Editing Cognitive science (section)

===Attention===
{{Main|Attention}}

Attention is the selection of important information. The human mind is bombarded with millions of stimuli and it must have a way of deciding which of this information to process. Attention is sometimes seen as a spotlight, meaning one can only shine the light on a particular set of information. Experiments that support this metaphor include the [[dichotic listening]] task (Cherry, 1957) and studies of [[inattentional blindness]] (Mack and Rock, 1998). In the dichotic listening task, subjects are bombarded with two different messages, one in each ear, and told to focus on only one of the messages. At the end of the experiment, when asked about the content of the unattended message, subjects cannot report it.<ref name=Cherry>{{cite journal | author = Cherry E. C. | year = 1953 | title = Some experiments on the recognition of speech, with one and two ears | journal = Journal of the Acoustical Society of America | volume = 25 | issue = 5| pages = 975–979 | doi=10.1121/1.1907229| hdl = 11858/00-001M-0000-002A-F750-3 | hdl-access = free | bibcode = 1953ASAJ...25..975C }}</ref>

The psychological construct of attention is sometimes confused with the concept of [[intentionality]] due to some degree of semantic ambiguity in their [[definition]]s. At the beginning of experimental research on attention, [[Wilhelm Wundt]] defined this term as "that psychical process, which is operative in the clear perception of the narrow region of the content of consciousness."<ref name="Wundt_1912">Wilhelm Wundt. (1912). ''Introduction to Psychology,'' trans. Rudolf Pintner (London: Allen, 1912; reprint ed., New York: [[Arno Press]], 1973), p. 16.</ref> His experiments showed the limits of attention in space and time, which were 3-6 letters during an exposition of 1/10 s.<ref name="Wundt_1912" /> Because this notion develops within the framework of the original meaning during a hundred years of research, the definition of attention would reflect the sense when it accounts for the main features initially attributed to this term – it is a process of controlling thought that continues over time.<ref>Leahey, T. H. (1979). "Something old, something new: Attention in Wundt and modern cognitive psychology." ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences,'' 15(3), 242-252.</ref> While intentionality is the power of minds to be about something,<ref>Jacob Pierre (2023). "Intentionality", ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (Spring 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2023/entries/intentionality/>.</ref> attention is the concentration of awareness on some [[phenomenon]] during a period of time, which is necessary to elevate the clear [[perception]] of the narrow region of the content of [[consciousness]] and which is feasible to control this focus in [[mind]].<ref name="Wundt_1912" />

The significance of knowledge about the scope of attention for studying [[cognition]] is that it defines the intellectual functions of cognition such as apprehension, judgment, reasoning, and working memory. The development of attention scope increases the set of faculties responsible for the [[mind]] relies on how it perceives, remembers, considers, and evaluates in making decisions.<ref>"Mind". Encyclopedia Britannica. [https://www.britannica.com/topic/mind Retrieved] 20 January 2024.</ref> The ground of this statement is that the more details (associated with an event) the mind may grasp for their comparison, association, and categorization, the closer apprehension, judgment, and reasoning of the event are in accord with reality.<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2022">Val Danilov I, and Mihailova S. (2022). "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." ''OBM Neurobiology'' 2022;6(2):17; doi:10.21926/obm.neurobiol.2202122</ref> According to Latvian professor Sandra Mihailova and professor Igor Val Danilov, the more elements of the phenomenon (or phenomena ) the mind can keep in the scope of attention simultaneously, the more significant number of reasonable combinations within that event it can achieve, enhancing the probability of better understanding features and particularity of the phenomenon (phenomena).<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2022" /> For example, three items in the focal point of consciousness yield six possible combinations (3 factorial) and four items – 24 (4 factorial) combinations. The number of reasonable combinations becomes significant in the case of a focal point with six items with 720 possible combinations (6 factorial).<ref name="ValDanilov_Mihailova 2022" />