Cognitive Literature Review

Introduction

It is amazing how we forget something so fast whereas we remember some other things with a lot of ease. Cognitive process involves the study of internal mental process which includes all the things that go into the brain not limited to perception, thinking memory, attention, and language problem solving and learning (Driver, Haggard, & Shallice, 2007). Research work in cognitive psychologies helps in various filed such as helping those coping with mental disorder, increasing decision making accuracy, finding ways to help people recover from brain injury, treating learning disorder as well as structuring curricula to enhance learning (Driver, Haggard, & Shallice, 2007). Learning more about how people think and process information not only helps researchers gain a deeper understanding of how the human brain works, but it allows psychologists to develop new ways of helping people deal with psychological difficulties (Cherry, 2008).

Attention concept

Attention is a concept in cognitive psychology that explains how we actively process information in our environment (Cherry, 2018). At one instance, there are many things that go on around someone. There could be sound, sights, pressure exerted as one steps on the floor, the memories of someone you had a chat earlier among other things. We however, tend to concentrate on what we are currently doing despite the other things happening around that could possibility disrupt our attention. Psychologist William James defines attention taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what may seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought (Spencer, 1890).

As one read across a text, one is attracted to a highlighted text, or one may end up being attracted to an unusually crowded place in town. This does not necessarily mean that there are not crowds of people in town every day, but this could mean something weird or good is going on that warrants one to walk there and see. Attention does not however mean centering ones focus but also could mean ignoring a big deal of things that demand your attention and stimuli. It involves tuning out information, sensation and perceptions that are not important and rather focusing on the one thing that you perceive important at that specific time. Giving attention to one thing may also affect the perception of stimuli that are surrounding individuals. We may completely ignore the other thing that is demanding our attention or consequently we may focus on the primary target to an extent of not perceiving the second target at all (Deng, & Sloutsky, 2016).

There are some important facts about attention. One such fact is that attention is very much limited. Researchers have tried for so long to investigate how many things can an individual person handle and for how long. Research has since then concluded that the key thing that may make us stay on a specific thing for so long is how much we are interested in that thing and also the number of distracter we are experiencing at that time. Further research has shown how attention is limited when dealing with terms of capacity and duration. This could be the reason why people may tend to practice multitasking.

Attention can be selective. By attention being limited to resources, we must be at a position of selecting what we want to pay our attention to. Not only do we select what we pay attention to what we want, but also we filter out a number of other items and activities that we may not be interested in. Individuals must be selective to what they attend to, a process that occurs so quickly that the person sometimes does not realize they are ignoring some items to the expense of others.

One other fact is that attention is basically part of the cognitive process. Our orienting reflex helps us know what activity to attend to at the expense of the other. New born babies tend to react to environmental stimuli such as noise. These orienting reflexes may help us survive to the end of ages. For example, the honk of a horn may alert us of a coming car and so we are required to get out of the road. The blaring noise of a smoke alarm may notify us that what we have been cooking is burning already. A message notification may alert us of an incoming text message in our cell phones that we should pay some attention to. All these things grab our attention and make us respond positively to a particular situation that is happening to our environment.

Aspects of attention

Attention can be of very different types. However, the baseline is that attention is to ones need and circumstance. Depending on my need and circumstance, I can employ sustained, selective, alternating or divided attention (Cherry, 2018). Sustained attention is the type of attention that one requires to fully be one a task for a long period of time without being disrupted. Both sustained and selective types of attention are required when one is handling one task at a time. An example of sustained attention is when you are reading a book, playing a video game, riding on a car, attending a lecture among other things. It is however very challenging to maintain this level of attention without being disrupted. Various things may happen along the way that leads to your disruption. However, a key aspect of sustained attention is how one is able to re-focus after the disruption occurs (Spielberger, 2004).

Selective attention is the type of attention that enables one to focus on one thing amongst many others that are co currently happening. Selective attention helps the individual select the one thing or things they want to focus on even though others are happening. Along busy streets of the major towns and cities of the United States, there are various people who are conversing to one another. We tend to pass by these streets and focus on our ride or walk with ease because we have just selected to keep on walking or driving rather than listening to what people could be saying. Selected attention may also be used when one is attending a party with a lot of people and you choose to listen to their voices or even when attending to study in a noisy room. If you are able to select on what you want to hear or listen to, you are able to concentrate on a certain thing and avoid external disturbances such as noise and also internal disturbances such as thoughts. One is able to maintain a specific level of performance on distracting stimuli (Hakim-Larson, & Menna, 2015).

Alternating attention helps individuals with the ability of mental flexibility that allows one to take different task that require different cognitive requirement (Rehder, & Hoffman, 2005). It is alternating your attention between two task back and forth that require the use of different areas of your brain. This type of attention is used most of the time by various people when someone has to make different changes to their environment and immediately come back to their original state again. For instance, one may be reading a novel as well as doing some cooking. You may be required from time to time to attend to what you are preparing and then come back to your novel reading.

Within divided attention an individual can process more than two responses or react to more than two demands at the same time. It is sometimes referred to as divide attention where someone has to basically divide his attention between two or more tasks. Examples of divide attention may include talking to friend while preparing dinner, talking on the phone while getting dressed for a walk, or checking your email while attending a meeting among other things. Unlike alternating attention, when a person uses divided attention, they do not have to or need to go from one task to another; you can simply handle them at the same time. This means you are splitting your attention and allotting one to focus on a portion of task being undertaken.

However, human brain can only handle one task at a time. In a nutshell, one who think is multitasking may in essence be alternating between the two or more tasks. However, should this be possible, sometimes, it appears to be very dangerous. For example, it is very dangerous to drive while talking to someone else or to drive while using your cell phone. It is however argued that one is able to use divided attention successfully because of muscle memory and or habit (Rehder, & Hoffman, 2005). It allows you to perform two tasks seemingly simultaneously such as reading music while paying an instrument or driving while listening to a radio or even talking to a person while typing (Rehder, & Hoffman, 2005). However, one is not focusing on hand position while driving or playing the instrument. Basically, you can be able to do these things without conscious effort or actually paying attention (Rehder, & Hoffman, 2005).

Relation of attention to information theory

Further studies into attention as a cognitive process reviled that attention depends on unexpectedness of the event and their familiar association. This is according to a research conduct at around 1940’s. Information theory suggests that the significance of any event can only be estimated in terms of what else might have happened; hence, its tendency to attract attention is considered a function of its statistical improbability (McCallum 2015). The degree of novelty, which is estimated according to the number of times an event has been experienced previously, provides a measure of its surprise value (McCallum 2015).

Cognitive psychologist ultimately abandoned information theory, recognizing the incalculable effect of past experience on the information carried by any bit (McCallum 2015). Therefore, despite of this research on information theory, these findings are not used today to fully understand the cognitive psychologies and especially metal processes like attention (Noble, & Shanteau, 1999).

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is much to be explored in this field cognitive psychology theory on the mental processing of Attention. Some unverified theories over the recent past emerged on attention. Research work in cognitive psychologies helps in various filed such as helping those coping with mental disorder, increasing decision making accuracy, treating learning disorder as well as structuring curricula to enhance learning (Deng, & Sloutsky, 2016). For example, it is said that ladies can use divided attention aspect more than men. What special about it is much research has been done and there will be more to come about cognitive psychology theory on the mental processing of Attention.

References:

Bottom of Form