How do psychologists define attention?
Attention is a concept studied in cognitive psychology that refers to how we actively process specific information in our environment. As you read this, there are many sounds, feelings, and sights around you - the pressure of your feet against the floor, the presence of children playing across the street from your window, the soft warmth of your shirt on your body, the recollection of the conversation you had with your friend. All these sights, sounds, and sensations are fighting for our attention, but our attention resources are not unlimited. So how do we experience all these sensations and focus on only one element of our environment? How to effectively manage the resources we have at our disposal to understand the world around us? Understanding attention Think of attention as a marker. For example, as you read a section of text in a book, the highlighted section becomes more prominent, causing you to focus your interest on that area. But not only is focusing your attention on ...