clarity.The distribution of contents into clear or dark is the only and characteristic sign of attention as a mental process (the presence in consciousness of feelings or kinesthetic sensations However, the clarity of the presentation depends more on one's own concentration of consciousness on something and the possibility of its arbitrary switching than on the nature of the presentation itself.

James. flow metaphor. Consciousness is a stream, one of the most important properties of the stream is selectivity - attention is the selectivity of the stream of consciousness. The main function is selection, selection.

Titchener. Wave metaphor. Consciousness is a river, on the way of the flow of consciousness there may be an obstacle. Attention is a wave, the effects of the wave characterize it:

Criteria for attention from the inside:

1. clarity of conscious ideas. On the crest of a wave, all sensory experiences are clear.

2. distinctness. (all sensory experiences are separated from each other)

3. self-holding. Fixation of consciousness on some impressions.

Criteria describing attention from the outside:

1. Productivity

2. bodily accompaniment of activity.

7. Theories of attention in cognitive psychology. This is a modern approach. Focus selectivity and attention span.

Approaches of cognitive psychology to the study of the mechanisms of attention.

There are three classes of theories to be distinguished here:

1. Attention as a selection.

This approach was focused on the study of the mechanisms of selection, the choice of one or another object, mainly on the material of perceptual material. These studies began with a consideration of the phenomenon of a cocktail party - a situation where the subject makes an arbitrary or involuntary perceptual choice. This led to the creation of Cherry's technique of selective listening (repetition): the situation of choosing one and ignoring other simultaneously presented messages. Repetition consisted in the task of instantaneously reproducing a relevant (task-defined) message, detuning from irrelevant channels. This made it possible to create several models of selective attention, the first of which (the early selection model) was created by Broadbent in his work "Perception and Communication". The functioning of attention was compared with the work of an electromechanical device - a filter that selects information based on sensory features and works on the principle of "all or nothing". He proceeded from the following: a processing, perceptual system is a channel with limited bandwidth (perception of a limited amount of information per unit of time). A limited ability is determined by the presence of a certain block, a mechanism in front of this channel, called a filter, working according to certain patterns of the task, its settings. Information enters from the outside into the sensory register, then into the CP (here the information enters and is stored completely and processed in parallel), after the filter, part of the information remains, since the filter is connected to the long-term memory system (repository of conditional probabilities of past events), which determines what needs to be extracted from this information flow (for example, an instruction that adjusts a filter to a certain aspect of information). Thus, attention is a filter in the information processing system, making it possible to perceive in a system with limited bandwidth, tuned to certain aspects of stimulation (physical signs: left-right, louder-quieter, male-female). However, the problem arises precisely of the physical signs of customization (the proper name at the "cocktail party" is recognized immediately, although the filter is not configured). And here comes the idea of ​​tuning the filter to semantic features and the controversy about where the filter is located - either before the perceptual processing system, or right before the answer. Norman and Deutsch's theory: attention is not a filter and the entire perceptual system works in parallel, and attention is tuning response level. There are central detectors in memory, the activation of which serves with the mechanism of perception. These structures are under the influence of two streams of information - peripheral and central, the latter stream is determined by the integral characteristic of the significance of a given message or object (pertinense) - the model of relevance). A. Treisman took an intermediate position: there is also a filter tuned to physical features and to more complexly organized aspects of information (phonetic, grammatical, semantic) and, depending on the importance of the signal, processing is possible even from a non-relevant channel. This is a "tree" model - there are several levels of filtering depending on the complexity of the task, meaning, expectations - at any level, information that was previously delayed could be missed. Thus, selective theories of attention are models in which the mechanism of screening out one information and skipping another plays an important role. The problem was in the place of the filter or in the level organization of the filter. (Experiments to set up what is hell!).

2. Attention as mental effort or resources.

Theories aimed at studying the power characteristics of D. Kahneman's attention * answered the question of what determines the policy of distributing the degree of attention, energy to different objects. A few points of this approach:

Attention is the expenditure of mental strength on something, and the act of attention is correlated with mental effort (activation), which is determined not so much by the desires and conscious intentions of the subject, but by the objective complexity of the task. The equivalent of expended mental energy in physiology is activation. (An illustration of this thesis is possible on the example of the York-Dodson law: where the activation is high, there the efficiency of activity or the expenditure of attention is the strongest. Where the activation is low, then there is little mental energy, for example, during light, automated work. At the maximum activation, the solution is destroyed difficult task.

The laws of distribution of psychic energy resources make it possible to build a model: the policy of distribution of attention resources allows one to select and implement specific forms of response activity. Resources (or activation) are limited at any given moment depending on the state of the subject (sleep, arousal, hyperarousal, etc.). The main factor in the distribution of resources for a person is the block for assessing the requirements of the task for attention resources (). This is a control block that determines complexity, necessity, etc. tasks. Here there is another block "permanent rules" that works according to the laws of involuntary attention and can intervene at the moment of solving a problem and take into account changes in the situation and redistribute energy between tasks. Also, the distribution of energy is influenced by the block of intentions acting at the moment, working on the principle of arbitrary actions. The policy is also affected by the overall activation state. If it falls below a certain value, tasks cannot be completed. Activation in general is influenced by all sorts of factors (arousal) - Determinants of activation. Activation itself can manifest itself not only in productive problem solving during the distribution of attention, but also in the manifestation of physiological indicators of activation (evoked potentials, alpha waves, changes in pupil diameter (the most important indicator that directly correlates with attention processes)).

The question of the possibility of distributing attention to several tasks (which in the Broadbent model cannot be distributed, but can only be quickly switched) is solved by Kahneman by introducing a hypothetical ratio of the efforts expended and required for the task (Here we need a graph of the relationship between the actual efforts expended and the objective complexity of the task, including the concepts of resource limits and delta resources) Thus, it is possible to distribute attention if there are sufficient resources to solve them. To check this, an experimental study of the situation of two tasks was carried out: the primary task (which is motivated: for a successful solution for a long time, $ 10-15 was added for every hour with a successful solution of the main task). The task consisted of easy * (requiring little resources) and difficult (pumping them out). (Graph of results). The percentage of errors was plotted along the y-axis. The second task is to observe various objects on the screen with instructions for an immediate response to the appearance of the letter D. On the OX axis, the effectiveness of solving both problems. In solving the main problem - a small percentage of errors, on the second a sharp increase in the number of errors in the transition from perception to counting. Conclusions: a sharp increase in the number of errors during the transition to the difficult part of the main task indicates that all the attention of the subject has switched to the main task and there are no resources left for the additional task. (# Break in record).

In the Romanov laboratory, both of these positions are considered simultaneously.

All these stimuli have a specific effect on the nervous system: the intensity of excitation, the special sensitivity of the NS, the summation of excitations, the sequence of excitations without fatigue and adaptation, the coincidence of excitations.

The current state of the study of attention in cognitive psychology is similar in scope to that of the psychology of consciousness.

3. Attention as a perceptual action (Neisser).

Properties and experiments.

Static characteristics of attention: volume, stability, concentration. Dynamic characteristics: selectivity, intensity, distribution, switching, oscillation.

Volume - to determine the volume, they used a tachistoscope (studied by Wundt, for example). The number of homogeneous objects that simultaneously fall into the zone of clear and distinct perception. The number of objects in the field of our attention is mobile and depends on the connection content.

Sustainability - is determined by the duration during which the concentration of attention is maintained. The duration depends on the possibility of revealing new aspects and connections in the subject.

Concentration is concentration. Concentration means that there is a focus in which mental and conscious activity is collected. The concentration is determined by the increase in signal intensity when the field of perception is limited. Includes the unity of intensity and narrowness of the scope of attention.

Selectivity - a characteristic of attention, associated with the peculiarity of the functioning of the dominant focus. It speaks of the ability of our attention to single out from the surrounding sensory "noise" only essential (relevant) information for us in a given situation, the ability to weed out irrelevant information.

Intensity - characterized by a high degree of concentration of consciousness on a particular object or side of activity. Energy characteristic.

Distribution - the ability to keep in the field of attention to manage, as it were, several actions at once, keeping them in the field of attention. Distribution is done by fast transfer. It depends on how connected various objects are with each other and how automated the actions between which attention should be distributed.

Switching - conscious and meaningful movement of attention at one speed or another from one object to another. The transfer is always realized by an effort of will.

fluctuations - subject to primary involuntary fluctuations. First of all, fluctuations in sensory clarity.

Properties and experimental studies

1. Concentration (concentration) - the selection by the consciousness of an object and the direction of attention to it.

2. Stability - greater resistance to distractions, so that a person can be focused on some object or action for a long time.

3. The amount of attention - the number of objects perceived simultaneously.

4. Distribution - the ability to simultaneously monitor several objects or perform various actions.

5. Switching - consciously moving attention to a new object.

Sustainability.

If you bring a watch to your ear, you will notice that their ticking either intensifies, then weakens, and suddenly disappears altogether for a moment. Fluctuations in attention can also be easily observed in visual perceptions with the help of dual images. What do you see in the picture: a vase on a black background or two profiles on a white one? As soon as a person sees both images, fluctuations in attention come into force: the image seems to pulsate - you see either a vase or profiles.

The image of a truncated pyramid is also dual. It seems either convex, with its top facing the viewer, or deepened with a rear wall that goes into the distance. And again, here there are fluctuations in attention: the wall, as it were, is either approaching or moving away from the viewer. However, hesitation can be removed if you do not just consider the figure, but set yourself a new, more complex task. Imagine that we have an image of a room that needs to be furnished: on the right we put a table and chairs, on the left it would be nice to hang a picture on the wall, lay a carpet on the floor, it would be nice to have a chandelier on the ceiling, etc. While you are “furnishing” the room, there will be no fluctuations in attention ... From this experience, we can draw conclusions regarding the preservation of the stability of attention: external and internal activity of the individual is necessary, it is necessary to set ourselves more and more new tasks.

Of great interest are the methods of studying the stability of attention, which have already become classical. Usually, Bourdon tables are used, consisting of a random alternation of individual letters, moreover, each letter is repeated in the line the same number of times. The subject is asked to cross out the given letters for a long time (3,5,10 minutes). The experimenter notes the number of letters crossed out during each minute and the number of gaps. Similarly, attention stability is measured using Kraepelin tables, consisting of columns of numbers that the subject must add up for a long time. Work productivity and the number of errors made can serve as an indicator of fluctuations in attention.

dichotomous listening.

Concentration.

The next property of attention is concentration. Concentration refers to the degree or intensity of concentration. A.A. Ukhtomsky believed that the concentration of attention is associated with the functioning of the dominant focus of excitation in the cortex, he believed that concentration is a consequence of excitation in the dominant focus with simultaneous inhibition of other areas of the cerebral cortex.

Distribution.

Bourdon test

The distribution of attention is understood as the subjectively experienced ability of a person to keep a certain number of heterogeneous objects in the center of attention at the same time. It is this ability that allows you to perform several actions at once, keeping them in the field of attention. A textbook example is the phenomenal abilities of Julius Caesar, who, according to legend, could simultaneously do seven unrelated things. It is also known that Napoleon could simultaneously dictate seven important diplomatic documents to his secretaries. However, as life practice shows, a person is able to perform only one type of conscious mental activity, and the subjective feeling of the simultaneous implementation of several is due to the rapid sequential switching from one to another. Even W. Wundt showed that a person cannot focus on two simultaneously presented stimuli. However, sometimes a person is really able to perform two types of activity at the same time. In fact, in such cases, one of the activities performed should be fully automated and do not require attention. If this condition is not met, the combination of activities is impossible. The study of the distribution of attention is of great practical importance. For this purpose, so-called Schulte tables are used. These tables show two rows of randomly scattered figures, red and black. The subject must name a series of numbers in a certain sequence, alternating each time a red and a black number. Sometimes the experiment is complicated - it is necessary to show the red number in the forward order, and the black one - in the reverse order. Studies have shown that there are distinct individual differences among individual subjects. Researchers (in particular, A. R. Luria) believe that these differences can reliably reflect some variations in the strength and mobility of nervous processes and can be successfully used for diagnostic purposes.

Switching.

The next property of attention is switching. Switching means the conscious and meaningful shifting of attention from one object to another. Switching attention means the ability to quickly navigate in a complex changing situation. Switching attention is determined secretly, moving from one type of activity to another.

The ease of switching is different for different people and depends on a number of conditions (first of all, the ratio between the preceding and subsequent activities and the attitude of the subject to each of them). The more interesting the activity, the easier it is to switch to it and vice versa. Switchability is one of the well-trained qualities. Switching attention, if it occurs on an involuntary basis, may indicate its instability, but such instability is not always a reason to consider it as a negative quality. It often contributes to the temporary rest of the organism, the analyzer, the preservation and restoration of the working capacity of the nervous system and the organism as a whole.

Two multidirectional processes are functionally connected with the switching of attention: inclusion and distraction of attention. The first is characterized by how a person switches attention to something and completely focuses on it; the second - by how the process of distraction is carried out.

To study the switching of attention, the Landolt ring technique is often used; it is a universal tool that can be used to study the attention of people of different ages. To study the switching of attention, the subject is given a task: during the first minute, you need to find and cross out in one way rings of one type (with one orientation of the gap), during the next minute - rings of another type, and so on in turn for 5 minutes. When processing the results, the experimenter determines the number of rings viewed for each minute and for 5 minutes in total. The number of errors is also determined.

Volume.

The next property of attention is its volume. The volume of attention is understood as the number of objects that a person can cover with sufficient ease at the same time. It is known that a person cannot simultaneously think about different things and perform various works. This limitation makes it necessary to split the information coming from the outside into parts that do not exceed the capabilities of the processing system.

In the same way, a person has a very limited ability to simultaneously perceive several objects independent of each other - this is the amount of attention. An important and defining feature of it is that it practically cannot be regulated during training and training.

The study of the volume of attention is usually carried out by analyzing the number of simultaneously presented elements (numbers, letters, etc.) that can be clearly perceived by the subject. For these purposes, a device is used that makes it possible to present a certain number of stimuli so quickly that the subject cannot move his eyes from one object to another. This allows you to measure the number of objects available for simultaneous identification using an instrument called a tachistoscope. It usually consists of a window separated from the object under consideration by a falling screen, the slit of which can arbitrarily change so that the object under consideration appears in it for a very short period of time (from 10 to 50-100 ms). The number of clearly perceived objects is an indicator of the amount of attention. If the presented objects are quite simple and scattered over the demonstrated field in disorder, the amount of attention ranges from 5 to 7 simultaneously clearly perceived objects. In fact, the amount of attention is an individual variable, but the classic indicator of the amount of attention in people is considered equal to 5 ± 2.

Volume + intensity + duration = persistence

Attention disorders.

Attention disorders are painful disorders that are observed to varying degrees with fatigue and with organic lesions of the brain, primarily the frontal lobes. They are characterized by inadequate changes in the direction, selectivity of activities and coordination of individual actions. They can manifest themselves in a narrowing of the amount of attention, in its instability (distraction to side stimuli). With damage to the frontal lobes of the brain and associated non-specific structures, attention disorders can be modal-non-specific and manifest themselves in many activities, with the perception of any modality. When a certain analyzer system is damaged, attention disturbances can be modal-specific and manifest themselves in only one modality. In particular, with damage to the occipital region of the cortex, disturbances in visual attention occur, and with damage to the temporal cortex, auditory attention.

Attention- this is the focus and concentration of the subject at a given moment in time on some real or ideal object.

1. The function of selection - the essence of attention is manifested primarily in the selection of significant, relevant to the needs, relevant to this activity, influences and ignoring (inhibiting, eliminating) others - insignificant, side, competing influences.

2. The function of holding (preserving) this activity (saving in the mind images of a certain subject content) until the act of behavior is completed, cognitive activity until the goal is achieved.

3. The function of attention is the regulation and control of the course of activity.

1. Involuntary- this is the concentration of consciousness on an object due to some of its features. (Any stimulus, changing the strength of its action, attracts attention. The novelty of the stimulus also causes involuntary attention.

Objects that cause a bright emotional tone in the process of cognition (saturated colors, melodic sounds, pleasant smells) cause involuntary concentration of attention. Even more important for the emergence of involuntary attention are intellectual, aesthetic and moral feelings. An object that caused a person's surprise, admiration, delight, for a long time attracts his attention)

2. Arbitrary is a consciously regulated focus on an object. (A person focuses not on what is interesting or pleasant for him, but on what he should do. This type of attention is closely connected with the will. Arbitrarily concentrating on an object, a person makes an effort of will, which maintains attention throughout the entire process of activity. With his Arbitrary attention owes its origin to work. Voluntary attention occurs when a person sets himself the goal of an activity, the fulfillment of which requires concentration. Voluntary attention requires volitional effort, which is experienced as tension, mobilization of forces to solve the task. Volitional effort is necessary to focus on the object of activity , not to be distracted, not to make a mistake in actions.The reason for the emergence of arbitrary attention to any object is the setting of the goal of the activity, the practical activity itself, for the implementation of which a person is responsible).

3. Post-voluntary - entry into the activity and the interest that arises in connection with this. Focus is reduced, stress is relieved.

Properties:

1. Concentration - the degree of focus on the object:

high; - low

2. Volume - the number of objects that can be captured by attention at the same time:

3. Switching - intentional transfer of attention from one object to another:

Difficult; - light

4. Distribution - the ability to keep several objects in the field of attention at the same time.

5. Stability - the duration of focusing on the object:

sustainable