Attention and concentration

1. Attention
&
Concentration
Gul-e-Nayab

2.  Attention is a cognitive process whereby you
direct and maintain awareness of stimuli
detected by the senses and use that
information to make decisions and choose
responses.
 Attention is a concept studied in cognitive
psychology that refers to how we actively
process specific information present in our
environment.

3.  As you are reading this, there are
numerous sights, sounds and
sensations going on around you – the
pressure of your feet against the floor,
the sight of the street out of a nearby
window, the memory of a conversation
you had earlier with a friend.
 How do we manage to experience all
of these sensations and still focus on
just one element of our environment?

4.  According to psychologist and
philosopher William James, attention
"is the taking possession of the mind,
in clear and vivid form, of one out of
what may seem several
simultaneously possible objects or
trains of thoughts…It implies
withdrawal from some things in order
to deal effectively with others."

5. Attention is…
 Attention is an active part of consciousness.
 The activity of concentrating mind on a
particular matter is called attention.
 Attention is not possible in the absence of
consciousness, but attention and
consciousness are not one.
 The field of consciousness is vast and attention
is one of its parts.
 For example, I am reading at this time. Book,
note, table, chair, etc., all this can be under my
consciousness, but my attention is on the
words being read on the paper.

6. John R. Anderson
John R. Anderson, defines attention as,
“Attention is the cognitive process of
selectively concentrating on one aspect
of the environment while ignoring other
things”

7. Nature of attention
 Attention is focusing of consciousness on a
particular object
 Attention is constantly shifting/ changeable .
 Attention is selective
 Attention is a mental process
 Attention is a state of preparedness or
alertness
 Attention has narrow range/span

8. Factors Related to Attention
 Attention depends upon several
factors. These factors may be of two
types:
A. External factors
B. Internal factors

9. A. External Factors
 The external factors are concerned with the
environment.
 These are also called Objective Factors.
1. Size: Size has effect on attention. It is
natural an unusual size attracts attention of
the people. Very big size or very small size
too draws our attention when compared
with normal size. For example, a Lilliputian
(dwarf man) walking on the road too draws
our attention.

10. 2. Intensity: Loud sounds, strong smells and
deep colors are attractive in nature. If a
sound is intense then it would attract our
attention. The thunder is louder than a car
sound. So, our attention is drawn on thunder.
3. Movement: Moving things draws our
attention more than stationary one. A moving
car attracts faster than a stationary car.
4. Contrast: Anything that is different from its
surrounding is contrast. A swan among the
crows attracts suddenly.

11. 5. Repetition: If a thing or person or event is
repeated several times, then our attention
drawn to it. When an advertisement is
repeated in the walls drawn our attention.
6. Duration: attention is drawn to a thing
that lasts longer. A salesperson draws
attention by lengthening his voice.
7. Change: Change draws our attention
easily. In the midst of continuous noise a
slight moment of silence draws our
attention.
8. Novelty: Newness attracts quickly than
traditional one. A new teacher attracts the
children very much in the school.

12. B. Internal Factors
 The internal factors are concerned with the
individual. So, these are also called subjective
factors.
1. Interest: we are interested in some things
and not interested in other things.
Interesting things draws our attention soon.
An engineer and a botanist going down the
same path will attend entirely different
things on the way. Engineer attention will be
on the buildings and botanist attention will

13. 2. Desire: A person’s desire becomes a
cause of paying attention to a thing. For
example, a person has to desire of buying
a hammer. There are many things
available in a market, but he goes to a
shop where hammers are available.
3. Motives: Basic motives are important in
drawing attention. Human motives like
hungry, thirst, safety, etc., play a vital role
in drawing attention. A thirst person
attention always on where water is

14. 4. Aim/Goal: Every man has some aim and
ultimate goal in their life. The immediate aim
of a student is to pass in the examination
while his ultimate goal may be to become a
doctor. The student, whose goal is not to
pass the examination, will not be concerned
with textbooks or note, etc, but who has the
aim to pass in the examination, will at once
attend to them.

15. 5. Habit: Habit is also a vital determinant of
attention. The kind of habit we found in our
life, our attention is drawn to such things. if
a person has habit to play cricket, then his
attention is always drawn to it, and he will
listen to cricket commentaries with attention.

16. 6. Past Experience: It is also affect attention.
If we know by our past experience that a
particular person is sincere to us, we shall
pay attention to whatever he advises us. If
our experience is contrary, we shall not
attend even to his most serous advice
7. Other: Apart from these above factors,
aptitude, attitude, mental set, disposition
and temperament etc., are also an internal

17. DIMENSIONS OF ATTENTION
 Width of Attention (broad or narrow)
◦ Broad Focus would attend to a large
number of stimuli at the same time
◦ Narrow Focus e.g., manage to read a slide

18. DIMENSIONS OF ATTENTION
 Direction of Attention (internal or external)
◦ Internal Focus is directed inward on
thoughts and feelings (e.g., monitor your
body’s responses and mental skills).
◦ External Focus is directed to events
happening in the environment (e.g., noise
coming from street)

19. Inattention & attention
 Inattention: As a matter of fact there are two
fields of consciousness – the field of attention
and inattention..
 The field of attention is in the center of
consciousness and that of inattention to the
edge consciousness.
 The things on the edge of consciousness
influence the mind to some extent, but our
attention is not diverted to them.

20.  F D G J K O Y U A W V C N S Q Z M I T R
Here are given twenty letters of alphabet. if
we pay attention to the alphabet ‘N’, then
other letters are overlooked and if we pay
attention to the alphabet ‘ A’ then attention
is diverted from other alphabets etc. Now
we have attention on ‘A’ and inattention on
other alphabets.

21. Distraction
 Meaning: Distraction means the driving of
attention or some interference in attention.
 Definition: Distraction may be defined as any
stimulus whose presence interferes with the
process of attention or draws away attention
from the object to which we wish to attend –
H.R.Bhatia
For example, when one is studying, the sound
of a song or noise breaks in upon attention.
 Distracter: The object which causes the
distraction is called distracter.

22.  Sources of Distraction: The sources of
distraction can be roughly divided into two -
external and internal sources.
 External Factors: It is also called
environmental factors.
 These are more common and prominent.
 Noise, music, improper lighting,
uncomfortable seats, inadequate ventilation,
defective method of teaching, improper use
of teaching aids, defective voice of the
teacher are the common external distracters
in the classrooms.

23.  Internal Factors: Emotional disturbances, ill-
health, anger, fear, feeling of insecurity,
boredom, lack of motivation, feeling of
fatigue, lack of interest, unrelated subject
matter are the examples for internal
distracter.

24.  Continuous Distraction: As the name suggests,
it is the continuous distraction of attention.
For example, the sound of radio or gramophone
played continuously, the noise of market place
etc. Experiments say adjustment to continuous
distraction takes place quickly.
 Discontinuous Distraction: This type of
distraction is irregular, being interspersed with
intervals.
For example, the hearing of somebody’s voice
every now and then.
 It interferes with work because of the
impossibility of adjustment.
Forms of Distraction

25. Span of Attention
 Span of Attention: The extent or limit of the
ability of a person to attend to a concentrate on
something. The length of time which a reader
can concentrate on what he is reading without
thinking of anything else is called Span of
attention.
 It varies with age, physical, mental and
emotional condition and nature of material read.
 Attention brings an object into consciousness.
How many objects can be brought into
consciousness at a time, the number of them is
called span of attention. On an average span of
attention of a child is limited to 4 to 5 whereas
for adults it is within 6 to 7 letters or digits.

26. Causes of Lack of Attention
People who have sustained a brain injury
may:
 Become easily distracted
 Have trouble keeping track of what is being
said or done
 Have difficulty doing more than one task at
a time
 Experience information overload
 Be slower at taking in and making sense of
information.

27.  The effects of these difficulties on people's
everyday lives may:
 Affect their ability to learn and remember
information
 Cause them to feel frustrated with
themselves and other people (have a 'short
fuse')
 Make them feel overwhelmed and easily
confused
 Lead to fatigue, headaches and dizziness
 Encourage them to withdraw from other
people and avoid socializing
 Result in low levels of achievement.

28. A lack of concentration can be caused by
many factors, including:
 Fatigue and tiredness, particularly from
sleep disorders or viral infections
 Pain and other physical sensations,
particularly headaches but including joint,
muscle or organ pain.
 Illness, including short-term infections or
long-term disease
 Hunger

29. What is Attentional
capacity and how does it
impact performance?

30. ATTENTIONAL CAPACITY
 You have a limited “attentional capacity.”
 Controlled Processing – occurs when
athletes consciously focus on performing the
sport skill (e.g, focusing on the mechanics of
how to execute a tennis serve)
 Controlled processing is slow, conscious,
deliberate, step-by-step and attention-
demanding process.

31.  Automatic Processing – when you perform a
skill without conscious attention thought.
 Automatic processing is fast, holistic, occurs
below the conscious level, and is not attention
demanding (e.g., can dribble in traffic while
looking for an open player to pass to).

32. Brain Areas Involved
 A region of the brain called the lateral
intraparietal cortex, within the parietal
lobe, controls attention by filtering out what is
not important at any given time.
 If the lateral intraparietal cortex is damaged
person is unable to play prioritization role,
then the ability to maintain visual attention
will be impaired, severely impairing the ability
to concentrate.

33.  There is also evidence that the cerebellum,
at the back at the brain, has an influence
upon attention and concentration as well as
its core role of coordinating muscle activity.
Damage to the cerebellum will therefore
result in concentration difficulties.

34. What is concentration
and what is the
concentration paradox?

35. CONCENTRATION:
SUSTAINING ATTENTION
 Concentration – is the ability to sustain
attention on selected stimuli for a period of
time.
 Concentration can easily be broken by . . .
o external distractions,
o our own thoughts and feelings,
o the intense energy demands of intense
concentration.

36. CONCENTRATION ROADBLOCKS
 Factors that interfere with quieting the
mind include . . .
◦ excessive thinking
◦ stress,
◦ pain, and
◦ fatigue.

37. Approaches for Enhancing
Attention/Concentration
 Reduce all possible distractions in the
environment
 Take regular rest breaks, have a nap or a
walk
 Meditation, deep breathing and other
strategies for physical and mental relaxation,
such as having a coffee break or talking to
friends
 Plan how to approach a task with a simple
step-by-step approach, and;

38.  Write information down using notes and
keep them in specific places
 Use a white board to help organize, plan
and store information
 Use 'association' techniques e.g. putting
medication on the table with every meal
 Get into a regular daily routine which has a
structure
 Aim for variety within an everyday routine

39.  Schedule demanding tasks when levels of
energy and alertness are greatest,
commonly early morning
 Eat a healthy diet and sleep well
 Use self-talk to monitor thoughts and actions
 Use a timer or electronic organizer and set
yourself goals to steadily improve duration of
concentration in small steps.

40.  Learn to manage stress, recognize energy
demands of concentration, practice
concentrating experience the skill direct
attention away from distracting thoughts
and feelings think non judgmentally

41. Thank You