Editing Attention (section)

===1860–1909===
This period of attention research took the focus from conceptual findings to experimental testing. It also involved psychophysical methods that allowed measurement of the relation between physical stimulus properties and the psychological perceptions of them. This period covers the development of attentional research from the founding of psychology to 1909.

[[Wilhelm Wundt]] introduced the study of attention to the field of psychology. Wundt measured mental processing speed by likening it to differences in stargazing measurements. Astronomers in this time would measure the time it took for stars to travel.  Among these measurements when astronomers recorded the times, there were personal differences in calculation. These different readings resulted in different reports from each astronomer. To correct for this, a [[personal equation]] was developed. Wundt applied this to mental processing speed. Wundt realized that the time it takes to see the stimulus of the star and write down the time was being called an "observation error" but actually was the time it takes to switch voluntarily one's attention from one stimulus to another. Wundt called his school of psychology [[voluntarism (sociology)|voluntarism]]. It was his belief that psychological processes can only be understood in terms of goals and consequences.

[[Franciscus Donders]] used [[mental chronometry]] to study attention and it was considered a major field of intellectual inquiry by authors such as [[Sigmund Freud]]. Donders and his students conducted the first detailed investigations of the speed of mental processes. Donders measured the time required to identify a stimulus and to select a motor response. This was the time difference between stimulus discrimination and response initiation.  Donders also formalized the subtractive method which states that the time for a particular process can be estimated by adding that process to a task and taking the difference in reaction time between the two tasks. He also differentiated between [[Mental chronometry|three types of reactions]]: simple reaction, choice reaction, and go/no-go reaction.

[[Hermann von Helmholtz]] also contributed to the field of attention relating to the extent of attention. Von Helmholtz stated that it is possible to focus on one stimulus and still perceive or ignore others.  An example of this is being able to focus on the letter u in the word house and still perceiving the letters h, o, s, and e.

One major debate in this period was whether it was possible to attend to two things at once (split attention). [[Walter Benjamin]] described this experience as "reception in a state of [[distraction]]." This disagreement could only be resolved through experimentation.

In 1890, [[William James]], in his textbook ''[[The Principles of Psychology]]'', remarked:
{{cquote|''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.''<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = James W | date = 1890 | title = The Principles of Psychology | location = New York | publisher = Henry Holt | volume = 1 | pages = 403–404 | title-link = The Principles of Psychology }}</ref>}}
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.