Switching attention: definition of the concept, description of the technique

Most modern people have very poorly developed mindfulness skills. And when attention is weak and poorly trained, it turns into our enemy. We are constantly distracted, we cannot concentrate on anything, the habit of rapidly changing content prevents us from going deeper into the object of observation, we become stupid, we cannot manage our lives and be effective, we get stuck in addictions and drain our energy into an unknown place, and besides, we become light prey to any manipulators. All this greatly affects the quality of life.

We are constantly surrounded by stimuli with which we interact. Our consciousness does not process all stimuli. Many of them pass by the focus of attention and go unnoticed. What we pay attention to depends on many factors - it could be personal interests, a stimulus that is too loud or bright to not notice, a high degree of novelty, our own safety and much more.

The ability to manage attention largely determines our successes, failures, development or stagnation, opportunities, limitations, etc.

Definition

All people have experienced the fact that in the morning they can concentrate well on solving complex problems, but in the evening it becomes problematic to do so. Why? A person spends his energy on making all sorts of everyday decisions and for this reason, by the evening he has neither the strength nor the desire to do anything important. Switching your attention helps restore energy. A simple technique gives good results if you master it perfectly. The brain will not get very tired if it is not working hard all the time.

A smart person takes a break every 2 hours of productive activity. Moreover, in his free time he does not sit at the computer, but goes out to get some air, does physical exercise, or makes coffee. Changing activities is the best way to switch attention. But it’s not always possible to leave the table and take a walk. Sometimes you have to quickly change the sector of your tasks and concentrate on each of them. What to do in such a situation?

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Kinds

There are two types of attention switching:

1. Deliberate. In this case, a person, by force of will, forces himself to shift attention from one task to another. Case in point: switching between multiple projects can often be seen in any office. And at home, people often multitask. For example, a girl can wash dishes and talk on the phone at this time. Such constant switching of attention will reduce the effectiveness of each individual task if the person performing them does not have this quick skill.
2. Unintentional. Distractions accompany a person throughout the day. He can be intensely busy with work, but a phone call will knock a person out of deep thinking. Social media notifications prevent you from concentrating on an activity for more than 30 minutes. A radio or TV playing in the background absorbs attention without him realizing it.

Absent-mindedness and attentiveness

When absent-minded, a person’s consciousness does not have a specific direction, but moves from one object to another, i.e. dissipates.

Types of absent-mindedness

There are two main types of absent-mindedness. The first is the result of a general instability of attention. They are usually distinguished by younger children. However, it can also occur in adults as a result of weakness of the nervous system or extreme fatigue, lack of sleep, etc. This type of absent-mindedness also appears in the absence of the habit of working with concentration.

The second type of absent-mindedness has a completely different character. It occurs because a person is focused on one thing and therefore does not notice anything else. People who are passionate about their work are characterized by such absent-mindedness.

Attentiveness

If a person gets used to doing everything carefully, then attention, becoming a constant feature, develops into attentiveness, which, as a personality trait, is of great importance in the general psychological appearance of a person. Anyone who has this quality is distinguished by observation and the ability to better perceive their surroundings. An attentive person reacts to events faster and often experiences them more deeply, and has a great ability to learn.

Mindfulness is associated with greater development of the properties of attention: its volume, concentration, stability, distribution. Possessing this quality, a person easily concentrates and has well-developed involuntary attention. Even in the absence of interest in work, an attentive person can quickly mobilize voluntary attention and force himself to concentrate on a difficult and uninteresting activity.

Psychological testing using the Attention package will help establish the attention properties of each person, identify deviations, by studying which you can direct the development of attention in the right direction.

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How to determine your performance?

Switching attention and distributing it between tasks is a useful skill. But before doing the exercises, a person must understand his starting point. Each individual has his own rhythm of life and sphere of activity. Some people need strong concentration, while others can work automatically. How to determine the volume of your attention and its consumption per day? In the morning, immediately after you wake up, sit at the table and start writing any number or letter. Draw a row until you get it wrong. Calculate the result. For example, you got 16 digits. The same test must be done throughout the day. Write a series of numbers around lunchtime and then in the evening. After looking at the result, it will become clear to you at what periods of time you will need to be distracted, relieve mental stress, in order to rush into battle again.

Distribution

Distribution of attention is a person’s ability to concentrate on several objects at the same time.

In other words, it is the ability to simultaneously perform several different tasks.

A striking example of a person with an outstanding ability to distribute attention is Julius Caesar . It is alleged that he could simultaneously dictate the contents of a letter to several clerks, while he himself read a completely different text.

The ability to distribute attention can be slightly increased using the following methods:

1. When performing work that requires increased attention, it is advisable to be distracted every 15-20 minutes and deliberately reduce the level of concentration and give yourself a short rest.
2. At different times of the day a person has a different ability to concentrate.
   It is usually higher in the hours after waking up, but it also depends on the individual characteristics of the person.
3. Combining actions that are close in meaning leads to increased concentration. For example, a child who learns a poem and gestures accordingly will remember it faster, since both physical and mental activity will be involved in the process of controlling attention.
4. Automaticity of actions. An experienced driver does not think about the process of changing gears while driving a car, which helps him concentrate more on the situation on the road, while a beginner will be more likely to be distracted by this action.

Reading two books at the same time

The technique of switching attention is to train the mind for a conscious and quick change of activity without loss of cognitive functions. How can you achieve a good result? You need to practice a simple exercise every day. Take two books of the same format and similar content. For example, these could be detectives. Set aside an hour and start reading. You need to alternately read both books at the same time. Having finished one page in the first detective story, immediately move on to the second. You need to concentrate on each book. After the hour has passed, you should take a test. Write the content of what you read from the first book, and then from the second. At first, the task will seem very difficult, and you will have difficulty testing yourself. Therefore, nothing bad will happen if you re-read the text again in the normal way. After six months of training, you will be able to change your activities quickly and without losing concentration.

Types and types: classification in table

Attention: what is it like?

Involuntary attention, in turn, is divided into the following types:

1. Forced . It is characterized by being very difficult to control and triggered by intense stimuli. For example, a bright flash of light.
2. Involuntary . This is attention that is directed to objects related to the satisfaction of any needs. For example, involuntarily paying attention to the grocery store if a person is hungry.
3. Habitual . It concerns interests and human activities. For example, when walking through an unfamiliar city, a builder will pay attention to the architecture, and a gardener will pay attention to the landscaping of the streets.

Voluntary attention is divided, due to its characteristics, into the following:

1. Volitional . Occurs when concentration on directed activity is interrupted by any stimuli. For example, a person concentrates on reading a book in a noisy room.
2. Expectant . Waiting for some object to appear, for example, a phone call or a message during correspondence.
3. Spontaneous . Maintaining attention on an object that aroused involuntary interest. For example, a driver pays and maintains attention to an engine sound that is uncharacteristic of normal operation while driving a car.

Focus on emotions

Switching and stability of attention is needed not only to cope with work issues. Man is an emotional being. For this reason, it is not always possible to control oneself. If you want to become more self-controlled, you need to learn to shift your attention from what offends you to something else. For example, in a fit of anger, try to imagine your feeling. Mentally look around your body and think about where exactly your anger is accumulated. Come up with a shape for it. It could be a cloud or some kind of animal. Mentally, you need to let the anger out. Simple concentration and distraction allows a person to quickly cool down and not lash out at his neighbor. You can practice this technique not only with negative, but also with positive emotions. Sometimes joy, pride or a good feeling interfere with work just as much as grief.

Dependence of attention on the type of temperament

There are no two personalities that are completely different. This statement is especially true when it comes to response to a stimulus, about attention. The properties of attention and concentration are related to temperament and depend on the nervous system.

It is customary to distinguish the following temperaments:

• phlegmatic person;
• choleric;
• sanguine;
• melancholic.

Speaking about concentration and types of temperament, it is worth noting that phlegmatic people are distinguished by high concentration and stability, but insufficient ability to switch. Sanguine people have perfectly developed all three qualities, in addition, they are observant. It is these people who can easily distinguish twins from each other. They remember not the face and figure, but facial expressions, gestures, and wording used in conversation. Cholerics have difficulty switching, lack good concentration and stability, and their attention is unstable. For melancholic people it is weak, but accurately focuses on the essence of the task.

You can determine the attentional characteristics of a particular person by observing him during different types of activities. But this is only an approximate conclusion, and only a specialist can come to specific conclusions regarding concentration and focus.

The following questions allow us to identify the characteristics of the distribution and switching of a person’s attention:

• Can a person perform two or more tasks at the same time? If the answer is yes, how easy is this task for him?
• During communication, can he quickly move on to a new topic of conversation?
• How quickly does he react to casual remarks made?
• Does he notice minor details when watching a film, or is he only interested in the actions of the key characters?

If such a test for concentration of attention gave more positive than negative answers, the person quickly distributes and switches attention.

Meditation

The distribution, switching and volume of attention changes depending on how interested a person is in what is happening around him. Perhaps you met a friend on the street who walked past without even saying hello. When you called out to your friend, he said that he was thinking. A person’s attention can be focused either inside him, it is in this position that a person thinks, or outside, then the person feels what is happening next to him. Concentrating on both is difficult. For this reason, simple meditation can help to switch consciousness. You don't need to sit in the lotus position to clear your mind. Just focus on your breathing. Extra thoughts will leave your head, and a kind of vacuum will remain in it. In this state, a person can sit down to work and achieve the highest concentration of attention.

Properties, functions and characteristics of attention

Stability is a characteristic of attention, expressed in the ability to focus attention for a long time on one object. Many people mistakenly believe that attention is static, but it is not. Active attention is dynamic and fickle, just like the eyes, which continuously make micro-movements even in sleep. And just as vision responds best to movement, attention is activated to any changes in the object of observation.

This is the key to developing stability of attention - you need to observe the slightest changes in the object of observation. Even if it's just a black dot. If you spend some time concentrating on it, you will notice that it may begin to pulsate, glow, and its edges may change. This can be attributed to illusions of the brain and dismissed, or it can be used to train stability of attention. Observing changes in obviously dynamic objects is much easier.

Concentration of attention - focusing on one object, providing it with primary attention, when all other objects become less significant background.

Problems concentrating weaken us and make us ineffective. Without the skill of concentration, it is impossible to make significant progress in any endeavor. Attention constantly jumps, distracted by other stimuli that seem more pleasant and interesting at the moment. We're wasting our time. Concentration is necessary to improve any skill.

You can increase your concentration through training. You can do this directly “in the fields”, for example, while reading a book, decide that for 20 minutes you will not look at social networks. Your attention will constantly jump, this is normal, you don’t need to scold yourself for it, it will only make things worse. It is important to calmly return it to the selected object all the time, making all other stimuli less significant, deliberately cutting them off from the field of attention.

The ability to consciously choose an object for attention and switch to it increases our control over ourselves and our own lives.

Attention span is the number of objects that a person can simultaneously hold in his field of attention. The average attention span of an adult is 5+/-2 objects. This depends on how possible it is to connect the contents of the objects to which attention is directed. Watching five kids playing is easier than watching three kids cook dinner and clean up at the same time.

It is also important to train your attention span. But in addition to increasing the number of objects of attention, which are limited, it is possible to increase its capacity. Trying to observe as many nuances and characteristics as possible in the observed objects. For example, walk into a room and try to take it all in with your attention, rather than concentrating on individual objects.

With enough training, this will allow you to perceive the picture more comprehensively and notice the slightest changes in it. Perceiving objects as a whole trains attention to detail, which significantly reduces the number of errors due to the fact that you missed something.

Distribution of attention is the ability to keep several objects in focus at the same time. Attention and activity are closely related. Our attention is limited; we can keep only one type of conscious mental activity in focus. Conscious multitasking is an illusion; we simply switch our attention between different activities. Another thing is that we can simultaneously perform actions that have become automatic, while simultaneously occupying our attention with something else. For example, washing the dishes and listening to an audiobook.

All actions brought to automaticity create a wide field of opportunities for practicing attention exercises. You can observe what you do and how you do it, your feelings in the process, the slightest changes in the surrounding space or inside some of your ideas. There are many options.

Switching attention is a conscious transfer of the focus of attention from one object to another. This is a very important aspect of attention and should not be underestimated. You remember that where your attention is, there you are?

This may not happen right away. The more we pay attention to something, the higher the importance of this object for us. With high importance, the object begins to strongly determine us and our lives. It becomes much more difficult to switch attention from him.

For example, you can take falling in love. When we are deeply in love, all our attention is absorbed by the object of our feelings. We can work, be in the company of other people, but our attention will invariably return to our loved one. And without switching skills, at some point you may find that you have not communicated with friends for a year, work has ceased to be interesting and inspiring, close attention is fixed on your partner, and he is already tired of him. This is how a love addiction arises, from which it is then difficult to get out.

The ability to consciously choose an object for attention and switch to it increases our control over ourselves and our own lives. When we decide for ourselves where to direct our attention and from what angle to view the selected object, then it is much more difficult to manipulate us. Otherwise, there will always be someone for whom it is beneficial to slip in their object for attention and reveal it from its advantageous sides so as to evoke fear, desire, or other emotions and states, and therefore seize control.

Therefore, despite its apparent simplicity and routine, attention is a very powerful tool. A lot in our life depends on how well we have developed stability, switchability, concentration, distribution of attention and learned to use its limited volume.

Pay attention to your surroundings

Do you want to learn how to change your activities without losing concentration? The property of switching attention is that a person can do whatever he wants, but for this he will need to make incredible efforts. If the switching skill is trained, then quickly changing the field of activity will be easy. One simple practice is similar to meditation. You should, at the moment when you decide to change your activity, distract yourself and focus on the space around you. Ask yourself:

1. I see. What do you see. Without changing your angle of view, list to yourself all the items and objects that fall within your visual range.
2. I hear you. Focus on the sounds reaching your ears. This could be snatches of conversation, the hum of a computer or refrigerator, the sound of a TV running, or a child's laughter.
3. I feel it. Try to understand what you are feeling. You may feel warm, cold or hot. Maybe you're thirsty or hungry. Give yourself a full account of the sensations.

Signs of trouble focusing

Typically people encounter the following difficulties:

• inability to do one thing for a long time;
• forgetfulness – meetings, agreements, household chores are not remembered; a student may accidentally leave textbooks or notebooks at home;
• tendency to often lose small things, for example, a wallet, keys, glasses;
• the appearance of errors in work - even if a person knows the material well, this does not prevent him from writing down the wrong data, missing important conditions, confusing letters in words, etc.

Main causes of absent-mindedness

Reduced concentration leads to absent-mindedness, which is caused by the following reasons:

1. Chronic fatigue.

   Overwork, lack of sleep, physical and intellectual stress cause weakening of attention. It is no secret that if you complete tasks with a fresh mind, mistakes are much less common, and fatigue and drowsiness do not allow you to immediately understand what needs to be done.

2. Lack of desire to act.

   Motivation level is also a factor influencing focus and forgetfulness. When a person on a subconscious level does not want to go somewhere or do a certain job, the brain erases information about the duty from memory, eliminating all problems. It may well be that frequent missed meetings, failure to meet agreements and deadlines are a sign of lack of desire, and not absent-mindedness itself.

3. Autopilot program failure.

   Everyday activities usually do not require serious thought. People, without hesitation, lock the apartment door, turn off the lights, turn off the boiling kettle, and get ready for school. If any distraction appears at this time, the automatic program will not work. As a result, many people lose things, forget documents on the table, or don’t turn off the iron.

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4. Too many tasks.

   If a person has to do a lot at once and keep it in memory, concentration drops and attention becomes more distracted. As a result, a couple of tasks are forgotten, and the rest are performed poorly. An excess of tasks has a negative impact on the efficiency of any work.

5. Lack of attention.

   People regardless of age face attention deficit disorder. A side effect is the inability to do one task for a long time.

Basic approaches to studying attention

1. The totality of attention and consciousness.
2. The totality of attention and life activity.
3. The totality of attention and public culture.

Within the framework of these approaches, the following theories have been developed:

1. Motor theory of attention T. Ribot Ribot was sure that attention has a connection with emotions, and the sharpness and intensity of attention is determined by the emotional coloring of an object or phenomenon.

2. D.E. Broadbent’s model of attention He considered attention to be a kind of filter that selects the necessary information.

3. The theory of creative synthesis, or the cyclic model of W. Neisser He argued that attention is achieved through the processes of anticipation of a successful result.

4. Attention as an internal effort (Kahneman) Emphasized the connection between attention and a person’s ability to organize and make efforts.

5. Theory of attention S.L. Rubinstein considered attention to be a function of interest related to human needs.

6. Theory of attention N.F. Dobrynina was sure that attention always depends on the person himself and his activity.

7. Theory of attention P.Ya. Halperina believed that attention should exercise control over something.