Our mental cognitive processes are what make us unique and different from animals. They always work together: our sensations allow us to form an impression of a phenomenon, perception reflects the reality inside our consciousness, thinking involves other brain functions, and so on. In this article, I will define the term voluntary attention and explain in detail what it is in psychology, how it affects our ideas about the world around us and how it interacts with human psychomotor abilities.
How attention works
We live in a subjective world that everyone perceives differently. Attention, being the highest mental function and the basis of all conscious processes, is the building material of this world: if there is not enough attention, the brain completes the image to the whole, but in fact in such completion there is already more fantasy than the real environment.
Gestalt psychology identifies two key functions of attention: highlighting a figure against the background and maintaining concentration on it.
Attention is the process of consciously or unconsciously selecting some information coming through the senses and ignoring others.
The figure can be any object: a mug on the table, music, a thought about vacation, an emotion. The background becomes everything else that fell out of attention, blurred, became unclear: we look at the mug - we don’t notice the plates, we listen to the music - the other sounds are drowned out. Remember the video with the basketball players and the bear? In it, the ball became the figure, and the bear dropped out of sight and went unnoticed.
Conditions
This mechanism of instant reaction was formed in the process of evolution; it helped weak animals to escape from predators in time, and it also allowed predatory representatives of the fauna to track down prey. Of course, people are not afraid of animals, and to get food, they visit stores. However, when an unexpected stimulus occurs, we respond to it. Now I will list what is the condition for the emergence of involuntary attention
- movement - an object that is at rest does not pose any danger, and therefore does not act as an irritating factor;
- impact - a strong sound signal or a quiet rustle in an empty room, our consciousness perceives a bright unexpected light as a threat;
- the unknown – it can lead to trouble, so we react to this event.
What kind of attention is there?
According to the degree of participation in the selection of information, attention can be divided into involuntary, voluntary and post-voluntary
.
Involuntary attention
Involuntary attention is impulsive and reflective: we do not decide where to direct it, but something external pulls us along with it. A person with involuntary attention acts like a rule-following mechanism (and is not far removed from Pavlov's dog). You were doing something important, but now you’ve been thinking about an unrelated thought for five minutes or you can’t get that eclair from the pastry shop out of your head. So you live in the “I want” paradigm, where the external controls consciousness, desire, intention.
Laziness, apathy, low energy, chaos in the head - a consequence of involuntary attention
When attention is out of your control, it is the result of a reactive, "sleeping" consciousness.
. With reactive consciousness, following your attention, your actions, thoughts, and emotions go out of control; they become the result of a reaction to a stimulus. We were praised - we perked up, scolded - we drooped. People wait for motivation, an external stimulus to start acting, and as a natural result they get laziness, apathy and procrastination.
Voluntary attention
Voluntary attention is the independent control of all structures of consciousness: emotions, thoughts, processes, states. Not in response to an external stimulus, but based on one’s own desire and intention. Voluntary attention is always accompanied by greater or lesser volitional effort, and prolonged maintenance of voluntary attention causes fatigue that is stronger than during physical work.
Complete control over your attention and will implies an active consciousness
- this is what is commonly called
awareness
. When we direct our attention and energy towards our own goals, we live in the “I want” paradigm - this is how growth, development, and the creation of something valuable begins.
Voluntary, ordered attention is directly related to activity and energy level. When our heads are in order, we spend much less mental energy, so washing the dishes will sometimes be more relaxing than hanging out on social networks.
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Post-voluntary attention (Flow)
Attention that goes in the direction determined by the subject, but no longer requires constant support by the will, is called post-voluntary attention. The body begins to work in optimal mode and is limited only by natural fatigue and depletion of its resources.
I was told about similar experiences by a neurosurgeon who performs nine-hour operations, an extreme athlete and a conductor who does not leave the console for several hours. The phenomenology of the state was well described by psychologist Mihai Ciksen, but he says little about how to get into it. Studying the methodology for entering the flow state is one of the main questions, the answer to which is now being sought in the area of attention.
Controlling the concentration of consciousness
Many people face the need for such a skill. This skill helps you fully concentrate on your work, ignoring all external stimuli and noticing only that external information that is really important.
To achieve mastery in controlling the concentration of consciousness, the ability to consciously direct its flow to a particular object, exercises for the development of visual and auditory attention and its concentration will help.
Problems of attention
Clip thinking and ADHD
Attention is constantly being collected and divided (even among those who practice attention management); its switching every 30–90 seconds is a natural property. The body itself encourages us to be distracted by releasing dopamine, the pleasure hormone, when we switch to new information. Dopamine addiction - reward for distraction - creates clip thinking, or the desire to receive information in fits and starts.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
also speaks of a crisis in attention management. In short, people with ADHD are well-rounded individuals who don't get things done. They are fantastic at entering the moment, feeling its fullness, but immediately lose interest when the intensity of the experience subsides.
External environment
Modernity places special demands on the speed of information processing, so the outside world also constantly distracts us. For example, many experts will become unclaimed if they fall out of the process of updating their skills for just a year. This is why we are so eager to multitask, hoping to divide our attention into several processes in order to get everything done.
Tests appear in the form of situations of uncertainty: for example, a crisis and a pandemic pose new problems, trying to take control of our attention from us, and stress impairs concentration. It's no wonder people find it increasingly difficult to see clearly and act effectively.
Source: francescoch / istockphoto.com
Attention - limited resource
The attention resource has a limited volume, and we spend it in all conscious processes: when we work, listen to music, watch a movie, and even during light sleep. By wasting the resource of attention, we deprive ourselves of the strength to concentrate on the main thing, we cannot complete important tasks to the end and we experience stress.
Attention is currency
Where there is attention, there is activity, energy, manifestation. Attention can be exchanged for work, emotions, money, so the ability to own it and independently determine where to direct it is a kind of luxury. We often go bankrupt every day, and the stake in this game is life, just not the one that ends with age: it’s about being in the moment, consciously living every second.
In the future, it is the ability to concentrate for many hours, an active position and the ability to go beyond stereotyped thinking that will determine leaders and professionals in every field.
What does an attentive person get?
Having mastered the skill of managing attention, we receive the key to achieving excellence in any area.
This is especially evident in the following areas:
- painting;
- music;
- extreme sport;
- speed reading;
- architecture;
- entrepreneurship;
- advertising;
- management;
- programming.
Attentive people know how to notice any changes and record them in their heads. Creative people are able to create a detailed description of a person after a fleeting meeting with him.
Mindfulness goes hand in hand with observation. Eyewitnesses to the same incident describe it in completely different ways. A professional point of view differs greatly from the opinion of an amateur who is not able to highlight a number of small details.
How to develop attention
We remember that the purpose of attention is to pick out figures from the background: this is what is called concentration
.
But there is also a reverse process, deconcentration, alertness
, when there is no figure, but only a background, completely filled with attention. When we perceive the world holistically, we find ourselves in a state akin to flow, accumulating all experience at the edge of the moment and ready to take our ideal action. How can you boost your attention?
Cognitive simulators, or special programs and games
Pros: they give good results at the beginning, when the brain is still faced with a new task - it stimulates sleeping areas and promotes progress.
Cons: Once the brain adapts, addiction sets in. Progress in mastering the simulators continues, but the skill does not transfer to life. When working with simulators, you are working with an external stimulus, but it will not put your brain in an active position: there is simply no object outside that would draw your attention to itself.
However, simulators work effectively in conjunction with formal (occurring in isolated situations) and informal (occurring in real situations) practices.
Formal practices - Eastern approaches (yoga, Dzogchen)
Pros: meditation is still the most effective tool for working with attention.
Disadvantages: Conscious yoga and qigong practice impose certain ideological restrictions, which may be unacceptable for some people.
Source: francescoch / istockphoto.com
Informal practices
Pros: various game and metaphorical trainings and exercises to engage in the moment, as well as playing out real situations with the activation of dormant cognitive functions give a good shake-up to the brain and activate attention.
Cons: without systematic work, the result quickly fades away.
Thus, disparate practices, ideology and esotericism, as well as cultural restrictions can generally slow down mass attention work. To scale it up, a special engineering technique is required, which would have a scientific basis and has proven its effectiveness on large projects.
Volitional techniques
Pros: Unlike eastern practices, psychonetics is aimed at results and creativity and is therefore suitable for the active life of a purposeful person.
Disadvantages: you need to independently find an approach that will work for you; regularity also plays a key role.
The word “will” is directly related to attention; we can safely say that one follows from the other. It is by taking a strong-willed position that you begin to control your attention and live in the “I want” paradigm. An example is the case of Natalia Molchanova, a record holder in freediving, who, with the help of volitional practices, solved the problem of blackout - loss of consciousness and orientation in space during deep dives. A volitional position implies observation of the mechanisms of consciousness and allows you to correct its work even in such extreme situations.
free
The main feature of voluntary attention is its connection to conscious aspirations and controllability .
This type is subject to will and labor effort.
This type is also called active and intentional.
Physiological mechanism
The basic function of voluntary attention is the regulation of mental processes . The physiological mechanism is based on selective activation of parts of the cerebral cortex and their functional unification under the influence of controlled local activation.
Psychological feature
When a person needs to achieve a certain result, he develops an action plan that includes the task of concentrating on something in order to suppress the involuntary desire to “spray” attention on more pleasant and exciting things.
A person is guided by the “should” category, meeting the requirements of the activity.
Voluntary attention is not determined by the contrast of external influences. In the process of concentration, a person ignores intense stimuli and can concentrate even in the absence of interest .
After 20 minutes of deliberate concentration, the individual becomes tired and the ability to control attention weakens.
Young children are not subject to voluntary attention , since consciousness is not yet sufficiently developed.
Managed concentration on something is developed after two years.
How do achievement motivations and failure avoidance motivations work? You will find the answer on our website.
Examples
Examples:
- The individual needs to prepare a report for the meeting. He consciously excludes the possibility of being influenced by irritants (TV, loud noises outside the window, messages in instant messengers), organizes his workplace and concentrates on the necessary documents, forcing himself by force of will to ignore pleasant thoughts about the upcoming weekend and meeting with friends.
- The girl crosses the road. At this moment, she is occupied by a beautiful showcase on the other side of the street.
But she deliberately concentrates on traffic rules and passing cars in order to avoid getting into an emergency situation. - Being in a noisy office, the employee deliberately does not listen and diverts attention from the interesting conversation of colleagues , paying attention only to the current business correspondence with the client, since it is necessary to close the deal before lunch.
- The guy set himself the task of reading two chapters from a physics textbook, after which he could go into the yard and play football with his friends. By an effort of will, he is distracted by an interesting TV show and immerses himself in reading in order to quickly cope with the task.
If the will is not sufficiently developed or the task at hand is not important/priority, the person may have difficulty with deliberate concentration :
- The schoolgirl decided to complete her homework for the next school week in advance. But realizing that there is nowhere to rush, she is constantly distracted by the sound of the wind, a kitten sleeping next to her and a fashion magazine on the table.
- The employee was asked to fill out statistics that, in his opinion, would not play a significant role in the work of the department. But the need to complete the task forces him to use deliberate attention .
However, he does not feel the significance of his activity and constantly “disconnects” from the process, going to pour himself some coffee, buy a chocolate bar and replace a broken pencil.
