Editing Attention (section)

==Contemporary definition and research==
Prior to the founding of [[psychology]] as a scientific discipline, attention was studied in the field of [[philosophy]]. Thus, many of the discoveries in the field of attention were made by philosophers. Psychologist [[John B. Watson]] calls [[Juan Luis Vives]] the father of modern psychology because, in his book ''De Anima et Vita'' (''The Soul and Life''), he was the first to recognize the importance of empirical investigation.<ref name="Johnson 2004 1–24">{{cite book| vauthors = Johnson A |title=Attention: Theory and Practice|year=2004|publisher=SAGE Publications|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|isbn=978-0-7619-2760-0|pages=1–24}}</ref>  In his work on memory, Vives found that the more closely one attends to stimuli, the better they will be retained.

By the 1990s, psychologists began using [[positron emission tomography]] (PET) and later [[functional magnetic resonance imaging]] (fMRI) to image the brain while monitoring tasks involving attention. Considering this expensive equipment was generally only available in hospitals, psychologists sought cooperation with neurologists. Psychologist [[Michael Posner (psychologist)|Michael Posner]] (then already renowned for his influential work on visual selective attention) and neurologist [[Marcus Raichle]] pioneered brain imaging studies of selective attention.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | vauthors = Raichle M  |title = Positron Emission Tomography |encyclopedia = The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences |date = 1999 |access-date  = June 10, 2018 |url = http://ai.ato.ms/MITECS/Entry/raichle.html |publisher = MIT Press |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20150117235910/http://ai.ato.ms/MITECS/Entry/raichle.html |archive-date = January 17, 2015 |url-status = dead |df = mdy-all }}</ref> Their results soon sparked interest from the neuroscience community, which until then had been focused on monkey brains. With the development of these technological innovations, [[neuroscientist]]s became interested in this type of research that combines sophisticated experimental paradigms from [[cognitive psychology]] with these new brain imaging techniques. Although the older technique of [[electroencephalography]] (EEG) had long been used to study the brain activity underlying selective attention by [[psychophysiology|cognitive psychophysiologists]], the ability of the newer techniques to measure precisely localized activity inside the brain generated renewed interest by a wider community of researchers. A growing body of such [[neuroimaging]] research has identified a [[dorsal frontoparietal network|frontoparietal attention network]] which appears to be responsible for control of attention.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Scolari M, Seidl-Rathkopf KN, Kastner S | title = Functions of the human frontoparietal attention network: Evidence from neuroimaging | journal = Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences | volume = 1 | pages = 32–39 | date = February 2015 | pmid = 27398396 | pmc = 4936532 | doi = 10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.08.003 }}</ref>

A [[definition]] of a [[psychological construct]] forms a research approach to its study. In scientific works, attention often coincides and substitutes the notion of [[intentionality]] due to the extent of semantic uncertainty in the linguistic explanations of these notions' definitions. Intentionality has in turn been defined as "the power of minds to be about something: to represent or to stand for things, properties and states of affairs".<ref>{{cite web | last=Jacob | first=Pierre | title=Intentionality | website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | date=2003-08-07 | url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intentionality/ | access-date=2024-06-29}}</ref> Although these two psychological constructs (attention and intentionality) appear to be defined by similar terms, they are different notions. To clarify the definition of attention, it would be correct to consider the origin of this notion to review the meaning of the term given to it when the experimental study on attention was initiated. It is thought that the experimental approach began with famous experiments with a 4 x 4 matrix of sixteen randomly chosen letters – the experimental paradigm that informed [[Wilhelm Wundt|Wundt]]'s theory of attention.<ref name="Leahey">{{cite journal | last=Leahey | first=Thomas H. | title=Something old, something new: Attention in Wundt and modern cognitive psychology | journal=Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences | volume=15 | issue=3 | date=1979 | doi=10.1002/1520-6696(197907)15:3<242::AID-JHBS2300150305>3.0.CO;2-O | pages=242–252| pmid=11608282 }}</ref> [[Wilhelm Wundt|Wundt]] interpreted the experimental outcome introducing the meaning of attention as "that psychical process, which is operative in the clear perception of the narrow region of the content of consciousness."<ref>Wilhelm Wundt. (1912). ''Introduction to Psychology,'' trans. Rudolf Pintner (London: Allen, 1912; reprint ed., New York: [[Arno Press]], 1973), p. 16.</ref> These experiments showed the physical limits of attention threshold, which were 3-6 letters observing the matrix during 1/10 s of their exposition.<ref name="Leahey" /> "We shall call the entrance into the large region of consciousness - apprehension, and the elevation into the focus of attention - apperception."<ref>Wilhelm Wundt. (1912). ''Introduction to Psychology,'' trans. Rudolf Pintner (London: Allen, 1912; reprint ed., New York: [[Arno Press]], 1973), pp. 35-36.</ref> Wundt's theory of attention postulated one of the main features of this notion that attention is an active, voluntary process realized during a certain time.<ref name="Leahey" /> In contrast, neuroscience research shows that intentionality may emerge instantly, even unconsciously; research reported to register neuronal correlates of an intentional act that preceded this conscious act (also see [[shared intentionality]]).<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Andelman-Gur | first1=Michal M. | last2=Fried | first2=Itzhak | title=Consciousness: a neurosurgical perspective | journal=Acta Neurochirurgica | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=165 | issue=10 | date=2023-08-18 | issn=0942-0940 | doi=10.1007/s00701-023-05738-9 | pages=2729–2735| pmid=37594639 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1=Fried | first1=Itzhak | last2=Mukamel | first2=Roy | last3=Kreiman | first3=Gabriel | title=Internally Generated Preactivation of Single Neurons in Human Medial Frontal Cortex Predicts Volition | journal=Neuron | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=69 | issue=3 | year=2011 | issn=0896-6273 | doi=10.1016/j.neuron.2010.11.045 | pages=548–562| pmid=21315264 | pmc=3052770 }}</ref> Therefore, while intentionality is a mental state (“the power of the mind to be about something”, arising even unconsciously), the description of the construct of attention should be understood in the dynamical sense as the ability to elevate the clear perception of the narrow region of the content of consciousness and to keep in mind this state for a time. The attention threshold would be the period of minimum time needed for employing perception to clearly apprehend the scope of intention. From this perspective, a scientific approach to attention is relevant when it considers the difference between these two concepts (first of all, between their statical and dynamical statuses).

The growing body of literature shows empirical evidence that attention is conditioned by the number of elements and the duration of exposition. Decades of research on [[subitizing]] have supported Wundt's findings about the limits of a human ability to concentrate awareness on a task.<ref>Freeman FN (1912). "Grouped objects as a concrete basis for the number idea." ''Elem Sch Teach.'' 12: 306-314.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Fernberger | first=Samuel W. | title=A Preliminary Study of the Range of Visual Apprehension | journal=The American Journal of Psychology | volume=32 | issue=1 | date=1921 | pages=121–133 | doi=10.2307/1413479 | jstor=1413479 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1=Kaufman | first1=E. L. | last2=Lord | first2=M. W. | last3=Reese | first3=T. W. | last4=Volkmann | first4=J. | title=The Discrimination of Visual Number | journal=The American Journal of Psychology | volume=62 | issue=4 | date=1949 | pages=498–525 | doi=10.2307/1418556 | jstor=1418556 | pmid=15392567 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Averbach | first=Emanuel | title=The span of apprehension as a function of exposure duration | journal=Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=2 | issue=1 | year=1963 | issn=0022-5371 | doi=10.1016/s0022-5371(63)80068-7 | pages=60–64}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1=Feigenson | first1=Lisa | last2=Carey | first2=Susan | title=Tracking individuals via object-files: evidence from infants' manual search | journal=Developmental Science | volume=6 | issue=5 | date=2003 | issn=1363-755X | doi=10.1111/1467-7687.00313 | pages=568–584}}</ref> Latvian prof. Sandra Mihailova and prof. Igor Val Danilov drew an essential conclusion from the Wundtian approach to the study of attention: the scope of attention is related to cognitive development.<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2023">{{cite journal | author=Academic Center for Coherent Intelligence, Riga, Latvia | last2=Danilov | first2=Igor Val | last3=Mihailova | first3=Sandra | author4=Riga Stradins University, Riga, Latvia | title=A Case Study on the Development of Math Competence in an Eight-year-old Child with Dyscalculia: Shared Intentionality in Human-Computer Interaction for Online Treatment Via Subitizing | journal=OBM Neurobiology | volume=6 | issue=2 | date=2022-01-24 | doi=10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202122 | pages=1| doi-access=free }}</ref> As the mind grasps more details about an event, it also increases the number of reasonable combinations within that event, enhancing the probability of better understanding its features and particularity.<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2023" /> For example, three items in the focal point of consciousness have six possible combinations (3 factorial), and four items have 24 (4 factorial) combinations. This number of combinations becomes significantly prominent in the case of a focal point with six items with 720 possible combinations (6 factorial).<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2023" /> Empirical evidence suggests that the scope of attention in young children develops from two items in the focal point at age up to six months to five or more items in the focal point at age about five years.<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2023" /> As follows from the most recent studies in relation to teaching activities in [[school]], “attention” should be understood as “the state of concentration of an individual's [[consciousness]] on the process of selecting by his own psyche the information he requires and on the process of choosing an algorithm for response actions, which involves the intensification of sensory and intellectual activities”.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Artiukhov |first=A. A. |year=2024 |title="The System of Prearranged Points" as a Method of Student's Knowledge Evaluation in Course of Teaching Natural-Scientific Subjects in a Secondary School by way of Example of Geography |url=https://research-journal.org/media/articles/13017.pdf |journal=Mezhdunarodny'j nauchno-issledovatel'skij zhurnal [International Research Journal] |volume=6 |language=ru |location=Yekaterinburg, Russia |issue=144 |page=3 |doi=10.60797/IRJ.2024.144.87 |issn=2303-9868}}</ref>