Are you always attentive to your interlocutor? Do you attend to the information represented by the person you are talking to? The attention is one of the most important parts of the five-step process of listening because it involves not only our physical abilities and interest in the speech of the interlocutor; it causes the understanding and interpretation as well. A person cannot interpret and understand information without having attended to the information. According to the information presented in the book the energy level and the biorhythm of a person can affect the degree of attention. Moreover, attention is one of the conditions of respect. Here I mean that if the person you are talking to is not attentive to your words, he/she cannot interpret the information of your message, is not able to understand it, and, consequently, cannot react properly on your words or questions.
Thus the attention can be regarded in the perspective of the biological rhythm of a person. There are people who cannot wake up early in the morning because they go to bed late at night. It is impossible for such people to be more attentive in the morning and less energetic in the evening. These people are called nighthawks according to their biorhythm. But personally I can be considered to belong to the skylark-type of people. This kind of people go to bed early as well rise early. Thereby my attentions abilities are higher in the morning and even do not ask me about anything in the evening, because my attention is below zero. The science knows the third type of people who can combine early and late waking up and going to bed. They are equally attentive in the daytime and in the evening.
Another aspect which can be discussed on the issue of attention is the culture of our behavior. Everyone would agree that it is not polite to ask the person to repeat, though anyone prevented your conversation. From the point of view of the culture of behavior and speech it is not very polite to ask again. When I am asked a question it must concern the specification of the information instead of asking what I was talking about in the form as if my interlocutor did not listen to me at all. It is impolite to ask for repetition, though it is better to repeat than meet misunderstanding from the interlocutor.
And the last aspect that concerns the aspect of attention is the ability to attend. I would like to talk about this problem in more detail. The issue of abnormalities belongs to the burning ones. Some people are not able to concentrate their attention on a specific subject or theme. This kind of people needs a special treatment, though there are people whose lack of attention is the result of the exceptionality; I mean the autism. People with autism are considered to lack general level of intelligence. Moreover, such people are considered to be not attentive at all, because they cannot concentrate their attention on a specific theme due to their abnormality.
There are five specific stages (steps) of the process of listening. They include receiving, attending to, understanding, responding to, and recalling sounds and visual images while getting the information from the interlocutor. My discussion contains such specific aspects of the attending level as biological rhythms, culture of behavior and abnormal behavior. Thus as a conclusion I would ask anyone to put a question concerning my report to provide the class with some additional information instead of interrupting me and asking to repeat what I just said. Were you attentive to the extent that I do not need to repeat my report one more time? The interpretation and understanding of the information is not impossible without attentive listening.