The Importance Of Selective Attention

Chronicle of Distraction The world of online is filtered with diversion in every browse; with the share this and view here, no wonder it is easy to lose focus while reading on the web. Nicolas Carr, an author who wrote “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” mentions "Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distractions, remains largely disengaged" (Carr). Carr identifies internet disruptions can interrupt the ability to focus on evaluation. During my reading "25 Spectacular Movies You (Probably) Haven’t Seen"(Schirp) on highexistence.com, I noticed that my attention was fascinating by the topics on the page, ads on the sides, and comment sections.

Verna von Pfetten acknowledges in the article “Read This Story Without Distraction (Can You?),” that monotasking has its benefits although the environment has more to do with focusing than one might think. Everyone knows “multitasking” doesn’t actually exist. The brain cannot multitask. Instead, it switches from one task to another, meeting the demands of only one at a time. There is a cost associated with this switch, resulting in brain power being eaten away causing productivity to slip.

I have discovered that I am most distracted when there are multiple tabs irrelevant to my work open on my computer. Normally this occurs when I have shopping and social media windows open, which is a big red flag for me when I am trying to do work. What happens is I get the urge to check in on everyone’s lives on Facebook

Anderson also interviews the author, Winifred Gallagher, the author of Rapt, a book about the power of attention, who wrote the book while fighting a severe form of breast cancer. She mentions that her diagnosis can be viewed as an internal struggle of focus, due to the gravity of her situation. Anderson mentions that she realized attention was ‘ “not just a latent ability, it was something you could marshal and use as a tool” ’ (3). Anderson consults Gallagher on distraction and suggests that attentional self-control, is the focal point of whether one will invest their time productively or become distracted. I concur with this argument, because a majority of instances where I was unable to finish my assignments or work was when I allowed or continued to be distracted by technology.

The demons use this often in my life. My main distraction in my life is technology. For example, I will be sitting at the desk and then I will hear my phone start ringing or I will see a new update on my computer and feel the urge to go and check it. The demons place these things out to hamper

Is technology changing our brains for the better or for the worse? The human brain is a biological masterpiece and is the most advanced organ on the face of the planet. In Richard Restak’s essay “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era,” he speaks about how the advancements in technology in this modern era have affected the brain’s habits and functions. Multitasking is requiring the brain to change how it functions, its organizations, and efficiency throughout day-to-day tasks and is also enabling people to do things otherwise not possible. Within the past two decades, the amount of time we spend on using technology has increased by a large amount.

Distractions are used all around, small and big. In Fahrenheit 451, citizens own Seashells which are little radio thimbles. Most people have them in for most of the day. “Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind.”

Multitasking makes it difficult to gain any knowledge when a person's attention is in multiple places.  Christine has a strong inductive argument that explains

When using the internet often we tend to get addicted, and when we are away from the internet all we wonder about is what we are missing out on. “We want to be interrupted because each interruption brings us a valuable piece of information. To turn off these alerts is to risk feeling out of touch, or even socially isolated," wrote Carr. I am addicted to the internet, and when I am away from it can get tough. When I do my homework I turn off my phone, and put it in another room or else I get distracted and cannot get anything done.

Anderson tone especially seems adverse from what his true argument is. Furthermore, Anderson continues his contradicting tone against attention by stating that: When forced to multitask, the overloaded

Shulman defined focus listening as “concentrating on a specific part of the client’s message” (Shulman, 2009). My understanding of focus listening is understanding what the client is saying and not saying. Being able to tune in to subjects the client does not want to discuss and being able to address it with the client. One case that stand out to me was 16 year old Emily who was brought to my office by her mom because of her defiant behavior. Meeting with Emily was challenging at first.

Abstract The attentional boost effect is novel because its findings were contradictory to previous studies that found divided attention while encoding impairs one’s memory. This effect has been displayed in tests of item memory; however it has not yet been determined whether it affects contextual memory in a similar fashion. This study used four experiments to examine in further depth how the attentional boost affects contextual memory. In this review we will only be discussing experiment one, which examined contextual memory of intra-modal detail using font and color difference in study words.

Distraction, an issue that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else, happens to everyone, every day whether it is realized or not. Multitasking, the handling of more than one task at the same time by a single person, also an everyday issue that most people do not even think about being an issue to their everyday life, but little do they know without this type distraction they could get forty percent more of their work done. Distraction is everywhere, and with distraction comes multitasking, this combination is something that should be avoided if possible. Focusing on one task has been the biggest issue with the creation of the internet and smartphones. Dewatripont mentions in his paper, “focusing on the two-task case for simplicity, the mainstream multitask problem is based on the observation

arbitrary inference, negative automatic thoughts activate pathological anxiety (Burns, 1989). As reported by behaviorism, anxiety is learned through classical conditioning (in which a neutral stimulus acquires meaning through association with a crucial stimulus) and maintained through operant conditioning (in which avoidance from the negative experience of anxiety plays eventually a key role in its increase) (Mowrer, 1947). Moreover, the new field of neurobiology contributed to the deeper understanding of anxiety but in a more biological aspect. It has been proved that brain chemistry and brain function or dysfunctions respectively can alter thoughts, emotions and behaviors. So, when an individual perceives an information or stimulus from the environment as threatening, the levels of many neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, GABA and

Selective attention is the procedure of concentrating on a specific item in a setting for a long period of time. Attention is a restricted source; therefore, selective attention permits people to not take notice of insignificant details and concentrate on the main material that matters. Theories of selective attention incline to emphasise on when stimulus information is attended to, either early in the procedure or late. Donald Broadbent 's filter model was one of the earliest theories of attention. Broadbent (1958) realised that information from all stimuluses entered a sensory buffer no matter what time.