The essence of attention in psychology. Psychological and physiological essence of attention and its properties

All processes of cognition - whether it be perception or thinking - are directed to one or another object that is reflected in them: we perceive something, think about something, imagine or imagine something. At the same time, it is not perception in itself that perceives, and it is not thought itself that thinks; a person perceives and thinks - a perceiving and thinking person.

Therefore, in each of the processes we have studied so far, there is always some kind of relation of the personality to the world, the subject to the subject, consciousness to the object. This attitude finds expression in attention. Sensation and perception, memory, thinking, imagination - each of these processes has its own specific content; each process is a unity of image and activity: perception is the unity of the process of perception - perception - and perception as an image of an object and a phenomenon of reality; thinking is the unity of thinking as activity and thought, as content - a concept, a general idea, a judgment. Attention has no special content of its own; it manifests itself within perception, thinking. It is a side of all cognitive processes of consciousness, and, moreover, that side of them in which they act as an activity directed at an object.

We are attentive when we not only hear, but also listen or even listen, not only see, but also look or even peer, i.e. when the activity of our cognitive activity is emphasized or increased in the process of cognition or reflection of objective reality. Attention is, first of all, a dynamic characteristic of the course of cognitive activity: it expresses the predominant connection of mental activity with a specific object on which it is focused, as in a focus. Attention is a selective focus on one or another object and focus on it, deepening into the cognitive activity directed at the object.

Behind attention are always the interests and needs, attitudes and orientation of the individual. They cause a change in attitude towards the object. And a change in attitude to an object is expressed in attention - in a change in the image of this object, in its givenness to consciousness: it becomes clearer and more distinct, as if more convex. Thus, although attention does not have its own special content, manifesting itself in other processes, however, in it, too, the relationship between activity and image is revealed in a specific way. A change in attention is expressed in a change in the clarity and distinctness of the content on which cognitive activity is focused.

Attention finds a sharpened expression of the connection of consciousness with the object; the more active the conscious activity, the more clearly the object appears; the more clearly the object appears in consciousness, the more intense the consciousness itself. Attention is a manifestation of this connection between consciousness and the object that is realized in it.

Since attention expresses the relationship between the consciousness or mental activity of an individual and an object, a certain two-sidedness is also observed in it: on the one hand, attention is directed to the object, on the other, the object attracts attention. The reasons for attention to this, and not to another object, are not only in the subject, they are also in the object, and even, above all, in it, in its properties and qualities; but they are not in the object in itself, just as they are still less in the subject in itself, they are in the object taken in its relation to the subject, and in the subject taken in its relation to the object. The genesis of attention is associated with the development of a fairly perfect tonic reflex innervation. In the development of attention, the development of tonic activity plays a significant role: it provides the ability to quickly move into a state of active rest, which is necessary for careful observation of an object.

Attention is closely related to activity. At first, in particular at the early stages of phylogenetic development, it is directly included in practical activity, in behavior. Attention first arises as alertness, vigilance, readiness for action on the first signal, as mobilization for the perception of this signal in the interests of action. At the same time, attention already in these early stages also means inhibition, which serves to prepare for action.

As far as theoretical activity stands out from practical activity in a person and acquires relative independence, attention takes on new forms: it is expressed in inhibition of extraneous external activity and concentration on the contemplation of an object, depth and concentration on the subject of reflection. If the expression of attention directed to a mobile external object, associated with an action, is an outward gaze, vigilantly following the object and moving after it, then with attention associated with internal activity, the external expression of attention is a motionless, directed at one point, not noticing anything extraneous gaze of a person. But even behind this external immobility, when paying attention, there is hidden not peace, but activity, only not external, but internal. Attention is an inner activity under the cloak of outer peace.

Attention to the object, being a prerequisite for the direction of action on it, is at the same time the result of some kind of activity. Only by mentally performing some kind of activity directed at an object, one can maintain the concentration of one's attention on it. Attention is a connection of consciousness with an object, more or less close, tenacious; in action, in activity, it is fixed.

It is possible to talk about attention, its presence or absence only in relation to some practical or theoretical activity. A person is attentive when the direction of his thoughts is regulated by the direction of his activity, and both directions, therefore, coincide. This position is justified in various fields of activity.

Determination of the essence of attention in psychology: the history of the issue.

“Everyone knows what attention is. This is a clear and vivid form of the contents of consciousness, isolated from several simultaneously possible objects or streams of thought. Focusing, concentration of consciousness is the essence of attention. It involves turning away from some things in order to deal effectively with others.” This was once written by William James, who devoted much of his own attention to the study of attention, which seems not only to him so simple and famous in everyday life. For scientific research, the essence of attention was not so obvious. Up until recently, the attempts made in psychological science to give a strictly scientific definition of attention cannot be called successful. At the same time, it is clear that the study of features, mainly the properties of attention, is of great practical importance, and there is an urgent need for empirical study of them, for example, in pedagogy, defectology, labor psychology, medical psychology, etc. And therefore, apparently, the history of the study of attention has developed in such a way that empirical studies of it were carried out relatively independently of theoretical ones. They still do not have a consensus either on the definition of the essence of attention, or even on whether it is an independent mental process or it is only a qualitative side of various mental processes.

In the 19th century, especially at the end of it, and at the beginning of the 20th century, attention was at the center of psychological research. However, as is known, at the beginning of the 20th century, the anti-mentalist trend intensified in world psychological science, which dramatically changed the situation in it as a whole. For perspectives on studying attention, these were unfavorable changes. Studied up to this point within the framework of the psychology of consciousness as its phenomenon, attention, as well as consciousness in general, were the main concepts of mentalistic psychology. Behaviorists excluded consciousness, and with it attention, from the subject field of psychology. Gestalpsychologists directly called for abandoning the use of the term attention, citing the fact that anything is hidden behind this concept: where we cannot explain the phenomenon, we simply appeal to the term "attention". In one of his speeches (at the IX International Psychological Congress in 1925), Gestalt psychologist E. Rubin declared that attention does not exist in the mental life of a person. In his opinion, using this term, we are in fact unduly doubling the description of mental processes. Instead of saying, "The student is reading a book," we say, "The student is attentive to the book."

Thus, the desire of researchers of that time to abolish the concept of attention in psychology stemmed, on the one hand, from dissatisfaction with the too wide use of the term “attention” to explain various kinds of phenomena without a strict definition of the essence of the process of attention itself. And on the other hand, this was facilitated by the situation that developed at that time in psychological science, when consciousness was excluded from the subject field of psychology, and with it attention.

Interest in attention in psychology resumed only towards the end of the 1960s. Commenting on the history of the study of attention, the well-known psychologist J. Miller stated: the hopes that, having abandoned the term “attention” for several decades, psychology would be able to develop several more precise concepts that would allow more strictly and objectively describe the corresponding mental processes were not justified. Instead, time was lost that could have been fruitfully used to clarify the essence of attention. In the 1970s, attention was actually rediscovered in psychology: symposiums, conferences, and special monographs were devoted to it. However, the definition of its essence remains an unresolved problem in psychology to this day. Throughout the entire period of studying attention in psychology, there has been a steady tendency to reduce it to some kind of process and actually deny it as an independent process. The logical conclusion of this line of interpretation of attention is in Gestal psychology, which simply denied the existence of attention (not all Gestalt psychology shared this opinion - P. Adams and W. Keller experimentally studied the role of attention in the process of perception). It cannot be said that all this is only in the past. In modern domestic psychology (it is necessary to speak about modern foreign psychology of attention separately), the opinion still prevails that attention is not an independent mental process, but only a characteristic of other mental processes (perception, memory, thinking, etc.). All of them are directed to their object and to a certain extent focused on it. It is impossible to perceive without attention to what is being perceived, to memorize without attention to what is being remembered, and so on. Attention merges with other mental processes; it is their characteristic. It cannot be regarded as a separate, isolated form of the psyche; it does not have its own specific content (S.L. Rubinshtein, N.F. Dobrynin, I.V. Strakhov, etc.). It can be stated that until today in Russian psychology, most psychologists share the idea of ​​attention as a certain side or characteristic of any activity of the subject (internal mental and external practical), which actually reflects the denial of attention as an independent form of the psyche.

At the same time, the opposite point of view was also expressed in domestic psychology. It belongs to P.Ya. Galperin, who suggested that attention, like other mental processes, has its own specific content. It is an internal (mental) act of control. But, unlike other actions that produce a product, writes P.Ya. Galperin, - the activity of control does not have a separate product. It is always directed at what, at least in part, already exists or is happening, created by other processes; to control, you need to have something to control. P.Ya. Galperin expressed this hypothesis, referring to the well-known materialist Zh.O. La Mettrie, who first proposed the idea that attention is a control activity. La Mettrie attached particular importance to this activity in the spiritual life of a person. However, this idea was not developed further by La Mettrie either by himself or by psychologists who developed empirical and physiological psychology at that time. In the middle of the last century (in 1958) P.Ya. Galperin tried to analyze the essence of attention, using this thought expressed by La Mettrie. In the 70s, under his leadership, an experimental study was carried out, in which, by the method of a formative experiment, an attempt was made to systematically, step by step form attention as an ideal, reduced, automated form of control. The content and results of this study are described in detail in the well-known work of P.Ya. Galperin and S.L. Kabylnitskaya "Experimental formation of attention", published in 1974.

In modern domestic psychology, this point of view can be considered neither accepted nor finally rejected, just as the essence of attention remains undefined. Is attention an independent form of the psyche, and then what is its specific content and product? As noted above, P.Ya. tried to answer this question. Galperin and his co-authors, having developed and tested at the same time a method of controlled systematic formation of attention, which can be used in psychological practice. Most other researchers, pointing out the difficulty and even impossibility of distinguishing the specifics of the content and product of attention, tend to think that attention is not an independent mental process. It is only a necessary side or characteristic of other mental processes. But the statement about this does not remove the question of the essence of attention. A large number of different answers were given to it throughout the entire period of attention study. Even today the discussion about the nature of attention cannot be considered complete.

In modern domestic psychology, most researchers attention is defined as the focus of the psyche (consciousness) on certain objects that have a value for the individual (situational or stable); this is the concentration of the psyche (consciousness), suggesting an increased level of mental activity (sensory-perceptual, intellectual, motor). Thus, thanks to attention, mental processes become a) electoral, i.e. aimed at certain objects are significant, i.e. corresponding to the needs of the subject of attention; b) more active which increases their efficiency.

In modern foreign psychology, a different tradition has developed to determine the essence of attention, which will be discussed further.

1.2. The ambiguity of the concept of "attention"

What is attention is a question, answering which, until recently, researchers have given different interpretations. In other words, the concept of "attention" is assigned a variety of meanings. The difference in the understanding of what to call attention can be found already in natural languages. So, for example, in In Latin, attention is the tension of the soul towards a known object or an appeal to it.. The word "attention" has the same meaning in French and English. V German - attention - is a note or remark of an object by the subject, highlighting this object as especially known from other objects. Attention in Russian (listen, listen, intelligible) - the action of taking a known object into the soul, assimilating it by the subject. If we try to isolate something in common that is in these ordinary everyday ideas about attention, expressed in natural languages, then we can find the following. When describing this phenomenon, one singles out (explicitly or implicitly) an attentive subject, an object that attracts attention, and certain relationships between them that make up the process of attention. At the same time, the idea is repeated that only a known, well-known object becomes the object of attention, which is difficult to agree with even within the framework of ordinary reasoning.

The definition of the essence of attention in scientific research, as already noted, has a rather long history.

The result of the efforts of researchers was the creation of a fairly wide semantic field of the concept of "attention", reflecting the complexity and multifaceted nature of the phenomenon denoted by it. There is even less common between scientific interpretations of attention than between ordinary ideas about it in different languages.

In psychological research, both classical and modern, one can find many often non-overlapping definitions of the essence of attention.

Here are the most well-known ideas about the essence of attention, proposed in scientific psychology to date (Table 1).

Table 1

Ideas about the essence of attention in psychology

	author	Definition
1.	T. Ribot, 1892	Attention - "mental monoideism", the concentration of consciousness on one idea; exceptional condition, limited in time; accompanied by an adaptation (natural or artificial) of the individual to the conditions of life.
2.	N.N. Lange, 1893	Attention is an expedient reaction of the body that improves the conditions of perception and contributes to the adaptation of the body to the environment. This is the highlighting of some impressions and the displacement of others.
3.	W. James, 1911	Attention is the result of limited scope of consciousness; carries out the choice (selection) of the content of consciousness. The essence of attention is concentration, concentration of consciousness. It means "distracting from some things in order to work more effectively with others."
4.	G. Ebbinghaus, 1911	Attention is the choice or selection of a stimulus, carried out as a result of supporting one nervous excitation and inhibiting the rest.
	G. Muller	Attention is the “sensory support” of a sensation, an additional mechanism to it, a temporary increase in the sensitivity of those parts of the brain with which this impression is associated; psychologically, this is connected with the expectation of this impression, i.e. prior presence in the mind of the corresponding impression.
5.	W. Wundt, 1912	Attention is a “fixation point of consciousness”; the clearest and most distinct consciousness. Clarity is achieved by moving the content of consciousness out of the zone of perception, i.e. vague indistinct perception, into the zone of apperception - a clear and distinct consciousness. Apperception is a manifestation of "special mental activity".
6.	E. Titchener, 1914	Attention is a property of sensations, it is "sensory clarity" - the quality of sensation that provides its special - dominant - position in consciousness.
7.	P.P. Blonsky, 1927	Attention - "maximum wakefulness", "predominantly cortical process"; attention is based on the vital interests of a person.
8.	K. Koffka, 1935	"Attention how some force within the whole field can be awakened by ... objects of the field", the internal forces of the organization of the field turn out to be stronger than the effect created by the energy that attention adds.
9.	S.L. Rubinstein, 1935	Attention - the side of all cognitive processes of consciousness - the one in which they act as an activity directed at an object, this is "the organization of the selective nature of the processes of our consciousness."
10.	N.F. Dobrynin, 1938	Attention is the direction of mental activity and its concentration on an object that has a certain significance for the individual (sustainable or situational); it is a manifestation of the activity of the whole personality.
11.	L.S. Vygotsky, 1927	Attention in its pure form is not observed Attention is a subjective experience associated with the selection of one object from a number of others; it is associated with a sensory set, which promotes better perception, and with a motor set, which contributes to a better response.
	L.S. Vygotsky, 1956	There is attention natural (natural, direct) and arbitrary as the highest mental function, as a product of cultural development. Voluntary attention is an inward-facing process of mediated attention, i.e. consciously organized with the help of auxiliary means.
12.	P.Ya. Galperin, 1958	Attention is an internal folded, automated control action. This is an independent form of the psyche, which has its own specific content and its own product.
13.	DI. Uznadze, 1966	Attention is an act (process) of objectification, in which one of the actual contents of consciousness stands out from the circle of our primary impressions (arising on the basis of attitudes stimulated by a specific situation), becoming the most clear.
14.	C. Cherry, 1953	Attention is the selectivity (selectivity) of consciousness.
15.	D. Broadbent, 1958	Attention is the process of early selection (selection, filtering) of information, i.e. its selection at the initial stages of its processing in the process of perceptual analysis or immediately before it.
16.	A. and D. Deutsch, 1963	Attention is a late selection of information with a choice of reaction or immediately before this choice.
17.	A. Treisman, 1969, 1987	Attention is a complex process of analyzing and selecting information: it begins with a perceptual filter located between the signal and the verbal analysis of information, and regulates the "power" of the message; the final selection of information is carried out according to semantic features.
18.	D. Norman, 1968, 1976	Attention - late selection (filtering, selection) of information after "parallel processing" of sensory signals with the participation of "relevant" (corresponding) information available in memory.
19.	D. Kahneman, 1973	Attention is a consequence of limiting a person's ability to perform mental work. Attention performs the function of mobilizing efforts to process information. This is an internal mental effort.
20.	W. Neisser, 1976	Attention is the direction of the main stream of our information processing activity to a limited part of the available input.

Thus, the above ideas about the essence of attention unite under the general name "attention" a lot of heterogeneous phenomena. Stating this fact, V.Ya. Romanov and Yu.B. Dormashev (1993) divide all manifestations of attention into subjective and objective.

TO subjective can include the following:

a) formal characteristics of the content of consciousness:

Clarity (W. Wundt, E. Titchener and others);

Distinctness (N.N. Lange, D.I. Uznadze and others)

b) subjective experiences:

Tension and effort (D. Kahneman, P.P. Blonsky and others);

Interest and surprise (N.N. Lange),

Activity and immersion in activity (N.F. Dobrynin).

TO objective attention can include the following:

a) various behavioral complexes:

Special postures and gestures

Fixing and setting the gaze,

Turns and tilts of the head (T. Ribot, N.N. Lange, etc.);

b) more subtle manifestations of attention and inattention hidden from simple observation:

Electrical activity of the brain

cardiovascular activity,

Breath,

Eye movement.

At the same time, some of the manifestations of attention can act as elements of purposeful behavior, while others can act as its involuntary components and satellites (correlates). It is no coincidence that following W. James ("Principles of Psychology", 1890), the editors of one of the most representative collections on the psychology of attention called their book "Varieties of Attention" (Parasuraman, Davies, 1984).

In an effort to solve the problem of a holistic consideration of attention, some researchers tried to narrow the range of attention phenomena and reduce the variety of its functions to one. For example, W. James reduced all attention to selectivity functions. At the present stage of the study of attention, this idea has received wide recognition and experimental development in cognitive psychology (D. Broadbent, A. Treisman, D. Norman, A. and D. Deutsch, etc.). The authors of the resource theories of attention (D. Kahneman, 1973 and others) single out as the main - the function of energy mobilization and "feeding" of the central structures of information processing. In the latest model of attention, A. Treisman (1988) specifically singles out and examines in detail integration function processed information.

Thus, at the present moment in psychological science there is a motley picture of the phenomena and functions of attention. Analyzing it, M. Posner (1982) identifies three main approaches to the study of attention:

1) focused on the study of various characteristics of executive activity;

2) focused on the analysis of subjective experiences;

3) aimed at studying the connections between various aspects of conscious experience and neuronal mechanisms.

This author rightly calls for harmonization and unification of the approaches (or levels of analysis) of attention he has identified. Yu.B. Gippenreiter (1983). As a basis for combining the above levels of analysis (or consideration plans) of attention, the following are suggested:

– psychological theory of activity (Yu.B. Gippenreiter, 1983; V.Ya. Romanov, Yu.B. Dormashev, 1993);

- general theory of information processing (M. Pozner, 1982).

Summing up all of the above, it remains to state once again that the question of the nature of attention continues to be hotly debated in modern psychology.

2. The study of attention within the psychology of consciousness:

introspective-phenomenological approach

2.1. The main features of the introspective-phenomenological

approach to the study of attention

To get a more or less complete picture of the history of the problem of attention in psychology is one of the first tasks facing those who turn to the study of attention. Undoubtedly, the rights of Yu.B. Gippenreiter, who, presenting the first anthology on attention (1976), emphasized that “in no other area of ​​psychological research, as in the psychology of attention, is the importance of the history of a problem so important for understanding its current state and development prospects, because ignorance of history, as you know, forces you to repeat it endlessly. In the history of the psychology of attention, there was a period of its most fruitful research - the period of the late 19th - early 20th century, which left a lot of interesting ideas and methods significant from a scientific point of view as a legacy of modern psychology. These are studies (theoretical and experimental) of the classics of the psychology of consciousness, which make up the golden fund of psychological science and in many respects have not lost their significance to this day.

Attention research in the psychology of consciousness (or empirical psychology) and in Gestalt psychology can be combined into one approach. – introspective-phenomenological. The general foundations on which the study of attention was based within the framework of this approach were the following:

─ Attention was studied as a phenomenon of consciousness accessible to introspection.

─ Introspection (from the Latin intro spectio - look inside, inner vision) is one of the main methods of studying attention (as well as the whole consciousness). This is the subject's direct observation of the content and acts of his own consciousness. At the same time, the use of other methods (for example, experiment) was not excluded. Gestalt psychologists used phenomenological introspection- an introspective method focused on the description of the phenomena of consciousness and experience in their immediacy and integrity.

─ The main efforts in the study of attention were aimed at describing it as a phenomenon of consciousness.

2.2. The main representatives and their contribution to the study of attention

The most famous representatives of this area of ​​attention research, who made a significant contribution to its study, were W. Wundt, E. Titchener, W. James, T. Ribot, N.N. Lange. Table 1 (see page) has already given their ideas about the essence of attention. Let's consider them in a little more detail.

Works W. Wundt(1832-1920) at one time (the end of the 19th century - two decades of the 20th century) determined the strategy for the study of attention for a long time. As you know, W. Wundt improved the method of introspection, trying to make its procedure more rigorous. In this form, in combination with the experiment, he used it in the study of attention. The basic concepts of W. Wundt's theory of attention are perception and apperception. Taken together, they, according to Wundt, form the whole of mental life. The concept of perception denotes the fact of the entry of some content into consciousness; it is an indistinct, vague content of consciousness.

The concept of apperception in modern psychology denotes the dependence of perception on past experience, on the general content of a person's mental activity and on his individual characteristics. Such an understanding is the result of a long philosophical and psychological development of this concept (G. Leibniz, I. Kant, I. Herbart, etc.). G. Leibniz, who introduced the term "apperception" into scientific circulation, interpreted it as a distinct (conscious) perception by the soul of a certain content - a clear and intense consciousness. W. Wundt attaches a similar meaning to this concept, using it to describe attention. Apperception is a process by which a clear awareness of the content of the perceived and its integration into the integral structure of past experience is carried out. This is focusing attention on a particular object, i.e. entry of some content into the focus of consciousness. The focus of consciousness is a fixed point of consciousness, a limited area of ​​the content of consciousness. Apperception is a manifestation of "special mental activity". Attention is the process of apperception of some content of consciousness. Literally, in the words of W. Wundt, attention acts as “a mental process that occurs with a clearer perception of a limited, in comparison with the entire field of consciousness, area of ​​contents”(1912). “The totality of processes associated with the apperception of representations, we call attention,” writes W. Wundt. It is emphasized that special clarity and distinctness of a certain content of consciousness (i.e. the content of apperception) is associated with attention.

Thus, in the studies of W. Wundt, attention is considered as a phenomenon of consciousness, associated with the focus of consciousness, with its clarity and distinctness. To solve the problem of describing attention, he uses the method of introspection and experiment.

E. Titchener, basically, shared the views of W. Wundt, using the same phenomenological criterion - the criterion of clarity to isolate attention as a phenomenon of consciousness. From his point of view, the key to the whole problem of attention is that " attention is virtually identical with sensory clarity". “The distribution of the content of consciousness into clear and dark groups is the only and characteristic sign of attention as a mental process” (E. Titchener, 1914). “Clarity of sensation is the quality that gives sensation its special position in consciousness: a clearer sensation dominates others, holds itself and stands out among them; less clear is subject to other sensations and merges with the background of consciousness” (1914, p. 43). In other words, the definition of the essence of attention is reduced to identifying it with the property of sensation to be clear. At the same time, E. Titchener introduces the concept of " level of consciousness” and “wave of attention”. The stream of consciousness, from his point of view, flows at two levels: the upper one represents clear processes of consciousness - these are processes that are on the crest of a wave, and the lower one is the "level of vagueness" of consciousness - a wave of superficial, mechanical attention. There are fewer differences in clarity at the top level than at the bottom. E. Titchener is credited with posing the problem of the genesis of attention. He was the first in the history of attention psychology to pose this problem and try to solve it. They identified three stages in the development of attention and three corresponding genetic forms of attention (see Table 2 below).

1) primary attention is the earliest stage in the development of attention. This is such attention in which the stimulus seizes our attention, regardless of our will; this stimulus has a biological significance.

2) secondary attention- this is active, arbitrary, accompanied by an effort of will. Occurs in a situation of conflict (competition) of stimuli. In conflict resolution, the center of consciousness is held on a certain perception (or representation), despite the opposition of another perception (or representation). This is the stage at which attention reaches the highest level of complexity. Secondary attention may focus mainly on the stimulus - receptive attention; on performances - elaborative attention; on movements - executive attention.

3) Derived Primary Attention- attention, in which the stimulus (perception, representation) wins an undeniable victory over its competitors. This is a period of mature and independent activity.

E. Titchener emphasizes that the three stages of attention development he described and its corresponding genetic forms reveal differences in complexity, but not in the nature of the experience itself, which is one type of mental process.

Thus, E. Titchener, like W. Wundt, singles out clarity criterion consciousness as a phenomenological criterion of attention; the clarity of sensation to which he reduces the essence of attention depends on the "predisposition" of the subject's nervous system, which he does not explain. Just like W. Wundt, E. Titchener describes rather than explains attention, and this description, as rightly noted by N.F. Dobrynin (1938), "has a largely mechanistic character." At the same time, an attempt to describe the genesis of attention or an attempt to implement a genetic approach to the study of attention, fully developed in Russian psychology within the cultural-historical approach of L.S. Vygotsky, first of all, and his supporters and followers.

The influence of W. Wundt did not escape such a largely independent thinker as W. James- one of the leaders functionalism. The central idea in his idea of ​​attention is the idea of ​​selectivity (selectivity) of consciousness associated with the limited scope of consciousness. Only a part of our impressions enters our consciousness through attention. This process is metaphorically described by James as being like "a brook flowing through a wide meadow of flowers". Describing the phenomenon of "scattering of attention", he, like W. Wundt, uses the definition "dull background of consciousness" (vague consciousness - in W. Wundt) and clear consciousness - concentrated attention. At the same time, he adds the criterion of selectivity (selectivity) of consciousness to the criterion of clarity in describing the phenomenon of attention. This idea was developed several decades later in a broad branch of attention research within cognitive psychology, which will be discussed later. In addition, W. James made a significant contribution to the development of ideas about the forms of attention. He proposed several classifications of types of attention (see Table 2). Let's consider them.

I. By object of attention

1) sensory attention, whose object is sensation;

2) intellectual attention– Its object is the rendered view.

II. By the mediation of the process of attention

1) direct attention- its object in itself is emotionally attractive, directly interesting;

2) indirect attention- its object is uninteresting in itself, but is associated associatively with an emotionally attractive object - this is apperceptive attention.

III. By the presence of willpower

1) passive, reflex, involuntary, not accompanied by an effort of will;

2) active, arbitrary, accompanied by an effort of will.

Arbitrary attention is always apperceptive, mediated, because we make an effort on ourselves when the object of our attention is only indirectly (indirectly) connected with some interest. The types of attention that make up the first classification can be voluntary (active) and involuntary (passive).

The idea of ​​W. James about the variety of forms of attention was a major milestone in clarifying the issue of the main types (forms) of the existence of attention.

The adaptive nature of attention and the great importance of motor (motor) activity in the process of attention are emphasized the authors of the motor theories of attention are T. Ribot and N.N. Lange.

T. Ribot- French psychologist and philosopher, founder of the experimental direction in French psychology. Attention is defined by him as mental monoideism - the dominance of one idea in the mind, accompanied by an involuntary (natural) or arbitrary (artificial) adaptation. T. Ribot for the first time in the history of the psychology of attention expresses the idea of ​​the social, cultural origin of higher forms of attention - arbitrary (cultural, artificial) attention. Arbitrary attention, he says, is a sociological phenomenon; it is the result of adaptation to the conditions of social life and arises at the request of the circumstances of this life. Under the influence of social development, man passed from the dominance of involuntary attention to the dominance of voluntary attention. It is both the cause and the effect of civilization. This idea was "picked up" by L.S. Vygotsky and deeply developed within the framework of his cultural-historical theory. In describing the essence of attention, T. Ribot emphasizes the exclusivity, limited time of this state, meaning that it contradicts the main property of mental life - its changeability. Attention, on the other hand, is a state of stillness; it is a temporary delay in the endless change of states of consciousness. This is a state in which one thought, as it were, “pulls” around itself a mass of other thoughts; she is the object of attention.

Necessary conditions that are often constituent elements of attention (not its cause and not its consequence!) are movements. As an epigraph to his research, T. Ribot cites the statement: "Whoever is not able to control his muscles is also not capable of attention." “No movement, no attention!” he exclaims elsewhere in his article. Movements make up objective side of attention, his subjective side- this is a reflection in the mind of the quantity and quality of muscle contractions, organic changes. Attention is not a purely spiritual activity; it is connected with quite definite physical conditions, acts through them, depends on them.

The constituent elements of attention as a state of the physical are reduced by T. Ribot to the following groups: vasomotor phenomena, respiratory phenomena and motor phenomena that serve for external expression - i.e. body movements.

The main role of movements in the act of attention is to maintain and enhance this state of consciousness. Muscular elements participate in all acts of attention - "real movements or movements in the embryonic state" - "a motor act and a delaying act". Voluntary attention consists chiefly in arresting movement. It is a product of art, education, training, passion for something. The emergence of voluntary attention, which consists in the ability to keep thought on unattractive objects, can only be caused by force, under the influence of education - it does not matter whether it comes from people or from things.

T. Ribot also investigated the problem of educating voluntary attention. The development of voluntary attention, in his opinion, begins with a reliance on the simplest affects (emotions) of the child. What in itself does not arouse natural attention in him is associated with objects that provoke involuntary interest. In the future, voluntary attention is maintained by virtue of a stable skill, habit.

N.N. Lange(1858-1921) - one of the founders and the largest representative of experimental psychology in Russia. He called his approach to understanding the psyche "realistic" or general biological.

He substantiated his point of view by the fact that mental acts receive their real definition only when we consider them from a biological point of view, i.e. as a kind of body adaptations. He placed the problem of movement and action at the center of his psychology, considering them to be the prototype, the initial form of any mental process. Defining attention from a biological point of view, he considers it as an expedient reaction of the body, instantly improving the conditions of perception. The criterion of instantaneity, according to N.N. Lange, allows you to distinguish attention from other adaptive reactions of the body, learning, beneficial mutations that require a longer time. Objectively, in the psychological sense, attention appears, from his point of view, “as the relative dominance of a given representation at a given moment in time” - it is at a given moment in time at the central point of consciousness, subjectively, i.e. for the conscious subject itself, it means to be attentive, to be concentrated on a given impression. It is easy to see that the above concept of attention echoes the ideas about it by W. Wundt and E. Titchener, who proposed a criterion of clarity for highlighting the phenomenon of attention in consciousness. N.N. Lange, in addition, seeks to understand how this clarity of one or another content of consciousness is achieved. He comes to the conclusion that this happens in the process of adaptation through special movements of the body - "gestures of attention" that improve the conditions of perception.

By analogy with the forms of adaptation of the organism to the environment already identified in science (reflex, instinct, volitional form), N.N. Lange identifies forms (types) of attention:

1) Reflective attention- these are movements that serve to better perceive stimuli; arise as reflexes from the sensations of these stimuli;

2) instinctive attention- an adaptation to the best perception, which is called the instinctive emotions of curiosity and surprise. This adaptation is made without consciousness of the purpose. Instinctive adaptation is much broader than reflex adaptations (which consist in adapting only the sensory organ). With instinctive attention, not only external adaptation occurs (due to external adaptive movements), but also internal adaptation (attraction of curiosity, surprise).

3) Volitional attention N.N. Lange characterizes in the most detail. In the description of this type of attention, he for the first time introduces a sign - the presence of a goal. Volitional attention, writes N.N. Lange, is a process, the purpose of which is known in advance to the subject. It is based on preliminary knowledge about the object of attention - knowledge is incomplete, indistinct, pale. A real corresponding feeling is sought for this image of memory. By volition, the memory is given an exceptionally vivid and intense character. How this happens is the main subject of research by N.N. Lange. From his point of view, this is a motor process, like any volitional process. In every memory there is an element perceived through movement. The strengthening of the motor part of the memory complex leads to the strengthening of the whole complex, i.e. reinforcing performances. This primary effect of volitional attention, a secondary effect - analytical- separation, distinction of representation, which makes it more distinct and clear. Thus, like T. Ribot, N.N. Lange assigns a decisive role to movements in the process of attention; his theory of volitional attention is therefore called the motor theory of volitional attention.

The study of attention in Gestalt psychology can also be attributed to the introspective-phenomenological approach, although the views of its representatives on the nature of attention were formed in opposition to the introspective approach. This can be done on the grounds that, firstly, the main method of their research was phenomenological observation, as already indicated earlier, and secondly, their efforts were, like the efforts of representatives of introspective psychology, aimed at describing attention.

Attention is part of the process of perception; some power within the integral field(K. Koffka, 1922). And our perception is determined by the laws of the organization of the sensory field: the laws of proximity, cohesion of space, pregnancy, good continuation, etc. In this description, there is no place for attention at all - everything happens without its participation, just as without the participation of the subject of perception. However, such an understanding of attention and its place in the process of perception (its place in other processes is not analyzed by Gestalt psychologists) is not the only one in Gestalt psychology. Recall that the representative of Gestalt psychology E. Rubin questioned the very existence of attention (1925). And in 1958, W. Koehler and P. Adams published a paper in which they analyzed the results of their experimental research, which led them to the conclusion that attention enhances, intensifies the process of perception, makes it selective.

In general, the above review of attention studies within the framework of the introspective-phenomenological approach testifies to the active interest of its representatives in the problem of the essence and phenomenology of attention, to the significant efforts aimed at studying it, which allowed researchers to make significant progress towards clarifying the question of the nature of attention and its forms. existence.

2.3. The results of the study of attention in the framework of introspective

phenomenological approach

Summing up the consideration of attention studies within the framework of this approach, the following main points can be distinguished:

1. The concept of attention in most studies is replaced by other concepts (the structure of the sensory field, sensory clarity, fixation point of consciousness, etc.).

2. The role of the subject of attention and its connection with the object in the process of attention is not analyzed.

3. The description of attention is often simplified and mechanistic.

However:

1) Complementing each other, theories create a more or less complete description of the phenomenon of attention as a phenomenon of consciousness.

2) Criteria of attention have been identified that make it possible to isolate attention as a phenomenon of consciousness: the criterion of clarity (W. Wundt, E. Titchener), the criterion of selectivity of consciousness, or selective criterion (W. James), the motor criterion (N.N. Lange, T. Ribot ).

3) The problem of the genesis of attention was posed and an attempt was made to resolve it (E. Titchener).

4) The problem of the socio-historical origin of higher human forms of attention is posed (T. Ribot).

5) Classifications of types (forms) of attention are proposed, which are the result of the efforts of researchers to describe the diversity of forms of existence of attention (see Table 2).

table 2

within the framework of the introspective-phenomenological approach in psychology

Author of the classification	Basis of classification	Kind of attention
1) E. Titchener	- the genetic form of attention corresponding to the stage of its development; - the degree of complexity of the attention process	1) primary 2) secondary 3) derived primary
2) W. James	object of attention	1) sensual 2) intellectual
	presence of willpower	1) active, voluntary 2) passive, involuntary
	mediation	1) direct 2) indirect
3) T. Ribot	source of origin	1) natural 2) artificial, cultural
4) N.N. Lange	form of attention as a form of accommodation	1) reflective 2) instinctive 3) volitional

Exploring the forms of manifestation of attention, representatives of this approach used a variety of grounds for classifying its types.

So, for example, W. James, who proposed three classification schemes of attention, used the sign "object of attention" as the basis of one of them. On this basis, he singled out, as already indicated earlier, two types: sensual (to ideas) and intellectual (to reproduced ideas). In modern psychology, this basis of classification continues to be used, although the classification itself by W. James has undergone changes towards greater completeness and accuracy. Today, the classification of types of attention by object includes:

1) sensory-perceptual attention (a distant analogue of sensual attention by W. James) - its object - the processes and products of sensation and perception;

2) intellectual(as in James) - the object of which is the process and product of intellectual activity;

3) motor attention- directed to movement;

4) emotional attention- directed to the experience (emotions and feelings).

An analysis of the foundations of other classifications of attention subsequently led to a noticeable decrease in the types of attention and its classifications in the views of researchers. Thus, the selected characteristics of attention: the genetic level and the corresponding genetic form of attention (E. Titchener), the presence of volitional effort (W. James), N.N. Lange and others), the source of origin (social (artificial) or natural origin) (T. Ribot), the presence of a goal (N.N. Lange), the mediation of the structure of the attention process (W. James) - turned out to be signs of two main forms of attention, studied and characterized in the framework of the cultural-historical approach of L.S. Vygotsky and within the activity approach of N.F. Dobrynin in Russian psychology (see Table 3 in the appendix).

Genetically early, non-purposeful, direct, not accompanied by volitional effort and natural (natural) in origin form of attention - involuntary attention. Genetically representing the highest level of attention, purposeful (intentional, consciously regulated), accompanied by an effort of will and social in origin form of attention - voluntary attention. In the studies of representatives of the introspective-phenomenological approach, they differed only in the presence of volitional effort. The identification and use of the other above-mentioned criteria for the classification of attention, which gave rise to an unlawfully large number of its classification schemes, apparently, was a necessary and important point on the way to a greater clarity of understanding of the forms of manifestation and existence of attention.

3. Research of attention in domestic psychology:

cultural-historical and activity approach

3.1. Ideas of the cultural-historical approach underlying

attention research. Attention research method

The idea first expressed by T. Ribot (1892) about the social nature of higher forms of attention and the idea of ​​the French psychologist G. Revo d "Allon (1923) about the special role of schemas in the organization of attention were fully developed L.S. Vygotsky and his followers, who developed a cultural-historical approach in Russian psychology. Its beginning was laid in the works of L.S. Vygotsky "The problem of the cultural development of the child" (1928), "Etudes on the history of behavior" (together with A.R. Luria), "The history of the development of higher mental functions" (1930-1931). The historical approach was put in the basis of psychological theory. Its starting theoretical position is as follows: the process of human mental development is part of the general process of the historical development of mankind. This position is specified in the following main ideas of the cultural-historical approach.

1. There is a fundamental difference between the process of biological (natural, natural) and the process of social (historical, cultural) development. In phylogenesis, these processes are separated in time. They exist as separate and independent lines of development: on the one hand, the process of biological evolution led to the emergence of Homo Sapience; on the other hand, the process of historical development, during and as a result of which primitive man turned into a cultural one.

In ontogenesis, the natural and cultural development of the child merges: they form a single process of development of a particular person, as a result of which higher forms of the psyche and behavior arise.

Thus, in the development of the child, two lines can be distinguished:

a) Natural "maturation" and the appearance of the body directly related to the maturation, mainly the nervous system, the brain - elementary forms of behavior and psyche. This is a natural series of development leading to the emergence and development of natural - lower mental functions(immediate, involuntary). These include the simplest forms of attention, perception, memorization, etc.

b) Sociocultural development associated with the mastery of cultural ways of behavior. This is the mastery of such auxiliary means of behavior that mankind has created in the process of historical development: language, writing, number systems, etc., that is, the mastery of cultural tools - signs. This is a social series of development leading to the emergence of higher mental functions.(VPF) - purposefully carried out, deliberate, consciously regulated.

2. The idea of ​​semiotic mediation of higher mental functions. Sign – artificial stimulus, social in nature, serving primarily as a means of communication between people. This is a socially developed "instrument of spiritual production." In the course of cultural and historical development, mankind has developed entire sign systems: language, numbering, writing, schemes, diagrams, conventional signs, maps, etc. Signs that initially perform the function of communication, communication, become internal tools, means of human influence on himself; with their help, a developing person changes, restructures his internal mental processes and external behavior. Stimuli-signs become stimuli-means, with the help of which a person masters his own behavior and is aware of his actions. Stimuli-means, being included in mental activity, mediate mental processes and change their structure. In the later works of L.S. Vygotsky, not any, but a verbal sign is considered as the main sign.

3. The structure of the mental process mediated by the sign, the structure of the HMF, is initially formed under conditions when the mediating link has the form of an external stimulus. In other words, any HMF necessarily passes through an external stage in its development, i.e. originally a social function. This idea is expressed in the formulation of the so-called the basic law of the development of higher mental functions : every function in the child's cultural development appears on the scene twice, on two planes: first on the social plane, then on the psychological plane; first - as an interpsychic category, then - as an intrapsychic category. There is an internalization of social relations with the help of a sign - their "growing", according to L.S. Vygotsky: the external method of organizing the process, mastered in interindividual relations, gradually becomes an internal method for the implementation of one or another internal mental activity. Initially, the child has natural - lower mental functions. The mastery of a sign and, through its mediation, the mastery of one's own natural or lower mental function leads to the emergence of a higher mental function: first, externally mediated (interpsychic, performed in the interindividual space with the help of external means), and then internally mediated (intrapsychic).

Thus, L.S. Vygotsky proposed and developed a new approach and a new method for studying higher forms of the psyche - historical genetic. For the experimental substantiation of the ideas of cultural-historical theory, it was developed and applied in a number of studies (A.N. Leontiev - for the study of attention and memory; A.R. Luria - for the study of emotions; L.S. Sakharov - for the study of thinking) " double stimulation technique» - an experimental model of higher mental function. It involves the use of two sets of incentives: stimuli-objects and stimuli-means.

Stimuli-objects are objects that are transformed during the experiment.

Stimuli-means are objects with the help of which stimuli-objects are transformed, i.e. means of their transformation.

Thus, within the framework of the cultural-historical approach, a fundamentally different approach to the study of mental functions was proposed - the study of their essence in the process of development (transition from a lower mental function to a higher one) using a fundamentally new method - experimental modeling of the sign mediation process.

3.2. The main results of an experimental study of attention in

within the cultural-historical approach

As already noted, the method of double stimulation was used to experimentally study the development of attention. The study participants were representatives of different age groups. To analyze the results of the study, three main groups were taken: preschoolers, younger schoolchildren, adults. In the experiment, a situation was created when the child was faced with the task of mastering the process of his attention with the help of external stimuli-means. The child had to concentrate on a certain process for a long time. The experiment was carried out under the direction of A.N. Leontiev and is built in the form of a game of forfeits, during which the experimenter asked the participants of the study questions (stimuli-objects). Answering them, they had to remember the three rules: "yes" and "no" do not say, "do not name forbidden colors", "do not say the same color more than once." In the first series of the experiment, the subjects answered without using any aids, in the second, they were asked to use colored cards, i.e. auxiliary means. In the second series, the number of correct answers increased, especially noticeable among younger students; compared with their number in the first series, the percentage of errors decreased by 2 times. In preschoolers, the number of correct answers after the introduction of colored cards (which they could use as a means of organizing attention) almost did not increase. A slight increase in the number of correct answers was also observed in adult subjects (students).

Thus, both preschoolers and adults, as in the first series, practically did not use colored cards as a means of organizing their attention. But the reasons for this fact are different for both of them: for preschoolers, this indicated that their attention remains direct, i.e. in the second series it does not fundamentally change, while in adults, who also had the best result in the first series, it was initially mediated by internal means - verbal signs. In junior schoolchildren, their active use of external aids led to a noticeable increase in the efficiency of their attention. Their attention is fundamentally restructured: it becomes externally mediated- with the help of external means, attention is fixed on the correct answer to the question posed.

The results of this experimental study (led by A.N. Leontiev) were presented in a graphical form called "parallelogram of development"(Figure 1 shows its general configuration).

Figure 1 - "Parallelogram of development" of attention

For preschoolers: 1a and 2a - indicators of the effectiveness of direct attention. For schoolchildren: 1b - an indicator of the effectiveness of direct attention, 2b - an indicator of the effectiveness of externally mediated attention. For students: 1c and 2c - indicators of the effectiveness of internally mediated attention. The latter have already undergone “growing”, in the words of L.S. Vygotsky, an external method of organizing attention to the internal plan.

L.S. Vygotsky and his followers believed that the picture of the development of attention discovered in the experiment reflects the real picture. The development of a child's attention from the very first days of his life falls into a complex environment consisting of two rows of stimuli. The first is things, objects, phenomena that attract his attention due to their inherent properties. The second is the corresponding stimuli-indications - words that direct the child's attention.

The attention of the child from the very beginning is controlled. Initially, they are led by adults. Using the same means as adults in relation to themselves (self-instruction, self-stimulation - this becomes possible from the moment of mastering speech), the child proceeds to self-management of his attention - i.e. captures voluntary attention. It is noteworthy that with the mastery of speech, the child first begins to control the process of attention of another, and only then - his own attention.

The results of the study of the development of attention within the framework of the cultural-historical approach make it possible to describe the sequence of stages in the development of children's attention as follows:

1. The first weeks-months of life. The appearance of an orienting reflex as an objective, innate sign of the child's involuntary attention.

2. End of the first year of life. The emergence of orienting-research activity as a means of the future development of voluntary attention.

3. Beginning of the second year of life. Detection of the beginnings of voluntary attention under the influence of the adult's verbal instructions, the direction of gaze on the object named by the adult.

4. Second or third year of life. A fairly good development of the above-mentioned initial form of voluntary attention.

5. Four and a half - five years. The emergence of the ability to direct attention under the influence of a complex instruction from an adult.

6. Five or six years. The emergence of an elementary form of voluntary attention under the influence of self-instruction (with reliance on external aids).

7. School age. Further development and improvement of voluntary attention, including volitional.

The logic of the development of voluntary attention, like any other HMF, is that it first exists as an interpsychic function, and then, due to the process of internalization, it becomes an intrapsychic process, internally mediated. The cultural development of attention begins at a very early age, at the first social contact of a child with an adult. As a small person grows into the surrounding social environment, he develops that main form of mental activity, which in classical psychology was called voluntary attention, noting only the presence of volitional effort in it.

3.3. Essence and variants of the activity approach to research

attention

V activity approach in modern domestic psychology can be found the following options its implementation in relation to the question of the nature of attention.

─ Attention is the focus and concentration of any activity (N.F. Dobrynin, 1959).

─ Attention is a special activity of control, its internal, abbreviated, automated form. It is an independent form of mental activity. (G.Ya. Galperin, 1974).

─ Attention is a phenomenal and productive manifestation of the work of the leading level of activity organization; it is a consequence, a manifestation of the organization of activity and can be understood through the analysis of the latter. (Yu.B. Gippenreiter, 1983).

- Hypotheses expressed by V.Ya. Romanov and Dormashev (1993)

a) The phenomena of attention reflect the types and features of the organization of activities. At the same time, they consider activity as a complex functional formation, carried out at the leading and background levels (i.e., hierarchically organized) and suggesting the relationship of its various processes: interlevel transitions, ring regulation, time sweep on a certain ring. The stable features of the organization and activities can be correlated with the types of attention.

b) Attention - is an act aimed at the functional-physiological system of activity, which is built by the subject of attention in each specific case in accordance with the conditions of activity. Then it can be qualified as a special process that has its own product - a functional-physiological system of activity.

Within the framework of the activity approach, a fundamentally different, in comparison with the previously used, method of studying attention is proposed - a formative experiment. A detailed analysis of the experience of its use can be found in the work of P.Ya. Galperin and S.L. Kabylnitskaya "Experimental formation of attention" (1974).

Via methods of phased (planned) formation of the mental action of control an increase in the efficiency of voluntary attention in younger students is achieved. Research by P.Ya. Galperin and S.L. Kabylnitskaya has two important results: on the one hand, it is a fruitful attempt to experimentally confirm the hypothesis of P.Ya. Galperin about the essence of attention, and on the other hand, the technology of forming attention was tested in it, which can be used in the practice of psychological assistance.

Thus, in domestic psychology, a tradition of studying attention as a manifestation of personality activity has gradually developed, i.e. subject of attention. The ability of the latter to control his attention is formed in ontogenesis as the process of natural (involuntary, direct) attention is mediated (by verbal signs).

Within the framework of the activity approach, attention is considered either as an activity (P.Ya. Galperin - the activity of control), or as a manifestation of only the leading level of organization of activity (Yu.B. Gippenreiter), or as an act aimed at the functional-physiological system of activity formed by the subject attention each time in accordance with the specific conditions of activity (V.Ya. Romanov, Yu.B. Dormashev), or as a reflection of the types and features of the organization of activities, understood as a complex multi-level functional body (V.Ya. Romanov, Yu.B. Dormashev ). In other words, representatives of the activity approach continue to decide whether attention is an independent process, or whether it is a side, an aspect of any mental activity.

Table 3

Ideas about the types of attention

within the framework of cultural-historical and activity approaches

in domestic psychology

Author of the classification	Basis of classification	Kind of attention
L.S. Vygotsky	▪ source of origin; ▪ the presence of a goal and willpower; ▪ mediation of the process of attention; ▪ genetic form of attention corresponding to the stage of its development	1) involuntary (direct, natural, non-purposeful, consciously not regulated) 2) arbitrary (at the beginning - externally mediated, and then internally mediated; social in origin, purposeful, consciously regulated, may be accompanied by volitional efforts)
N.F. Dobrynin	the presence of a goal as the main sign of the activity of attention and the whole personality; the presence of volitional effort (as a secondary sign)	1) involuntary a) "forced" by the acting stimulus; b) based on the correspondence of the external stimulus to the internal state of the organism or personality; c) based on past experience. 2) arbitrary 3) post-voluntary

4. Research of attention in foreign psychology:

cognitive information approach

4.1. The essence of the cognitive-informational approach

cognitive psychology- a direction that arose in foreign (mainly in American) psychology in the early 60s of the XX century at the junction of Gestalt psychology, neobehaviorism, structural linguistics. Until now, this is one of the leading areas of foreign psychology. The main field of research is the general psychology of cognitive processes. The ideas underlying their research are as follows.

Human behavior is determined by knowledge. Knowledge - the result of the process of cognition - is an internal representation of objects, events, other people, etc. Thus, knowledge is awareness.

Human attention - features of development

23.03.2015

Snezhana Ivanova

Attention is a mental cognitive process aimed at reflecting mental properties, providing concentration of consciousness.

Attention is a mental cognitive process aimed at reflecting the mental properties, states of an object, which ensures the concentration of consciousness. Such a focus on certain subjects has a selective focus and contributes to the formation of an individual attitude towards them.

As objects attention can be both other persons and inanimate objects. Phenomena of nature, objects of art and science are also often in the field of attention of the subject. It must be admitted that only those objects that arouse significant interest in him, or are due to the social need for study, fall into the zone of human attention. The development of attention directly depends on such factors as the age of a person, the purposefulness of his aspirations, interest in the subject or phenomenon being studied, the regularity of performing special exercises.

Types of attention

involuntary attention

It is characterized by the absence of a conscious choice of a person. It occurs when an influencing stimulus appears, which makes you momentarily distract from everyday affairs and switch your mental energy. This type of attention is difficult to manage, since it is directly related to the internal attitudes of the individual. In other words, we are always attracted only by what is of significant interest, what excites and makes the feelings, the emotional sphere “move”.

The objects of involuntary attention can be: unexpected noise on the street or in the room, a new person or a phenomenon that appeared before the eyes, any moving objects, the mental state of a person, individual mood.

Involuntary attention is valuable for its immediacy and naturalness of occurrence, which always provides a lively emotional response. But, at the same time, it can distract a person from performing urgent tasks, solving significant problems.

As a rule, in preschool children, involuntary attention predominates. Educators of children's institutions, of course, will agree that their attention can only be attracted by bright, interesting images and events. That is why classes in kindergarten are so replete with beautiful characters, attractive tasks, and a huge scope for imagination and creativity.

Arbitrary attention

It is characterized by conscious retention of concentration on the object. Arbitrary attention begins when motivation appears, that is, a person understands and consciously focuses his attention on something. Stability and perseverance are its essential attributes. In order for the necessary action to be performed, a person is required to make an effort of will, come into a state of tension, and activate mental activity.

For example, a student before an exam tries his best to focus on the material being studied. And even if he is not entirely interested in what he will have to tell the teacher, his attention is maintained due to serious motivation. The need to close the semester, to come home as soon as possible, sometimes adds a powerful incentive in order to stretch a little, put aside all entertainment and travel.

However, it should be remembered that prolonged concentration of voluntary attention leads to a state of fatigue, even severe overwork. Therefore, between serious intellectual work, it is recommended to take reasonable breaks: go outside to breathe fresh air, do simple physical exercises, exercises. But you don’t need to read books on abstract topics: the head will not have time to rest, in addition, the presence of excess information can provoke further unwillingness to return to business. It has been noticed that a strong interest induces activity, activates the work of the brain, and this can and should be strived for.

Post-voluntary attention

It is characterized by the absence of tension in the subject of activity when performing a task. In this case, the motivation and desire to achieve a specific goal is strong enough. This type of attention differs from the previous one in that internal motivation prevails over external. That is, a person, his consciousness is guided not by social necessity, but by an individual need for action. Such attention has a very productive effect on any activity, gives significant results.

Basic properties of attention

The properties of attention in psychology are a number of significant characteristics that are closely related to the components of the activity of the individual.

• Concentration- this is a deliberate focus on the object of activity. Attention retention occurs due to strong motivation and the desire of the subject to perform the action as best as possible. The intensity of concentration on the subject of interest is controlled by the consciousness of the individual. If the concentration is high enough, then the result will not be long in coming. On average, without a break, a person can focus attention for 30 to 40 minutes, but a lot can be done during this time. It should be remembered that when working at a computer, you should take short breaks of 5 to 10 minutes for yourself to rest your eyes.
• Volume is the number of objects that consciousness can hold simultaneously in its field of vision. In other words, the volume is measured in the mutual ratio of objects and the degree of stability of attention to them. If a person is able to maintain focus on objects for a sufficiently long time and their number is large, then we can talk about a high amount of attention.
• Sustainability. Stability is the ability to keep attention on one object for a long time and not switch to another. If there was a distraction, then they usually talk about lability. Sustainability of attention is characterized by the ability to discover new things in familiar things: to discover relationships and aspects that were not previously noticed and not studied, to see prospects for further development and movement.
• switchability. Switchability is a meaningful purposeful change in the direction of the focus of attention. This property is characterized by the conditionality of external circumstances or phenomena. If the switching of attention does not occur under the influence of a more significant object and does not differ in special intentionality, then one speaks of simple distractibility. It must be admitted that it is difficult to switch attention from one object to another due to strong concentration. Then it even happens that a person moves on to another activity, but mentally continues to concentrate on the previous one: he thinks over the details, analyzes, and emotionally worries. Switching attention is needed to relax after intense mental work, to be included in a new activity.
• Distribution. Distribution is the ability of consciousness to simultaneously focus attention on several objects that are approximately in the same position in terms of importance. The ratio of objects among themselves, of course, has an impact on how this distribution occurs: the transition from one object to another. At the same time, a person often experiences a state of fatigue, caused by the need to be in one focus point to constantly remember about other existing ones.

Features of the development of attention

The development of human attention is necessarily associated with the ability to focus on one or more objects for a certain period of time without any distraction. This is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. After all, in order to focus on something, you need to be sufficiently interested in your business. So, for the development of involuntary attention, only an interesting object is required, on which one could focus the gaze. Arbitrary attention, however, requires a serious approach: purposefulness of actions, strong-willed effort, the ability to control one's feelings in order to prevent distraction at the most inopportune moment are needed. Post-voluntary attention is the most productive of all, as it does not require overcoming and additional efforts.

Attention Development Methods

At the moment, there are a variety of techniques for developing attention that allow you to achieve high results and learn how to control attention.

Development of concentration

It is recommended to choose an object for observation, and for a certain period of time try to focus your attention on it. Moreover, the simpler this subject, the better. For example, you can put a book on the table and imagine what it is written about, what are the main characters. One can only think of a book as an object made of paper and cardboard, imagine how many trees it took to make it. In the end, you can just pay attention to its color and shape. Which direction to choose is up to you. This exercise perfectly trains the focus of attention itself, allows you to develop the duration of concentration on one object.

If you wish, you can try to practice holding two or more objects in your field of vision. Then, to all of the above, it is necessary to add the development of the ability to switch attention from one object to another, memorizing and noting the significant features of each of them.

Development of visual attention

Exercises should be aimed at expanding the ability of the individual to focus on the object. For example, you can put an object in front and set yourself the task of looking at it for 3 to 5 minutes, highlighting as many details as possible. First, you will begin to develop a general idea of ​​​​the subject: its color and shape, size and height. However, gradually, the more you concentrate, the more clearly new details will begin to appear: small details, minor adaptations, etc. They, too, must be seen and noted to yourself.

Development of auditory attention

To improve this type of attention, you need to set yourself the goal of concentrating on the sounding voice for no more than ten minutes. It is best if it is meaningful human speech, however, if you want to relax, you can include birdsong here or any melody that meets the requirements of relaxing music.

If human speech sounds, while listening, it is important to note the speed with which the lecturer speaks, the degree of emotionality of the presentation of the material, the subjective usefulness of the information. It is also quite acceptable to listen to fairy tales, stories in the recording, and then try to remember and reproduce their content. In the case of listening to music, it is important to capture the levels of vibration of the sound wave, try to "connect" to the reproduced emotions and imagine the details of something.

How to manage attention?

Many people who want to increase their level of attention face constant difficulties. Some may not be able to concentrate on the details, others have difficulty with when to perceive the subject as a whole. In this case, I would like to advise you to train at different facilities in all directions and do it every day. Agree, it’s not difficult to spend 5-10 minutes a day working on yourself.

Thus, the problems of developing attention are quite multifaceted and deep. It is impossible to consider this type of cognitive processes only as a component of activity. We must also remember that attention is always necessary for us in everyday life, therefore it is important to be able to focus on simple things, to notice even small details.

The implementation of any activity requires attention from a person. Even in play, children must constantly keep their attention on the relevant rules, on-going events and their dynamics. Often they are so focused on this that it is difficult for them to shift their attention to anything else. All types of work require sustained attention. The inability to keep attention on the object of labor activity leads to a decrease in the quality of the product. Without focused attention, it is impossible to achieve high results in art, sports and learning. If the student is not focused on the perception of educational material, he will not be able to understand it, highlight the main thing in it and remember it. Appeals: "Be careful!" are able to hold attention only for a short time, after which many children (and adults) are again and inevitably distracted. Managing the attention of students is one of the important tasks that the teacher solves in one way or another during the lesson.

At any given moment, our consciousness is directed to one or another specific object. A person either perceives something, or thinks about something, remembers something or imagines something.

Attention- this is the selective orientation and concentration of a person's consciousness on a specific object that has a stable or situational significance for the individual, while simultaneously distracting from other objects.

Attention can be directed both to external objects of reality ( outside attention) as well as your inner world inner attention).

Attention is manifested as a special state of the whole organism, in which the internal mental activity, external motor activity, as well as the activity of the brain (physiological level of attention) change. Mental activity focuses on the object. The motor side of attention is manifested in specific postures of attention. With external and internal attention, postures differ. External attention is characterized by a turn of the head and a gaze focused on the object, holding the breath is possible. With internal attention, a person often closes his eyes or his gaze hovers, not concentrating on anything. By these characteristic features, the teacher can determine whether the student's attention is directed to the content of the lesson or whether he is thinking about something of his own.

At the physiological level, attention is provided by the excitation of the reticular formation as a mechanism for activating brain activity; induction of nervous processes and emergence dominants.

The concept of induction was widely used by IP Pavlov to explain the patterns of higher nervous activity.

Induction It manifests itself in the fact that the process of excitation that occurs in one area of ​​the cerebral cortex causes inhibition in its other areas.

Dominant called a focus of excitation temporarily dominant in the cerebral cortex, inhibiting other reflexes and intensifying under the action of any stimuli.

The phenomenon of the dominant was discovered by the Russian physiologist A. A. Ukhtomsky (1875–1942).

attention functions. The main function of attention is establishing a psychological connection between the subject and the object, to which his consciousness is currently directed, and ensuring the clarity and clarity of the reflection of the object.

example

If a student is distracted while doing homework, imagining, for example, upcoming sports competitions, he can make mistakes, make omissions, and not notice details. As a result, his activities will be ineffective, and the task will be performed poorly.

The second function of attention is manifested in the fact that it carries out selection and systematization of perceptual data. The external world is infinite, and human consciousness is limited. Attention, like a filter, allows only the most important information to enter the mind, so the process of attention is often compared to a funnel or bottleneck.

Another important function of attention is considered to be improving the quality of the activity to which it is directed. However, it is possible that the participation of attention has a destructive effect on the activity if it is connected to the activity that was previously automated and fixed.

Attention functions in various spheres of human consciousness: sensual, mnemonic, intellectual. It does not have its own product. On this basis, some psychologists considered it expedient not to use the concept of "attention" at all. Danish psychologist E. Rubin even wrote a scientific article entitled "Non-existence of attention." One can disagree with such an "interpretation" of attention, if one admits that its specific product is improvement in performance. Attention provides completeness and depth of perception, memory, thinking and imagination and thus acts as a condition for the success of cognition of the surrounding reality. In this sense, K. D. Ushinsky called attention the door through which all knowledge and impressions from the outside world pass. The more clearly an object appears in the mind of a person, the more active and productive becomes his activity with it, which, in turn, ensures its deeper knowledge.

Establishing a connection between human consciousness and the reflected object is a two-way, interdependent process. On the one hand, the object attracts attention to itself, on the other hand, attention is directed to the object. Accordingly, the factors for the emergence and retention of attention on an object can be both the properties of the object itself and the characteristics of the subject. Some people are more subject to the direct influences of the environment and show passivity in the choice of objects of attention, while others are more active in this regard. Depending on the ratio of such factors, the role of the individual in the regulation of attention can be different: from almost complete passivity to complete consciousness and self-organization. These differences are expressed in the classification of types of attention.

types of attention. There are three types of attention: involuntary, voluntary and post-voluntary.

involuntary, or unintentional, Attention- this is the focus of consciousness on an object or phenomenon due to some of their features. The ability for such attention is innate in a person, in connection with which L. S. Vygotsky called him natural. This kind of attention is inherent in both humans and animals. We can observe postures of attention in the latter, for example, when obtaining food or protecting from enemies.

The mechanism of involuntary attention - orientation reflex. I.P. Pavlov designated it as "what is it?", because it manifests itself as an initial reaction to a new stimulus, allowing you to tune the organs of sensitivity to the perception of a new object and make a decision regarding its usefulness or danger to the body.

Involuntary attention can occur with varying degrees of passivity of a person. At the extreme degree of passivity, it is called forced. N. F. Dobrynin (1890-1981) pointed out that the individuality and originality of the personality have a certain influence even in situations of forced attention. Factors that cause involuntary attention are divided into two groups:

• The first group consists of the properties and characteristics of stimuli. First of all, this new intense stimuli. A new building, a new thing, a new advertisement always attracts our attention. A loud sound, a bright flash, a strong push will also make you draw attention to yourself. Other factors in this group are the duration of the stimulus, its movement, contrast compared to the background. A change in the characteristics of acting stimuli, such as strength or duration, the beginning and end of an action, also causes attention;
• the second group of stimuli that cause involuntary attention is characterized by their connection with the needs and interests of the subject. If something is especially significant for a person, it will be in the sphere of his attention. For example, a collector will never pass by the objects of his passion, while other people remain indifferent to them.

example

Factors that cause involuntary attention are taken into account in architecture, construction, advertising, printing and other areas. They also play an important role in the organization of educational and cognitive activity of students, for example, in the selection and presentation of educational material in such a way as to direct attention to the necessary objects and not distract from the main content of the lesson. Interest in a subject is able to maintain a high level of involuntary attention for a long time. Bright, emotionally rich material always arouses involuntary attention in students. This is especially important for elementary school, since in younger students arbitrary cognitive processes (perception, attention, memory) are still in the formative stage.

With the expansion of educational subjects and the complexity of educational material, reliance on involuntary attention becomes insufficient for the effective organization of the processes of mastering knowledge. Not all subjects are of interest to students. Many of them have significant difficulties in understanding the material and completing the learning tasks. Overcoming them requires will and voluntary attention from students.

Arbitrary attention- this is an organized focus of consciousness on an object or phenomenon. Arbitrary attention arose in the process of labor when it was necessary to focus not on what was pleasant or interesting, but on what needed to be done at the moment; which is essential for the successful completion of the action. L. S. Vygotsky showed that voluntary attention, which he called cultural, in contrast to the involuntary - the process is mediated, i.e. carried out with the help of means: signs, speech, the task. A child can master these means only in society, in the process of communication and joint activities with adults. Arbitrary attention, as well as arbitrary perception, arbitrary memory, verbal-logical thinking, refers to the highest mental functions of a person.

example

In ontogenesis, the development of voluntary attention is carried out gradually. First, adults, with the help of verbal instructions, pointing to the desired object and setting a cognitive or practical task for the child, organize his attention and activity. Then he masters the ability to independently set a task for himself and direct attention to the desired object. Keeping attention on an object or actions with it, determined by the task, requires volitional efforts and activity of the individual, since a person consciously makes a decision and executes it. It is well known how difficult it is to maintain attention when studying complex and incomprehensible material or in the conditions of monotonous and monotonous activity. In such situations, a person not only makes efforts to keep the object of attention, but also experiences these efforts. L. S. Vygotsky associated such an inner experience of efforts with the process of mastering a person’s attention, a kind of struggle and victory over those factors and stimuli that direct attention to other objects. There are certain methods in the organization of activities that can facilitate this process for students, for example, the alternation of various types of activities, dosed assistance, active recreation.

Psychological content of voluntary attention was revealed by P. Ya. Galperin, the author of the theory of systematic, phased formation mental actions. He showed that mental actions are the result of internalization, generalization and reduction. Managing an action based on an image requires control: a constant comparison of the task with its execution. In the initial forms, control is carried out as a detailed objective action. The transformation of control into a mental and reduced action changes its nature and functions. Mental control over the course of activity ensures the focus and concentration of consciousness on its implementation and result, i.e. is attention. Such control no longer simply evaluates the activity and its result (as happens with external detailed control), but also improves them. This is due to the fact that attention

the action of mental control is carried out on the basis of previously formed criteria, images and concepts, to which the actions performed are equated, since the person understands how to act in this situation and systematically performs the required actions. External control through speech passes into the mental plane and, reduced, becomes attention.

example

The teacher can purposefully teach the child attention. To do this, along with the main tasks, students should be given special exercises to check the work done, indicating criteria, samples, a general plan and a sequence of specific actions.

Post-voluntary attention arises when, in the course of an initially unattractive activity, a person becomes interested in work. Volitional efforts for its continuation are no longer required, which brings post-voluntary attention closer to involuntary. However, unlike involuntary attention, post-voluntary attention is regulated by a consciously set goal and is carried out systematically, playing an important role as a factor contributing to the performance of difficult tasks by students for a long time. At the same time, they do not experience fatigue due to the lack of the need for strong-willed efforts. Fatigue is replaced by a sense of satisfaction and joy of knowledge. The reason for such a psychological reorganization of personality and activity is the complex phenomenon of shifting the motive to the goal (see § 7.1).

When organizing learning activities, it is important to rely on all three types of attention, managing their dynamics and using the advantages of each type.

Course work

General psychology

The psychological essence of attention and its properties

Goroshkov Sergey Evgenievich

Introduction

The concept of attention

1 Attention and consciousness

2 Physiological mechanisms of attention

3 Orienting reflex

5 Development of attention

Main types

1 Types of attention

2 Main properties

3 Absence

4 Psychologist in KRO classes

Conclusion

Glossary

Appendix

Introduction

The theme of this course work is the essence of attention and its properties.

Attention is the focus and concentration of consciousness on any object, phenomenon or activity. Attention can be represented as a cognitive process that ensures the ordering of information coming from outside, depending on the primacy and importance of the tasks facing the person.

Already from this definition, attention follows that it is characterized by a focus on what the consciousness is occupied with, and the concentration of consciousness on something that requires special awareness.

In the life of any person, there may be cases when something is better done with dispersed attention, and sometimes a person is required to clearly concentrate on a particular subject.

Dispersed attention is also obligatory for a person in the case when he needs to perform several actions at the same time. More difficulty in performing complex tasks is reduced in the case of constant attention training, and the performance of these tasks becomes habitual. A person achieves automatism, that is, automatic processing of information takes place, therefore, fewer cognitive resources are required to complete these tasks.

In modern psychology, attention studies are included, along with general psychology, into engineering psychology and labor psychology, neuropsychology and medical psychology, developmental and educational psychology.

The purpose of the study is to reveal the essence of attention and consider its properties.

Research objectives:

find out what attention is;

consider the theory of attention;

identify the properties of attention;

determine the main types of attention;

consider the development and defects of attention.

The object of this course work is attention in psychology, and the subject is the psychological essence of attention and its properties.

When writing a term paper, the ideas of such authors as M.M. Ivanova, A.N. Leontiev, R.S. Nemov, V.S. Romanova and others were used.

Main part

attention distraction

1 The concept of attention

1.1 Attention and consciousness

If we single out the common thing that stands behind all examples of the connection between attention and memory, then we cannot do without consciousness. Attention is necessary in order to keep in the mind the momentary perceived, transient - otherwise it will not be able to become the property of memory. More attention is needed in order for the memory to again be in the mind, to rise from the depths of memory. Keeping the image and thought in the mind is behind the joint functioning of attention and perception, attention and thinking.

The problem of the connection between attention and consciousness began to be developed within the framework of tail philosophy. In Eastern philosophy, tradition has a special place for attention to both “concentration” and “correct vision”, “penetration” in achieving enlightenment, true divine wisdom. Without attention, "enlightened consciousness" is impossible. It is no coincidence that the practice and technique of meditation, based on the ultimate concentration of consciousness, is defined in the Eastern religious and philosophical tradition.

In the second half of the 19th century, a line of research began to actively develop in psychology, which notes the connection between attention and consciousness. The first direction is the classical psychology of consciousness, within which a systematic experimental study of attention began. Since then, psychology has developed a number of diverse ideas about the relationship between attention and consciousness, in which attention is assigned different roles.

The most common idea of ​​attention in modern psychology is its interpretation as a mechanism of access to consciousness, which determines what of the perceived and experienced by us at the moment reaches consciousness and will affect our behavior. This process can be represented in different ways. For example, as a kind of manhole, similar to the one through which Carroll's Alice tried to get into the magical garden in Wonderland, but did not fit completely. From the court follows the question: what and why remains outside of consciousness, occupies an important place in the modern psychology of attention.

In the classical psychology of consciousness, several more approaches to considering the relationship between attention and consciousness were identified. Consciousness ceases as a structure similar to the visual field with a focus and periphery, and attention as a part of consciousness, its focus, a zone that has the greatest clarity and reporting of the contents of consciousness. However, here the question arises: how exactly do the individual components of individual experience find themselves in this zone? To answer this question, attention must be represented as a special process of transferring a certain content of consciousness, or its element, to its central part.

Attention can also be considered as one of the properties of consciousness or its inherent features. This property is the degree of subjective clarity of the impressions that are in the mind, which, in the case of a lack of attention, turn out to be vague, and in the case of the utmost attention, they appear to us most clearly.

At the initial stage of the conversation about attention, the connection between attention and consciousness will allow us to approach the description of the subjective phenomena of attention and the fulfillment of the criteria for the presence of this elusive.

Consciousness is the ability to give an account of oneself, and therefore, it is through consciousness that we can know what it means to "be attentive" or "to be inattentive."

1.2 Physiological mechanisms of attention

The works of the outstanding Russian physiologists A.A. Ukhtomsky and I.P. Pavlov are of great importance for understanding the physiological foundations of attention. The idea put forward by IP Pavlov about the special reactions of an uneven system of orienting reflexes already contained a proposal about the reflex nature of involuntary attention. “We peer into the emerging image, listen to the emerging sounds; we strongly draw in the smell that has touched us ... ”- wrote I.P. Pavlov. Orientation reactions are very complex according to modern data. They are associated with the activity of a significant part of the body. The orienting complex includes both external movements (for example, the head towards the sound) and changes in the sensitivity of certain analyzers; the nature of metabolism changes; breathing changes; cardiovascular and galvanic skin reactions, that is, vegetative changes occur; there are simultaneous changes in the electrical activity of the brain. According to the ideas of I.P. Pavlov and A.A. Ukhtomsky, the phenomena of attention are associated with an increase in the excitability of certain brain structures as a result of the interaction of excitation and inhibition processes. I.P. Pavlov believed that at every moment in the cortex there is some area characterized by the most favorable, optimal conditions for excitation. It is this area that arises according to the law of induction of nervous processes, according to which the nervous processes that concentrate in one area of ​​the cerebral cortex cause inhibition in other areas and vice versa. In the focus of excitation, new conditioned reflexes are easily formed, differentiation is successfully developed, this is currently the “creative department of the cerebral hemispheres”. The focus of optimal excitability is dynamic. “If it were possible to see through the cranium and if the place of the cerebral hemispheres with optimal excitability shone, then we would be on a thinking conscious person, as a light spot constantly changing in shape and size of bizarrely irregular outlines moves along his cerebral hemispheres, surrounded by everything else more or less significant shadow in the space of the hemispheres,” wrote I.P. Pavlov. This corresponds to the center of optimal excitation, its “movement” is a physical condition for the dynamics of attention. The position of I.P. Pavlov about the movement of foci of excitation along the cerebral cortex is confirmed by modern experimental studies (data by N.M. Livanov). The dominant principle is important for understanding the physiological mechanisms of attention. In the brain, there is always a dominant, dominant focus of excitation according to A.A. Ukhtomsky. A.A. Ukhtomsky characterizes the dominant as a constellation of "centers with increased excitability." A feature of the dominant as a dominant focus is that it not only suppresses newly emerging foci of excitation, but is also capable of attracting weak excitations to itself, thereby amplifying at the expense of dominating them even more. The dominant is a stable focus of excitation. “The name “dominant” means a more or less stable focus of increased excitability…” wrote A.A. Ukhtomsky. AA Ukhtomsky's ideas about the dominant make it possible to understand the nervous mechanism of prolonged intensive attention. The high efficiency of all cognitive processes with directed concentration is determined by the most favorable conditions for brain activity that arise in centers with increased excitability. In recent years, new results have been obtained in studies by Soviet and foreign scientists that reveal the neurophysiological mechanisms of attention. Attention arises against the background of general wakefulness of the body associated with active brain activity. If active attention is possible in a state of optimal wakefulness, then concentration difficulties arise both against a background of relaxed, diffuse, and against a background of excessive wakefulness. The transition from passive to active attention provides a general activation of the brain. At a certain level of brain activity, attention is possible. Currently, psychophysiology has anatomical, physiological, and clinical data that testify to the direct relationship to the phenomena of attention of various structures of the nonspecific brain system (the reticular formation, the diffuse thalamic system, the hypothalamic structure, the hippocampus, and others). The main physiological function of the non-specific system is the regulation of various forms of non-specific activation of the brain (short-term and long-term, general, global and local, limited). It is assumed that involuntary attention is associated primarily with general, generalized forms of nonspecific brain activation. Voluntary attention is associated both with an increase in the general level of brain activation and with significant local shifts in the activity of certain brain structures.

In recent years, ideas about the leading role of the cerebral cortex in the system of neurophysiological mechanisms of attention have begun to play an important role. At the level of the cerebral cortex, attention processes are associated with the presence of a special type of neurons (attention neurons - novelty detectors and setting cells - expectation cells).

It was revealed that in healthy people under conditions of intense attention, there are changes in the bioelectrical activity in the frontal lobes of the brain. In patients with lesions, use verbal instructions to induce sustained voluntary attention. Simultaneously with the weakness of voluntary attention in case of damage to the frontal lobes of the brain, a pathological increase in involuntary forms of attention is noted. Thus, attention is associated with the activity of a number of brain structures, but their role in the regulation of various forms and types of attention is different.

1.3 Orienting reflex

The raticular formation is an accumulation of nerve cells located in the brain stem and is a trace of the nerve pathways connecting the receptors of the sense organs with areas of the cerebral cortex. It is thanks to the raticular formation that a person can be alert, react to the slightest changes in the environment. It also provides the appearance of an orienting reflex. With its ascending and descending fibers, it is a neurophysiological apparatus that provides one of the most important forms of reflex activity, known as the orienting reflex. For understanding the physiological foundations of attention, its importance is especially great.

Each unconditioned reflex, which is based on some biologically important effect for the animal, causes a selective system of responses to the stimulus with simultaneous inhibition of all reactions to side ones. Conditioned reflexes are of the same character. With them, one system of reactions, which is reinforced by an unconditioned stimulus, dominates, while all other side reactions are inhibited. Both unconditioned and conditioned reflexes formed on their basis create a well-known dominant focus of excitation, the flow of which is subject to the dominant.

The orienting reflex manifests itself in a series of distinct electrophysiological, motor and vascular reactions that appear every time something unusual or significant occurs in the environment surrounding the animal. These reactions include: turning the eyes and head towards a new object; alert and listening response.

In humans, the appearance of a galvanic skin reaction, vascular reactions, a change in breathing, and the occurrence of “desynchronization” phenomena in the bioelectrical reactions of the brain, expressed in depression of the “alpha rhythm”. We observe all these phenomena every time when the reaction of alertness, or the orienting reflex, is caused by the appearance of a new or usual stimulus for the subject.

Among scientists there is still no definite answer to the question whether the orienting reflex is an unconditioned or conditioned reaction. By its innate nature, the orienting reflex can be classified as an unconditioned reflex. The animal responds with a reaction of alertness to any new or usual stimuli without any training; according to this feature, the orienting reflex is one of the unconditioned, innate reactions of the body. The presence of certain neurons that respond with discharges to each change in the situation indicates that it is based on the action of special neural devices. On the other hand, the orienting reflex reveals a number of features that significantly distinguish it from ordinary unconditioned reflexes: with repeated use of the same stimulus, the phenomenon of the orienting reflex soon fades away, the body gets used to this stimulus, and its presentation ceases to cause the described reactions - this is the disappearance of the orienting reflex to repeated stimuli is called habituation.

4 Classification of attention theories

One of this direction was N.N. Lange. He proposed a motor theory of attention - a phenomenon in which the internal activity and selectivity of consciousness appear in a concentrated form.

Lange's motor theory of attention was the antipode of the interpretation of attention, which is captured in Wundt's concept of apperception. According to Lange, the initial fundamental is the involuntary behavior of the organism, which has a biological meaning, which lies in the fact that through muscle movements the organism takes the most advantageous position in relation to external objects in order to perceive them as clearly and distinctly as possible.

Lange made involuntary fluctuations in attention during auditory and visual perception the subject of a special experimental study.

This phenomenon and its explanation, proposed by Lange, caused a lively discussion in the psychological literature, in which the leaders of Western psychology were involved - W. Wundt, W. James, T. Ribot, J. Baldwin, G. Munsterberg and others.

Motor theory of attention T. Ribot. he believed that involuntary and voluntary attention are directly related to the duration and intensity of the emotional states associated with the object of attention.

In Ribot's rheory, important attention is paid to the study of the human family tree. With the help of the family tree, Ribot studied the properties of attention, character, memory, and so on for several generations of the same family. Thanks to the genogram, he found that cases of deep and sustained involuntary attention show all the signs of an indefatigable passion, constantly renewed and constantly thirsting for satisfaction.

T. Ribot defines attention as "mental monoideism" accompanied by natural or artificial adjustment of the individual.

Attention is a certain psycho-physiological combination, for which motor and subjective components are necessary elements. Attention is a psychological immobility that is contrary to the normal course of life processes.

Taking into account the importance of physiological correlates of mental processes and states for studying the mechanisms of attention, R.S. Nemov proposes to call the concentration of T. Ribot psychophysiological. As a purely physiological state, attention includes a complex of vascular, motor, respiratory and other voluntary and involuntary reactions.

Intellectual attention is also accompanied by an effort of blood circulation in the organs that provide the processes of thinking. According to T. Ribot, the motor effect of attention consists in the fact that some sensations, thoughts, memories receive special intensity and clarity due to the fact that motor activity is the concentration and delay of movements associated with their adjustment and control. The ability to control movements is precisely the secret of voluntary attention.

According to P. Ya. Galperin, when attention is denied along with other mental functions, this does not affect it in particular. And when attention is identified with other mental phenomena, then the real difficulties of the problem of attention, the impossibility of isolating it, already appear in this. An analysis of such difficulties leads to the conclusion that two cardinal facts underlie the most diverse views on the nature of attention.

The first one. Attention is nowhere as an independent process. It reveals itself both to oneself and to external observation as the direction, attunement and concentration of any mental activity, therefore, only as a side or property of this activity.

Second fact. Attention does not have its own separate product. Its result is the improvement of every activity to which it joins. Meanwhile, it is the presence of a characteristic product that is the main evidence of the presence of the corresponding function. Attention does not have such a product, and this is most of all against the evaluation of attention as a separate form of mental activity.

One cannot deny the significance of such facts and the legitimacy of the conclusion that follows from them and is so discouraging. We always have some kind of inner disagreement with him, and in favor of such a disagreement one could add a number of considerations about the strange and difficult position in which such an understanding of attention places us. But as long as facts are opposed to considerations, and psychology has no other sources of facts than observation, the above facts retain their absolute significance, and the denial of attention as a separate form of mental activity seems both inevitable and justified.

Let us note that this disappearance of the orienting reflex, as one gets used to it, may be a temporary phenomenon, and the slightest change in the stimulus is sufficient for the orienting reaction to arise again. This phenomenon, the occurrence of an orienting reflex with a slight change in irritation, is sometimes called the “awakening” reaction. It is characteristic that such an appearance of an orienting reflex can occur not only with an increase, but also with a weakening of the habitual stimulus and even with its disappearance. Thus, it is sufficient first to "extinguish" the orienting reflexes to rhythmically presented stimuli, and then, after the orienting reactions to each stimulus have died out as a result of habituation, to skip one of the rhythmically presented stimuli. In this case, the absence of the expected stimulus will cause the appearance of an orienting reflex.

5 Development of attention

Cultural development of attention is called that, with the help of an adult, a child learns a number of artificial stimuli-means (signs), with the help of which he further directs his own behavior and attention.

A.N. Leontiev presented the process of age-related development of attention according to the ideas of L.S. Vygotsky. with age, the child's attention improves, but the development of externally mediated attention goes much faster than its development as a whole, especially natural attention.

At school age, there is a turning point in development. It is characterized by the fact that initially externally mediated attention gradually turns into internally mediated attention, and with time this last form of attention probably occupies the main place among all kinds.

The difference in the characteristics of voluntary and involuntary attention increases, it starts from preschool age, and reaches a maximum at school age, and then again shows a tendency to equalize. This is due to the fact that in the process of its development, the system of actions that provide voluntary attention gradually turns from external into internal.

A baby from the cradle is surrounded by unknown objects that attract his attention with their brightness or unusual appearance, he also pays attention to his relatives, rejoicing at their appearance in sight or starting to cry so that they take him in their arms.

Close people pronounce words, the meaning of which the child gradually comprehends, they guide him, direct his involuntary attention. That is, his attention from an early age is directed with the help of special stimulus words.

Comprehending active speech, the child begins to control the primary process of his own attention, and first - in relation to other people, orienting their own attention to them in the right direction, and then - in relation to himself.

Initially, the processes of voluntary attention directed by the adult's speech are for the child processes of his external discipline rather than self-regulation. Gradually, using the same means of mastering attention in relation to himself, the child passes to self-control of behavior, that is, to voluntary attention.

The sequence of the main stages in the development of children's attention:

the first weeks - months of life. The appearance of an orienting reflex as an objective, innate sign of the child's involuntary attention;

end of the first year of life. The emergence of orienting-research activity as a means of the future development of voluntary attention;

the beginning of the second year of life. Detection of the rudiments of voluntary attention under the influence of the adult's speech instructions, the direction of the gaze on the object named by the adult;

second or third year of life. A fairly good development of the above initial form of voluntary attention;

four or five years. The emergence of the ability to direct attention under the influence of a complex instruction from an adult;

five or six years. The emergence of an elementary form of voluntary attention under the influence of self-instruction;

school age. Further development and improvement of voluntary attention, including volitional.

2 Main types

2.1 Types of attention

Involuntary attention, in the occurrence of which our intention does not take any part, and arbitrary, arising due to our intention, as a result of our efforts. Therefore, what is remembered is what involuntary attention is directed to, what, it is necessary to remember, is necessary in voluntary attention (see Appendix A).

Involuntary attention is a low form of attention that occurs as a result of the impact of a stimulus on any of the analyzers. It appears according to the law of the orienting reflex common to man and animals.

The emergence of involuntary attention can be caused by the peculiarity of the acting stimulus, and be determined by the correspondence of these stimuli to past experience or the psychological state of a person.

Involuntary attention can be useful at work, at home. It gives us the opportunity to timely identify the appearance of an irritant and take the necessary measures.

At the same time, involuntary attention can have a negative effect on the success of the activity performed, distracting us from the main thing in the task being solved, reducing the productivity of work in general.

The reasons for the occurrence of involuntary can be:

unexpected stimulus;

the relative strength of the stimulus;

novelty of the stimulus;

moving objects (T. Ribot singled out this factor, believing that as a result of purposeful activation of visions, concentration and increased attention on the subject occur);

contrast of objects or phenomena;

the inner state of a person.

The French psychologist T. Ribot believed that the nature of involuntary attention occurs in the deep recesses of our being. Directing the involuntary attention of a given person reveals his character, or at least his aspirations.

Based on this feature, one can conclude that a person is frivolous, banal, narrow-minded, or sincere and deep.

Arbitrary attention is possible only in a person, and it arose due to conscious labor activity. To achieve a specific goal, a person has to deal not only with what is interesting in itself, but with everything that is necessary.

Voluntary attention is more complex and is formed in the learning process: at home, at school, at work. It is characterized by the fact that it is directed to the object under the influence of our intention and goal.

The physiological mechanism of voluntary attention is the beginning of optimal excitation in the cerebral cortex, which is supported by signals that come from the second signaling system. From this one can see the role of the word of the parents or the teacher for the formation of voluntary attention in the child.

The emergence of voluntary attention in a person is historically associated with the labor process, since without controlling one's attention it is impossible to carry out conscious and planned activity.

The psychological feature of voluntary attention is its accompaniment by experiencing more and less volitional effort, stress, and prolonged maintenance of voluntary attention causes fatigue, often even more than physical stress.

It is helpful to change a strong concentration of attention with less strenuous work, by switching to easier or more interesting activities, or by creating a strong interest in a person in an activity that requires intense attention.

People make significant efforts of will, concentrate their attention, understand the content necessary for themselves, and then, without volitional tension, carefully follow the material being studied.

This attention now becomes secondarily involuntary, or post-voluntary. It will greatly facilitate the process of the condition of knowledge, and prevent the development of fatigue.

Post-voluntary attention is an active, purposeful concentration of consciousness, which does not require volitional efforts due to a high interest in activity. According to K.K. Platonov, post-voluntary attention is the highest form of voluntary attention. The work of a person absorbs him so much that interruptions in it begin to annoy him, as he has to be re-engaged in the process, to work in. Post-voluntary attention occurs in situations where the purpose of the activity is preserved, but there is no need for volitional effort.

N.F. Dobrynin argues that in this case, the direction of activity remains consistent with consciously accepted goals, but its implementation no longer requires conscious mental efforts and is limited in time only by the depletion of the body's resources.

But not all psychologists consider post-voluntary attention to be an independent type, since it resembles voluntary attention in the mechanism of occurrence, and involuntary attention in terms of the way it functions.

2 Main properties

The main properties of attention include: concentration, stability, intensity, volume, switching, distribution (see Appendix B).

Concentration of attention or concentration is the selection by consciousness of an object and directing attention to it. The role of concentrated attention is different. On the one hand, it is necessary for a more complete study of a particular object, and on the other hand, excessive concentration of attention leads to a sharp narrowing of the field of attention, which creates difficulties in the perception of other important objects.

Sustainability of attention is the length of time during which a person can maintain their attention on an object. It is needed in conditions of monotonous and monotonous work, when complex, but the same type of actions are performed for a long time.

Experiments have established that intensive forty-minute attention can be maintained arbitrarily without noticeable weakening and involuntary switching. In the future, the intensity of attention liquefies the faster, the less trained a person is and the less stable his attention is.

One of the important values ​​for achieving success in any activity is concentration and stability of attention, which characterize the depth, duration and intensity of a person's mental activity. It is they that distinguish people who are passionately passionate about their work, who are able to disconnect from numerous side stimuli for the sake of the main thing.

Even with very stable and concentrated attention, there are always short-term involuntary changes in the degree of its intensity, tension - this is a fluctuation of attention.

You can force yourself to read the same text carefully several times if you set new tasks before each repetition.

The amount of attention is the number of objects that a person can be simultaneously aware of when perceiving in connection with any one task. At the same time, you can realize 3-7 objects, although the objects are different. And they don't get the same amount of attention. Much depends on the experience of a person, his professional training, which makes it possible to form a volume of attention that combines several objects into one, more complex one.

For some occupations, high intensity and a high amount of attention are needed almost all the time of work, and motor skills are of much less importance. These professions belong to the psychology of work.

High intensity of concentrated attention for other professions is needed only in some moments of work.

it is the ability to perform several actions at the same time. The distribution depends on the individual characteristics of the individual and on professional skills. No one can do two things at the same time without being able to do each separately.

The ability of a person to keep a certain number of different objects in the center of attention at the same time allows you to perform several actions at once, while maintaining the form of conscious mental activity, and the subjective feeling of the simultaneity of performing several is due to a quick sequential switch from one to another.

W. Wundt showed that a person cannot focus on two limiting stimuli at the same time. But sometimes a person is really able to perform two types of activity at the same time. In fact, in such cases, one of the activities performed must be fully automated, and do not require attention. If this condition is not met, then the combination of activities is impossible.

A large group of professions associated with the management of moving mechanisms is called driving in labor psychology. For them, such qualities of attention as a wide distribution and rapid switching, which determine the success of controlling mechanisms under conditions of multifaceted influence in the conditions of the outside world.

The physiological mechanism of the distribution of attention is related to the fact that habitual actions that do not cause any difficulties due to already developed strong systems of temporary connections can be controlled by areas of the cortex that are outside of optimal excitation.

The dynamics of any work leads to the need to constantly change the objects to which a person pays attention. This is expressed in switching attention.

Switching is the conscious process of attention from one object to another. The involuntary switching of attention is called distraction.

Physiologically, voluntary switching of attention is explained by the movement of an area with optimal excitability along the cerebral cortex. High mobility of nervous processes as an individual trait of temperament allows you to quickly move from one object to another. In such cases, it is mobile attention.

For example, if a person has insufficient mobility of nerve fibers, then this transition occurs with effort, difficultly and slowly. Such attention is called inert. When a person has poor switchability in general, this is sticky attention. Sometimes poor switching in a person is due to poor preparedness for work.

3 Absence

Absent-mindedness is the inability of a person to focus on anything specific for a long time.

There are two types of absent-mindedness imaginary and genuine. Imaginary absent-mindedness is a person's inattention to the immediate surrounding objects and phenomena, which is caused by the extreme concentration of his attention on some object.

Imaginary absent-mindedness is the result of great concentration and narrowness of attention. Sometimes it is called "professional", as it is often found in people of this category. The attention of a scientist can be so concentrated on the problem that occupies him that he does not pay attention to anything.

Absent-mindedness as a result of internal concentration does not cause much harm to the cause, but it makes it difficult for a person to orient himself in the world around him. Much worse is genuine absent-mindedness. A person suffering from absent-mindedness of this type has difficulty establishing and maintaining voluntary attention on any object or action. To do this, he needs much more willpower than an undistracted person. The voluntary attention of an absent-minded person is very unstable and easily distracted.

The causes of truly distracted attention are very different. The causes of true absent-mindedness may be a general disorder of the nervous system, anemia, diseases of the nasopharynx, which impede the flow of air into the lungs. Sometimes absent-mindedness appears as a result of physical and mental fatigue and overwork, any difficult experiences.

One of the reasons for true absent-mindedness is overload with a lot of impressions. Therefore, children should not be allowed to go to the cinema, the theater often during school hours, take them to visit, and be allowed to watch TV every day. Scattered interests can also lead to genuine absent-mindedness.

Many students enroll in several circles at once, take books from many libraries, are fond of collecting and at the same time do nothing seriously. The reason for true absent-mindedness can also be the wrong upbringing of the child in the family: the lack of a regime in the classroom, entertainment and recreation of the child, the fulfillment of all his whims and more. Boring teaching, which does not awaken thought, does not affect feelings, does not require effort of will, is one of the sources of absent-mindedness of students.

4 Psychologist in KRO classes

The concentration of correctional and developmental education (CRO) in schools, which includes the principle of complex diagnostics, correction and rehabilitation of children with persistent learning difficulties, was developed at the Institute of Developmental Education of the Russian Academy of Education and approved by the RF Ministry of Defense in 1994. The KRO system is a form of differentiation that allows solving the problems of modern active assistance to children with learning difficulties and adaptation to school.

One of the main places in the KRO system is given to the psychologist. The work of a psychologist in the KRO system is not just to provide psychological assistance, support for children with learning difficulties. This is the psychological support of children at all stages of education as a complex process of interaction, the result of which should be the creation of conditions for the development of the child, mastering his activities and behavior, for the formation of readiness for life self-determination, including personal, social and professional aspects.

Producing psychological support for the educational process in the KRO system, the psychologist conducts individual and group preventive, diagnostic, consultative, corrective work with students; expert, advisory, educational work with teachers and parents on the development, education and upbringing of children in a general education institution; participates in the work of the psychological-medical-pedagogical council of the educational institution.

The work of a psychologist in the KRO system cannot proceed in isolation from the work of other specialists of a general education institution. A collegial discussion of the results of the examination by all PMPK specialists makes it possible to develop a unified idea of ​​the nature and characteristics of the child's development, to determine his developmental defects.

Conclusion

So, with the help of our research, we found out that attention is the concentration of the subject's activity at a given moment in time on some real or ideal object. Attention also characterizes the consistency of various links in the functional structure of an action, which determines the success of its implementation. The range of problems in the study of attention emerged as a result of the differentiation of the broader philosophical concept of apperception. In the developments of Wundt, this concept was attributed to the processes through which a clear awareness of the content of the perceived and its integration into the integral structure of past experience is carried out. A significant contribution to the development of ideas about attention was made by the Russian psychologist Lange, who developed the theory of volitional attention. Like the French psychologist Ribot, he connected attention with the regulation of ideomotor movements.

There are three types of attention. The simplest and genetically initial is involuntary attention. It is passive. The physiological manifestation of this fork of attention is the orienting reaction. If the activity is carried out in line with the conscious intentions of the subject and requires volitional efforts on his part, then they speak of arbitrary attention. As the operational and technical side develops due to its automation and the transition of actions into operations, as well as as a result of changes in motivation, the so-called post-voluntary attention may appear.

Among the characteristics of attention, determined by experimental studies, are selectivity, volume, stability, the possibility of distribution and switchability.

In modern psychology, a theory of attention has been developed as a function of internal control over the correspondence of mental actions to programs for their implementation (P. Ya. Galperin). The development of such control improves the effectiveness of any activity, in particular its systematic formation, allows you to overcome some defects in attention, such as absent-mindedness.

Glossary

No. p / n Concept Definition 1 Attention is the focus of the subject's activity at a given point in time on some real or ideal object 2 Concentration of attention<#"justify">List of sources used

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