Attenzione - Attention

L'attenzione è un processo cognitivo che permette di selezionare stimoli ambientali, ignorandone altri.

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Daniel Kahneman^[1]: esiste un limite di tipo biologico all'elaborazione contemporanea delle informazioni e queste devono quindi essere poste in sequenza attraverso un canale sensoriale che blocca tutte le informazioni che eccedono la capacità di elaborazione. (Wikipedia)

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Al momento non c'è nessuna teoria sull'attenzione unanimemente condivisa. Sembra accertato che molti processi diversi siano responsabili della selettività dell'attenzione. Un'altra difficoltà nello studio dell'attenzione deriva dal fatto che il processo attentivo è implicato in numerosi altri processi cognitivi fondamentali (la percezione, la memoria, l'apprendimento) oltre al fatto che lo studio dell'attenzione, disgiunto dagli altri processi psichici, si è rivelato poco fecondo.

 [Wikipedia]

"Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German." (William James)

James differentiated between sensorial attention and intellectual attention. Sensorial attention is when attention is directed to objects of sense, stimuli that are physically present. Intellectual attention is attention directed to ideal or represented objects; stimuli that are not physically present. James also distinguished between immediate or derived attention: attention to the present versus to something not physically present. According to James, attention has five major effects. Attention works to make us perceive, conceive, distinguish, remember, and shorten reactions time.

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The relationships between attention and consciousness are complex enough that they have warranted perennial philosophical exploration. Such exploration is both ancient and continually relevant, as it can have effects in fields ranging from mental health and the study of disorders of consciousness to artificial intelligence and its domains of research and development.

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Top-down processing, also known as goal-driven, endogenous attention, attentional control or executive attention. This aspect of our attentional orienting is under the control of the person who is attending. It is mediated primarily by the frontal cortex and basal ganglia^[43][44] as one of the executive functions.^[29][43] Research has shown that it is related to other aspects of the executive functions, such as working memory,^[45] and conflict resolution and inhibition.^[46]

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• Focused attention: The ability to respond discretely to specific visual, auditory or tactile stimuli.
• Sustained attention (vigilance and concentration): The ability to maintain a consistent behavioral response during continuous and repetitive activity.
• Selective attention: The ability to maintain a behavioral or cognitive set in the face of distracting or competing stimuli. Therefore, it incorporates the notion of "freedom from distractibility."
• Alternating attention: The ability of mental flexibility that allows individuals to shift their focus of attention and move between tasks having different cognitive requirements.
• Divided attention: This is the highest level of attention and it refers to the ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks or multiple task demands.

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According to Malebranche, attention is crucial to understanding and keeping thoughts organized.

[wikipedia ]

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"Regulation of attention is the central commonality across the many divergent meditation methods." (Cahn & Polich (2006)

"The need for the meditator to retrain his attention, whether through concentration or mindfulness, is the single invariant ingredient in... every meditation system." Goleman (1988)