Introduction
Attention is a concept studied by cognitive psychology that refers to how an individual processes the information received from the outer world. There exist many kinds of attention purposed for different areas of human interaction with the surrounding environment, and exercised through different processes in different parts of a human brain. In the following paper, attention along with its mechanisms will be addressed. In addition, integration as the sub-field of cognitive psychology and its Biblical perception will be discussed.
Attention can be defined as a mechanism helping humans maintain thought, perception, and exercise control over behaviour despite the influence of stimulants and irritants from the surrounding environment (Sewell & Lewandowsky, 2012). Depending on the situation in which an individual can find oneself, different types of attention are implicated in different areas of his or her brain. There are three main types of attention including selection, control, and vigilance. Numerous theories developed by psychologists with the most diversified approaches are developed with the purpose of explaining the peculiarities of different kinds of attention.
Main body
Being exposed to more stimulus and irritants from the outer world than one’s brain is able to process effectively during particular period of time requires the mechanism which helps sorting the received information and responding only to the most important pieces of it. This mechanism is attention. Attention helps human brain process all the received signals from the surrounding environment, and distinguish which of those signals require urgent response, and which can be disregarded. Because of the variety of signals from the outer world which compete for our attention, we need a mechanism helping us differentiate between the important sensory impressions and those ones which can be ignored (Knight, 1997). This mechanism is selection.
Selection is the mechanism of attention that helps our brain manage its resources while processing important information and the one which can be ignored (Raffone, Tagini & Srinivasan, 2010). Selection helps our brain resolve the competition between numerous sensory impressions coming from the outer world. In selective attention, there are two types of mechanisms responsible for processing signals from the surrounding environment including endogenous and exogenous mechanisms (Frith, C. D. & Frith, U., 1999).
Endogenous mechanism is caused by the desire of our conscience to receive more details about any particular object or phenomenon in the outer world (Dittrich & Stahl, 2012). To illustrate this, when an individual is at the railway station to meet one’s relative, he or she is seeing the faces of many passengers from the train in which the person is going to come, but the endogenous attention mechanism will only react to the face of his or her relative. One more illustration is when an individual is in the crowded place where numerous people are talking, but the person is only interested in one conversation. In this situation, the person’s endogenous attention is concentrated on the voices of those who participate in this conversation and their words.
Exogenous attention mechanism is aimed to process the information about the unexpected signals from the outer world (Dittrich & Stahl, 2012). To illustrate this, when the person hears sudden noise, his or her attention is concentrated on the source of this noise. In this case, the form of attention that is shown by the brain is not cognisant, that is, the person does not plan to concentrate one’s attention on the source of unexpected noise, and such concentration occurs automatically.
The other type of selective attention is divided attention. Divided attention helps an individual to concentrate on a few things simultaneously. For example, when a driver is trying to concentrate on the road signs, his or her attention is also aimed to receive the signals conserving pedestrians’ behaviour, radio program, and on a passenger talk. In case there is a phone call, the driver’s divided attention has even more loads. Unfortunately, human divided attention is limited which becomes the reason of many failures. Not many people are gifted by effective mechanisms of divided attention. Among the most outstanding of them was Julius Caesar who could fulfil up to ten or more activities simultaneously.
Controlling attention refers to the process when the higher levels of brain direct the activity of the lower ones; this type of attention is also called executive function because it describes the brain’s managing ability (Kastner & Ungerleider, 2000). Among the many forms of controlling attention, planning and prospective memory are the most important. Planning implicates organizing a set of behavioural strategies aimed to fulfil an important task. Prospective memory refers to achieving goals set for special dates. The examples of prospective memory are paying the bills on a certain date, and visiting the gym on particular days during the week.
Vigilance is the third most common form of attention. This form is also called sustained attention. Sustained attention refers to concentrating attention on one object or activity for a certain period of time without loosing one’s focus. Vigilance helps people concentrate on the tasks important for them despite the outer irritators. For example, when a student is writing a test, he or she should be concentrated on this process despite the other signals from the surrounding environment; otherwise, he or she may fail. There are numerous situations when people need vigilance, and in the majority of those situation people’s future, and even their very life or the lives of the other people depend on the work of their brain. The examples of this phenomenon are multiple including the work of traffic controllers, rescuers, drivers, and so on. Vigilance is some of the most complicated mechanisms of attention which is exercised in different areas of an individual’s brain including the right frontal cortex, parietal cortex, and dorsal cingulated cortex (Kastner & Ungerleider, 2000).
Attention is a broad topic of psychological research studies which explains the existence of many theories aiming to grasp the concepts of its functioning. Among the most common theories are Treisman’s integration theory, Norman’s theory of selective attention, Broadbent’s filter theory, and Posner’s theory of engagement and disengagement attention. All of these theories agree on the fact that human attention capacity has a limit, and when this limit is exceeded, bad accidents may happen.
Integration theory in cognitive psychology aims to explain the concepts of human behaviour by means of binding different experiences into conscience wholes (Goldstein, 2011). This theory is considered to be one of the most influential theories explaining human visual attention and perception. The essence of this theory is in combining the experiences received by humans from the outer world along with experiments and researches with the knowledge given to humans form above. From a Biblical worldview, this theory can be seen as rather ambiguous matter. The uncertain nature of this phenomenon is in actual understanding of Biblical worldview. It is well-known that different religions have a different vision of the Bible, and the truths rendered in it. For example, the Catholic clergy rejects the findings of integration sub-field of cognitive psychology claiming that they contradict the standards shown in the Bible. However, an honest approach to the Bible helps see that God does not oppose human perception of the world through their experiences from the surrounding environment. On the contrary, the Bible encourages people to percept the world around them thorough the combination of religious knowledge and the facts seen in the natural world. For example, in Romans 1:20, the Bible encourages people to learn about invisible qualities of God including his eternal power and Godship through the world’s creation onward, and the things that are made.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be stated that attention is a diversified phenomenon governed by human brain. Over one’s lifetime, a human develops one’s attention given to him or her at the birth time. Human behaviour is greatly affected by the ability of brain to demonstrate due level of attention. In case an individual has attention disorders, the quality of his or her life will be poor and the life itself may be endangered; the better attention an individual is gifted with the more significant may be his or her role in society. When an individual’s attention mechanisms are damaged due to brain diseases or developmental disorders, his or her behaviour become significantly affected which results into many problems for the person. In case an individual develops some form of an attention disorder, a proper drug therapy, sufficient rest, and specially-developed training may help.
References
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Raffone, A., Tagini, A., & Srinivasan, N. (2010). MINDFULNESS AND THE COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF ATTENTION AND AWARENESS. Zygon: Journal Of Religion & Science, 45(3), 627-646.
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