Types of human attention: complete classification + examples from life

Dear friends, hello everyone! Lyudmila Redkina is with you. Let's do an experiment: walk into a room and notice the largest object in it. What will it be? Now remember: when something falls, where do you look? Did you know that in the first and second cases, your brain works in an enhanced mode, as it “turns on” attentiveness. But here’s the secret: in the first and second cases, different types of this process work! In today’s article we will talk to you about what types of attention a person has and how they manifest themselves in life.

Definition and meaning of attention for a person

This process occupies an important place in the knowledge of the environment, human life, its development and self-expression. Let's go straight to the definition:

Attention is the concentration of our consciousness, focus on a specific object, real or ideal, which ensures its clear and clear reflection.

This is a common definition in psychology. Sorry, I can't go anywhere without him. And now in simple words.

Attention is when you look at a flower and see that it is green, in a white pot, approximately waist-high and with small leaves (I am describing ficus). That is, you have directed your consciousness, gaze and brain activity to this object and can clearly characterize it.

When a person is inattentive, they say about him “it went in one ear, out the other.” That is, he didn’t understand anything, didn’t remember anything, there was nothing left in his brain. To concentrate, you need to distract yourself from everything extraneous and make an effort. That is why the process of attention is difficult to demonstrate in preschool age, when the child cannot study objects in a directed manner.

Without it, a person will not be able to understand what is around him and remember it. In general, memory and concentration are very closely related, so when they talk about how to develop the brain, they immediately mention both memory and attention. About these mental processes we can say “Tamara and I walk as a couple...”.

Well, an inattentive child cannot remember all the parts of speech in a sentence. He will hear them, but will not retain them in his memory for long. If we talk about something more complex, then attention is the constant work of nerve cells in the cerebral cortex. The mechanism works like this: one area is activated, while others are inhibited at this moment. It turns out that in order to focus on something, you need to give up something.

Different types and properties of attention manifest themselves in a person’s life. This is what helps him achieve success, since high concentration on something (in work, life) leads to increased efficiency.

In the table I briefly presented the main types of this mental process:

Why is mindfulness needed?

The functions performed by attention answer this question. The importance of attentiveness can be outlined using the simplest situational examples from a person’s daily activities, illustrating the work about “the absent-minded person from Basseynaya Street.” Thus, inattention can lead to erroneous actions. In some mental disorders, inattentiveness in its extreme manifestations acts as a symptom of the disease. Inattention in children may indicate slow development. Thus, voluntary attention may be impaired.

Psychologists identify the following main functions:

• vigilance;
• reaction to signals and their detection;
• search functions;
• selectivity;
• distribution.

Vigilance is important when providing a sense of personal safety. Search functions are also directly related to mindfulness. Thus, the development of this quality through search is facilitated by such a simple school technique as working on mistakes and checking one’s own work for their presence. This not only develops attentiveness, but also forms involuntary attention.

Attentiveness in the field of intellectual work is important. In order to identify the degree of its formation and development, various techniques are used.

In addition, psychology uses such concepts as signs of attention. These include pantomic behavioral features: freezing, holding the breath or slowing it down, manifested in concentration on a specific object during intellectual work. Thus, today one of the most studied is visual attention. A sign of its manifestation is contemplation or looking at visible objects, the ability to remember their arrangement or external features. Develop children's visual attention through color or shape. The development of auditory attention is based on the ability to memorize sounds and pronunciations.

Types of attention

There are not many of them. The classification identifies several types that characterize human mental activity.

At the request of volitional efforts

This cognitive process is closely related to will. With willpower we can concentrate on important things, but without willpower we also focus on objects. What's the difference?

Involuntary

It is born with the child. Based on reflexes. When you touch a hot kettle, what do you do? That's right, you pull your hand away. This happens unconsciously. Same with attention. You unconsciously direct your consciousness towards a certain object. There is no work of will here.

It arises on its own, there is no goal, no specific tasks. We often react spontaneously to something new, like children exploring an unfamiliar room. This can be a loud sound, light, smell or other irritants for us.

free

Here, human consciousness is already connected with will. It arises in adulthood, when the individual has tasks and goals necessary for mental action. This species matures when the child begins to learn. But it develops gradually: for younger schoolchildren it lasts up to 20 minutes, for adults it lasts as long as it takes for work.

Characteristics of voluntary attention

This intentional focus is supported by an effort of will that constantly maintains attention. For the brain, such effort is tension, mobilization of forces to solve problems. It is the will in close friendship with attention that helps a person not to make mistakes, not to be distracted and to keep consciousness on the object.

Post-voluntary

The peculiarities of this type are that both will and interest are used here. First a person makes an effort to do something, and then he becomes interested. It is he who reinforces further actions. Passion is included in the process, any work is carried out without any special difficulties. This type characterizes the orientation of the individual and is characteristic of the creative process.

Anti-arbitrary

This is a specific type, you will not find it in many textbooks on general psychology. Its peculiarity is that concentration manifests itself against the will of a person. Even if you intensely avert your eyes from something and cover your ears, anti-voluntary attention will still take over and you will succumb to the temptation to focus on something. They say about him “the forbidden fruit is sweet.”

By origin

Here we are talking about where our attention comes from. What characteristics of a person does it come from?

Touch

Here we are talking about our analyzers. We see, hear, taste, smell, touch. It’s the same with mental processes - memory differs according to the analyzer, and human attention has the same differences. I will describe the forms of this species.

• Tactile

A person directs his consciousness to the object that touched him. For example, a person stepped on his foot in transport - we are already looking at him, we can even express our “Phi” with feeling.

• Auditory

They heard something and directed their consciousness there, by ear. For example, a car honks on the road, which means you need to react.

• Visual

They saw something and got their eye on it. This type is the most common of all sensory ones.

• Olfactory

Have you ever had a situation where you walked past a house and the yard smelled of barbecue? Did you notice? This look worked. We direct our consciousness to what smells good, be it a femme fatale wearing Dolce&Gabbana perfume or the smell of a cigarette, barbecue, or fish.

• Flavoring

When you try a new product, you direct your awareness to its taste. For example, I recently tried drinking coconut. Cool stuff, I tell you. The milk is great, and its contents helped cure my cough! I paid attention to this product, remembered it, and, I think, will not use it for the last time.

Motor

This type provides awareness and regulation of movements. It is very important in activities such as sports, music. I remember when I was learning to play the violin, the stage was a place of execution for me. I carefully guided my fingers on the strings so as not to go out of tune in any way. Motor attention worked here, regulating the coordinated movement of the hands and fingers.

Emotional

The name already speaks for itself. This type appears when emotions begin to act. It is regulated by emotions, aimed at the external or internal manifestation of experiences.

For example, when I receive unpleasant news, outwardly I am in a stupor, but all my attention is directed inward - I worry, think through what will happen next, how to behave, what actions to take.

This type is caused by stimuli that are important to humans. If you find out that some Petrov Petya died in some country, this will not affect you, but it will greatly affect the person for whom Petya was a close friend. The more significant this stimulus, the brighter the emotional attention. It is closely related to memory.

Intellectual

This type is regulated by thinking and can also be directed to a person's thoughts. Here we are talking about solving problems “in the head,” calculating various operations, and memorizing poetry.

Intellectual attention is also very closely related to memory. Consider that they definitely cannot be here without each other. Otherwise, how can you then “pull out” from the brain what a person has thought up and calculated? Only through the property of memory - reproduction. Also here the properties of thinking come into play, especially analysis and conclusions.

By manifestation

Here we are talking about where the process of awareness in a person is directed. This will have a different focus in different types of activities.

External

Aimed at important objects in the surrounding world, external environment. For example, pay attention to the TV being turned on.

Internal

Aimed at highlighting what is important in the work of the human psyche. For example, some thought processes or the work of the imagination.

These are the main types of attention that are known to psychology. And all of them are important for a person. This is a well-researched mental process, although now there are many children, and even adults, with its deficiency. Thanks to attention tests, we can find out which type of mental process predominates in us and at what level of development it is.

Reasons for appearance

Such concentration does not depend on the individual; it cannot be controlled. I will list several reasons why a person is distracted by external factors.

• The nature of the stimulus. Any loud sound, strong knock, or blinding light provokes the individual to respond. If he is very interested in something, he may not notice these factors, for example, during an interesting computer game or sports competition. However, during sleep or while reading, we react to sounds that are unusual for us.
• The stimulus corresponds to the internal state. The average person and a football fan will not have the same reaction to a conversation related to football. The first will calmly react to the stimulus, the second will expressively prove his point of view.
• Matching interests. If you have certain hobbies, they will always attract your attention. A designer can be distracted by looking at an interior that delights him, and a photographer can be distracted by a beautiful photo that interests him.
• The influence of stimuli on feelings. A person who experiences a strong interest is filled with a certain range of sensations and emotions. Emotional reaction is the main reason for the appearance of involuntary concentration.

The positive side of an involuntary reaction is that at the right moment the person will be able to find the cause, identify the irritant and figure out how to get rid of it. Also, such attention makes it easier to return to your usual activities.

Psychologist Daria Milai

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The negative side appears when, due to reaction to street noise or any conversation, the productivity and quality of the work performed suffers.

Also, such attentiveness allows you to see the traits that are inherent in a particular individual - frivolity, irresponsibility, simplicity or depth of feelings, kindness. A beautiful landscape and a building of amazing architecture attract artists, since these objects influence their aesthetic perception of beauty. However, an ordinary person will pass by these species, simply not noticing them.

Properties of attention

In addition to types, science also identifies properties - what quality of attention a person has, how long or how strongly he can concentrate.

Concentration

This property allows a person to focus attention on one subject or object. Here, an important characteristic of this process is the ability not to be distracted by everything else that is around.

A concentrated person may look frostbitten from the outside; when you contact him, he does not answer. While working at a high intensity of concentration, people may forget that they wanted to eat or go to the toilet. This is a necessary condition for a person to successfully perform important tasks.

Intensity

A quality that determines the effectiveness of attention and other mental processes at the same time. Here memory, thinking, and perception are harnessed to work. If a person has a great interest in the work, it is complex, and there is the influence of distracting stimuli, then the intensity will be greater.

Sustainability

In other words, attention endurance. If intensity is important when concentrating, that is, the strength of this process, then time is important here - how long attention is maintained on one subject, object, task. This function is important in the educational activities of children and the work of adults. It develops as a person’s tasks become more complex.

Switching

This is a conscious transfer of attention from one object to another. Here we are talking about the speed of moving focus, the transition from one activity to another. This transition is used to be able to cover all important events and objects in a short period of time. This is a good skill for a person, because then he will have time to be at the center of all events and innovations.

Volume

Here it is estimated how many objects a person can simultaneously hold in the zone of awareness. Attention span is important for multi-level activities, multitasking.

In adults, the volume reaches 6 objects that are simultaneously in the focus of attention. In children - no more than 2-3. What is important here is how homogeneous the objects are (then it is easier to recognize them), how they are interconnected. A person’s professional skills are also important.

Distribution

This property is very similar to volume - the ability of a person to perform several actions at the same time. If in volume you can do without activity (look at several objects and become aware of them), then in distribution we are talking about how attention manifests itself in activity.

But here it is important that these actions are from different areas: it is easier to distribute attention, performing one mental and another physical activity. The second option is that one action should be brought to automaticity. For example, when a person physically controls a car, but mentally looks at it so as not to violate traffic rules.

Types of involuntary concentration

This type of attentiveness is influenced not only by the degree of surprise and the strength of the factors, but also by their contrast. A very familiar situation is when a speaker suddenly changes his quiet and calm speech to loud. This gesture immediately attracts and alarms the audience.

Spontaneous concentration can be divided into several types:

• Familiar. It is characterized by constant interests of the individual (in a bookstore, an artist always goes to the rack with books about fine arts).
• Involuntary. It focuses on biological needs (a hungry individual, when participating in a conversation, carefully listens to information about food).
• Forced. It manifests itself when a person is exposed to intense stimuli and repeated signals (a pedestrian turns around when he sees an ambulance or police car with a loud siren on the road).

However, not all objects can be of interest. They must first of all stand out against the background of other factors that influence the individual. Also, such an item must have distinctive features. The stronger the stimulus, the more clearly it will attract the attention of others.

Examples of showing attention in our lives

In a person’s life, any action begins with awareness, and therefore with his attention. In childhood, he acts within the framework of interest, then - with the help of willpower, and then (and this is the best option) combines interest and willpower.

Let me give you an example. A student enters a new classroom, sits down on the first chair available, opens a book, and prepares for the seminar. And only then, in the process of pairing, he begins to realize that the walls are peach-colored, there are interesting thematic posters on them, the chair is scratched, and the teacher has funny dimples on his cheeks and antediluvian glasses. This is voluntary attention - first focusing on the task at hand.

And a child enters a new class - he quickly switches from one desk to another, looks at new posters, and tugs at his neighbor on the desk. And only then, somewhere in the middle of the lesson, he realizes that he has come to mathematics and it’s time to get down to business. This involuntary attention - first focusing on external stimuli, comes from interest.

Advertising uses technology aimed at several properties and an involuntary type of attention. Constantly switching pictures stimulates a person to remain “attention” for a long time, that is, to direct awareness to the screen. And here the main trick is the effect on the involuntary view, since there is no need to strain willpower, the person watches it out of interest. And he remembers. And he buys it.

If you don’t want to get hooked by advertisers, show willpower and distract yourself with something else. To do this you need to develop attention. There are many tools and programs.

But there are also disruptions to this process. A sign of problems with it is absent-mindedness - it occurs for various reasons:

• no skills for concentrated work;
• it is difficult to switch to different types of activities;
• overwork.

Modern techniques for developing concentration and switching attention help solve this problem. There are many courses on developing attention. They have ready-made recipes for solving problems with attentiveness.

Differences between voluntary and involuntary

Spontaneous mindfulness requires prompt behavior correction in a constantly changing environment. The voluntary type implies conscious regulation of activity and has the following features:

• gradualism and purposefulness - all the individual’s activity is aimed at achieving goals;
• composure and organization - the person prepares in advance for concentration and tries to maintain it using willpower;
• balance and stability - activities can continue for a long time, so it is necessary to be steady so as not to interrupt concentration.

When performing tasks or solving problems for a long time, you must remember that focusing on these objects for a long time leads to rapid fatigue and decreased productivity. Therefore, I recommend taking short breaks, which should be spent in the fresh air so that the brain is saturated with oxygen, and you can also do exercises to stretch your body.

The individual needs to be distracted from intellectual activity. But you shouldn’t switch to something else during the break and rest period. For example, reading a book does not promote relaxation, but only makes you even more tired.

In this article I explained what it is – voluntary and involuntary attention. If you feel that you cannot concentrate on any task, you should not solve this difficulty alone, as you can make everything much worse. I will help you solve problems with your inattention and identify the causes of impaired attentiveness.

If you decide to deal with your difficulties on your own, then I recommend giving your body time to rest so that your body can relax and your brain can recharge. I also advise you to give up junk food and engage in physical activity - sports, fitness.

Take regular breaks

It is impossible to maintain attention for a long time, this leads to fatigue and loss of concentration. According to several studies, you should spend 52 minutes on one task and then take a break for 17 minutes. Also, the well-known Pomodoro technique suggests taking 5-minute breaks every 25 minutes.

During the break, you can do small physical exercises that improve concentration and memory. This is how a special protein is formed in the hippocampus - brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which promotes the formation of new neurons.

Turn off notifications on all gadgets

Daniel Goleman in his book Focus. About attention, distraction and success in life” argues that attention is not only a product of the brain. It is also influenced by culture and, in particular, by technology, the active use of which has led to “impoverishment of attention.” Our gadgets allow us to connect to an endless stream of information, and constant notifications make it difficult to maintain focus. Not all messages require urgent notification. The resulting “neural buzz” can overwhelm our ability to concentrate.

If it is not possible to remove notifications completely, leave only the most important ones, and enter other chats only when necessary or after completing a task. You can check your mail at a designated time and add this item to your schedule: for example, the “Check inbox” task should be completed at the beginning of the working day, in the middle and at the end.

Return to a calm state through breathing

Your ability to concentrate depends on your mental state: the more anxious your mind, the more difficult it is to maintain focus. Before starting work or training, you need to return to a calm state. Amishi Jha, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Miami and a neuroscientist at the UMindfulness Initiative, recommended regular breathing exercises in her TED Talk, “How to Tame Your Wandering Mind.”

Jha advises sitting in a comfortable vertical position in silence and paying attention to the sensation of breathing, feeling cold or warm air. “Focus on what is connected to your sensory experience. When your mind wanders away from this sensation toward internal mental content or external distraction, gently bring it back to the object of breathing, says the neuroscientist. - Don’t be surprised if a lot of distracting thoughts come to you during a 15-minute session. Think of your brain as a puppy you are training to walk on a leash. Gently redirect him every time he leaves.”