Psychology by Robert S. Woodworth (top rated ebook readers .TXT) 📕

the increase in space, but about as the square root of the space occupied.]

Another similar factor is repetition. Cover a billboard with several copies of the same picture, and it attracts more attention than a single one of the pictures would. Repeat a "motive" in the decoration of a building, and it is more likely to be noticed. Repeat a cry or call several times, and after a while it may be noticed, though not at first. The "summation of stimuli" has much the same effect as increasing the intensity of a single stimulus.

If, however, a stimulus is repeated or continued for a long time, it will probably cease to hold attention, because of its {247} monotony, or, in other words, because it lacks the element of change.

Striking quality is an advantage, quite apart from the matter of intensity. Saturated colors, though no stronger in intensity of light than pale colors, are stronger stimuli for attention. High notes are more striking than low. Itch, tickle and pain get attention in preference to smooth touch. "Striking" cannot be defined in physical terms, but simply refers to the fact that some kinds of stimulus get attention better than others.

Definite form has the advantage over what is vague. A small, sharply defined object, that stands out from its background, attracts the eye more than a broad, indefinite expanse of light such as the sky. In the realm of sound, "form" is represented by rhythm or tune, and by other definite sequences of sound, such as occur in the jingles that catch the little child's ear.

The factors of advantage so far mentioned are native, and a stimulus possessing one or more of them is a natural attention-stimulus. But the individual also learns what is worth noticing, and what is not, and thus forms habits of attention, as well as habits of inattention. The automobile driver forms the habit of attending to the sound of his motor, the botanist forms the habit of noticing such inconspicuous objects as the lichens on the tree trunks. On the other hand, any one forms the habit of not noticing repeated stimuli that have no importance for him. Move into a house next the railroad, and at first you notice every train that passes; even at night you awake with a start, dreaming that some monster is pursuing you; but after a few days the trains disturb you very little, night or day. The general rule covering attention habits is this: anything that you have to work with, or like to play with, acquires the power to attract your attention, while anything that you do nothing {248} with loses whatever hold on your attention it may have possessed by virtue of its intensity, quality, etc.

Besides these permanent habits of attention, there are temporary adjustments determined by the momentary interest or desire. Stimuli relevant to the momentary interest have an unwonted hold upon attention, while things out of line with this interest may escape attention altogether, even though the same things would ordinarily be noticed. What you shall notice in the store window is governed by what you are looking for as much as by the prominence of the object in the total display. When you are angry with a person, you notice bad points about him that you usually overlook, and any aroused desire adjusts or "sets" attention in a similar way. The desire or interest of the moment facilitates attention to certain stimuli and inhibits attention to others, and is thus an important factor of advantage.

The interest of the moment is often represented by a question. Ask yourself what spots of red there are in the field of view, and immediately various red spots jump out and strike the eye; ask yourself what pressure sensations you are getting from the skin, and immediately several obtrude themselves. A question sets attention towards whatever may furnish an answer.

To sum up, we may say that three general factors of advantage determine the power of any stimulus to attract attention. There is the native factor, consisting of change, intensity, striking quality, and definite form; there is the factor of habit, dependent on past experience; and there is the factor of present interest and desire.

The Motor Reaction in Attention

Attention is obviously a reaction of the individual to the stimulus that gets his attention; and it is in part a motor {249} reaction. The movements that occur in attending to an object are such as to afford a better view of it, or a better hearing of it, or, in general, such as to bring the sense organs to bear on it as efficiently as possible.

We may distinguish two sorts of motor reaction that occur in attention: the general attentive attitude, and the special adjustments of the sense organs. An audience absorbed in a speech or musical performance gives a good picture of the general attentive attitude. You notice that most people look fixedly towards the speaker, as if listening with their eyes, and that many of them lean forward as if it were important to get just as close as possible. All the little restless movements cease, so that you could "hear a pin drop", and at the tensest moments even the breath is checked. The attitude of attention is one of tense immobility, with the whole body oriented towards the object of attention. When the object of attention is something not present but thought of, a somewhat similar rigid attitude is assumed; the body is apt to lean forward, the neck to be held stiff, and the eyes to "stare at vacancy", i.e., to be fixed on some convenient object as a mere resting place, while attention is fixed outside the visual field altogether.

But we spoke of attention as mobile, and it would be strange if its mobility did not show itself in the motor reaction. It does in fact show itself in the sense organ adjustments which amount to exploratory reactions. Attention to an object in the hand is shown by "feeling of it", to a substance in the mouth by tasting movements, to an odor by sniffing movements, to a sound by cocking the head and turning the eyes towards the source of sound. The most instructive of this type of attention-reactions are those of the eyes. The eye is focused on the object that arouses attention, the lens being accommodated for its distance by the action of the little ciliary muscle inside the {250} eyeball; the two eyes are converged upon the object, so that the light from it strikes the fovea or best part of each retina; and the eyes are also turned up, down or sidewise, so as, again, to receive the light from the object upon the fovea.

This last class of eye movements is specially instructive and shows specially well the mobility of attention. Let a bright or moving object appear somewhere in the field of view--immediately the eyes turn towards it with a quick jump, fixate it for a few seconds and then jump elsewhere unless the object is found to be specially significant. Watch the eyes of one who is looking at a picture or scene of any sort, and you will see his eyes jumping hither and thither, as his attention shifts from one part of the scene to another. Ask him to abstain from this jumpy movement and let his eyes "sweep over" the scene, and he will confidently try to follow your instructions, but if you watch his eyes you will find them still jumping. In fact, "sweeping the glance" is a myth. It cannot be done. At least, there is only one case in which it can be done, and that is when there is a moving object to look at. Given an object moving at a moderate speed across the field of view, and the eyes can follow it and keep pace with it pretty accurately. But without the moving object as stimulus, the eyes can only execute the jump movement. There are thus two types of exploratory eye movement: the "jump" in passing from one object to another, and the "pursuit movement" in examining a moving object.

In reading, the eye moves by a series of short jumps from left to right along the first line of print, makes a long jump back to the beginning of the second line and another series of short jumps along that line, and so on. To appreciate the value of this jerky movement, we need to understand that each short jump occupies but a thirtieth to a fiftieth {251} of a second, while the "fixation pauses" between jumps last much longer, with the result that over ninety per cent. of the time spent on a line of print is fixation time, and less than ten per cent, is occupied in jumping from one fixation to the next. Now, it has been found that nothing of any consequence is seen during the eye jumps, and that the real seeing takes place only during the fixations. The jump movement, therefore, is simply a means of passing from one fixation to another with the least possible loss of time.

The eye sees an object distinctly only when at rest with respect to the object. If the object is still, the eye must be still to see it distinctly, and to see its different parts must fixate one after the other, jumping from one part to another. But if the object is in motion, the eye may still be able to see it distinctly by means of the pursuit movement, which is a sort of moving fixation.

The Shifting of Attention

Eye movement affords a good picture of the mobility of attention. Ordinarily the eye shifts frequently from one part of the field of view to another. When simply exploring a scene, it shifts about in what seems an indiscriminate way, though really following the principle of deserting each object as soon as it has been examined, and jumping to that other object which next has the advantage on account of movement, brightness, color, definite form, or habit of attention. In reading, however, the eye is governed by a definite interest, and moves consecutively along the series of words, instead of shifting irregularly about the page.

A moving object, or an object that is doing something, or even a complex object that presents a number of parts to be examined in turn, can hold the eye for some time. But it is almost impossible to hold the eye fixed for any length of time on a simple, motionless, unchanging object.

{252}

Attention is mobile because it is exploratory; it continually seeks something fresh for examination. In the presence of a complex of sights and sounds and touch stimuli, it tends to shift every second or two from one part of the situation to another. Even if you are lying in bed with your eyes closed, the movement of attention still appears in the rapid succession of thoughts and images, and some shift usually occurs as often as once a second.

A few simple experiments will serve to throw the shifting of attention into clearer relief. Look fixedly at a single letter written on a blank sheet of paper, and notice how one part after another of the letter stands out; notice also that attention does not stick absolutely to the letter, since thoughts obtrude themselves at intervals.