Lesson 7 The Power of Attention

All true teachers of memory impress upon their students the vital importance of the faculty of attention in the processes of memory. Without attention there can be no impression made upon the records of the mind; and without such impressions there will be nothing recorded and reproduced. Without attention the memory would be like a phonograph without a needle or recording point. In such case the phonograph would receive no impressions upon its recording cylinder, and, consequently, there would be nothing to be reproduced afterward. Everyone who has used a phonograph is quite aware of the importance of having a sharp, clean needle, and it will be well for the student to carry the idea of the needle in his mind, in order to picture the work of the attention in the mechanism of memory.

Attention is one of the most wonderful of the faculties or qualities of the mind. The more it is studied, the more wonderful does it seem. It is closely allied with that other wonderful manifestation of the mind, which we know as the will. In fact, attention is said to be one of the most marked manifestations of will, and will is active principle in attention.

It is impossible to manifest attention without the activity of the will, consciously or unconsciously applied. And, likewise it is impossible for the will to operate without the employment of attention. This close relation between the will and attention is not generally recognized, but the very best psychologists fully realize it, and interest in the subject is on the increase.

Attention really is not a separate faculty of the mind, any more than is memory. Like memory, it is connected with all mental states, and all faculties. Also, like memory, it is a peculiar form of mental activity, rather than a separate faculty in itself. Moreover, the power of attention is closely bound up in the phenomena of what we know as consciousness. Just what consciousness is, no man knows, but every man knows the experience to which we apply the term. But whatever else consciousness may be, it is certain that it is something closely bound up with attention.

Some very good psychologists have held that the work of the attention is principally employed in the direction of narrowing or limiting the field of consciousness, rather than in increasing or expanding consciousness. In other words, that its action is intensive, in the direction of focusing, or concentrating, the power of consciousness upon a single thing or series of things, and, consequently shutting out of consciousness many other things; rather than in the direction of increasing or magnifying the power of consciousness itself. A close study of the phenomena of consciousness will serve to support this idea.

The highest degree of attention is secured only when the highest degree of concentration accompanies it. Concentration, of course, is the bringing to a centre of the mental powers of perception. In fact, it is very difficult to distinguish between the action of attention and that of concentration. Attention implies concentration; and concentration implies attention. It would seem that the two are but different sides of the same thing, and that the thing itself is a form of will action.

Psychology teaches that the power of concentrated attention bears a direct inverse ratio to the extension of the area of the attention. In plainer form, this means that the fewer objects we hold in consciousness, under attention, the greater is the power of our consciousness; the greater the number of objects so held, the less the power of consciousness. If our attention is concentrated upon a single small thing, our impressions regarding that thing will be found to be quite intense, vivid, sharp and clear. On the contrary if our attention is scattered among a number of things, our impressions will be much less clear, sharp, vivid and intense.

Sir William Hamilton, [1] the eminent psychologist defines attention as: "Consciousness voluntarily applied under its law of limitations to some determinate object." He then proceeds to state that: "The greater the number of objects to which our consciousness is simultaneously extended, the smaller is the intensity with which it is able to consider each, and consequently the less vivid and distinct will be the information it obtains of the several objects. When our interest in any particular object is excited, and when we wish to obtain all the knowledge concerning it in our power, it behooves us to limit our consideration to that object to the exclusion of others."

[1. Sir_William_Hamilton,_9th_Baronet ]

The above will be found to agree with the experience of every person. When the attention is not specially directed or concentrated upon any one thing, the person is more or less conscious of a number of impressions pouring in upon the mind through the channel of the senses. One sees a number of things, hears as many more, may receive impressions through taste and smell at the same time, and the sense of feeling may also manifest itself simultaneously. The attention may dance backward and forward, here and there, with great rapidity, and the consciousness may receive many impressions with more or less distinctness.

But let concentrated attention be given to any one thing, or set of things, and we find a far different state of affairs manifested. For instance a person concentrating his attention upon an interesting book, may fail to hear his name called by one of his family, or even to respond to a touch of the hand on the shoulder. He will not hear the doorbell ring, or the striking of the hour by the clock near by him. The enamored lover is often almost totally oblivious of the persons and scenes around him, and recalls nothing of them afterward. His attention is concentrated keenly upon the loved one, and to the rest of the world of impressions he is practically in a trance. Nearly every one reading these words will find their proof in his or her own experience.

It is related that a well known philosopher was so busily occupied in writing one of his books, that he failed to hear the noise of the bombardment of the town by Napoleon's army; and became aware of the fact only when he was brought back to ordinary consciousness by a rough shake of the shoulder by a grenadier who had penetrated into the study of the scholar.

It is a well known fact that persons intensely interested in some one subject, or sight, have failed to feel pin-pricks, or even more severe pain. A well known American orator once requested a friend in Congress to stop him after he had spoken two hours, but even the repeated pricking of his leg by a pin applied by his faithful friend failed to arouse him from his concentration in his speech. Soldiers in battle have failed to feel pain, owing to their attention being fixed on the object of the military movement in which they were engaged.

Workmen closely interested in their work, often fail to hear or see things which are occurring in their near vicinity. In the same way, one often falls into a reverie, or "brown study," in which the outside world is practically shut out. Criminals know that when a crowd is intently watching some interesting sight, the individuals composing it are far less likely to detect the movements of the pickpocket. As a rule, the greater the degree of attention given to a special object, the less will be the consciousness of other, and unassociated, objects. And, of course, the less degree of attention given any special object, the greater will be the degree, and the variety, of conscious impressions from the general environment.

The act of concentrated attention also tends to magnify the power of the impressions received under it. If the attention be concentrated upon the ticking of a clock, or the dropping of water from a faucet, the sound will often become so intense as to be painful. A tiny itching of the skin will have a similar effect under the same circumstances. The buzzing of a mosquito may become maddening, unless the attention is fixed on something else.

According to the same rule, it will be found that concentrated attention will develop the power of any sense to which it may be directed. In this way we manage to see small objects at a distance, which were at first invisible to us; or to hear sounds which at first were indistinct. The principle is akin to the principle of focus of the sun-glass. It causes the full power of consciousness to be brought to a focal point, by attention, and its power to be seemingly magnified in this way.

The power of attention varies among individuals. It may be greatly increased and developed by training and exercise, however. Many instances of remarkable development along these lines have been noted in the history of applied psychology. Some eminent authorities have gone so far as to say that a highly developed attention was the key of that which we often call genius; or, at the least, enabled its fortunate possessor to duplicate many of the achievements of genius.

It is conceded by the best psychologists that attention is a very high form of mental activity, and is found largely developed in the case of all men of great intellectual power. It is also noted that imbeciles, or persons of very weak intellect, have little or no power of voluntary concentrated attention, except possibly upon one or two lines, as, for instance, the cases of this kind mentioned in a preceding chapter on the parrot-memory.

The important part played by attention in the mechanism of memory may be appreciated when it is remembered that the first requisite of memory is that of acquiring clear impressions. The degree of remembrance depends materially upon the degree of clearness and strength of the original impressions recorded. And this clearness and strength depends upon the degree of attention accompanying the impression. An eminent psychologist has compared the act of attention to the action of the eye in sight. He held that an act of attention is as necessary to every exertion of consciousness, as a certain contraction of the pupil of the eye is to every exertion of the vision.

The same great authority, Sir William Hamilton, added: "It is a law of the mind that the intensity of the present consciousness determines the vivacity of the future memory. Memory and consciousness are thus in the direct ratio of each other. Therefore, vivid consciousness, long memory; faint consciousness, short memory; no consciousness, no memory."

An examination of individual cases will show you that even the persons of poorest memory will be apt to remember quite well the things toward which they feel the greatest interest. Interest is a great spur to the attention; in fact it is an axiom of psychology that: "Attention follows Interest." You will also discover that in the cases of the persons of even the best developed memory, there will be a tendency to forget those things which fail to interest them. The secret, of course, is that, interest being lacking, there is but little attention bestowed upon the original impression, and as a result the original impressions are much fainter than the average with the individual.

The secret then of obtaining clear, strong impressions depends materially upon the degree of interested attention given to the object producing the impression. This interest may be developed and cultivated to a remarkable degree. The child, or person of uncultivated intellect, is interested only in the passing, changing things of the moment. This is often called "involuntary attention," because it requires but little effort of the will and is almost automatic in its mechanism. Voluntary attention, or attention directed by a special act of will, on the other hand, is the mark of the trained intellect, and is the badge of developed efficiency in any line of human endeavor.

I shall have more to say regarding this matter of developing the attention as we proceed. For the present, it is necessary merely to indicate that the key is found in (1) interest, and (2) habit. Interest may be stimulated and developed, by a careful analysis and study of the thing in which interest is sought—even the most uninteresting thing becomes interesting when the mind is directed firmly to it, and its details and minor points are brought to view. Habit is the result of continued action along certain lines, and it is comparatively easy for one to build up a new habit. One may easily train himself in the direction of stimulating interest when required, and by so doing will train and develop the attention—and by so doing will, of course, develop the memory of the things in which the interest has been stimulated and developed.

 

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