Describe the types and determinants if attention.

Types of Attention

Classification of Attention by Ross: According to Ross, attention can be classified into Non-Volitional (Involuntary attention) and Volitional (Voluntary attention).

Non-Volitional (Involuntary Attention): This type of attention does not involve any role of will; instead it is aroused either by instincts and hence called enforced attention or is produced by our sentiments and therefore called as spontaneous non-volitional attention.

Examples of nonvolitional attention could be attention paid to the members of the opposite gender or a mother’s attention on noticing her crying child.

Volitional (Voluntary Attention): Volitional attention exercises the will and demands our conscious effort for arriving at a solution or achieving certain goals.

Unlike Non Volitional attention, Volitional attention is less spontaneous or automatic. Examples of volitional attention could be paying attention while solving a maths problems or attention focused on while answering examination questions.

Attention can further be categorized on the basis of needs or circumstances which we may be faced with: 

Sustained Attention: It is the ability to pay attention to only one task by consciously concentrating on that task only for a long time enough and by avoiding all other forms of distractions or deviations.

This kind of attention requires a good deal of focus as well as determination for being able to concentrate on a given task by keeping away all the distractions.

Sustained attention examples could be reading a book, memorizing a chapter or following a classroom lecture.

Selective Attention: In this case, the listener chooses to pay attention to only a specific stimulus that is present in the environment while ignoring the other stimuli.

This kind of attention does not depend on the stimulus but depends essentially on the attentive capabilities of an observer. 

Divided Attention: In the case of divided attention, the user pays attention to two or more tasks at the same time and is also sometimes regarded as Multi-tasking which involves juggling between two or more two tasks at the same time.

Its examples could be texting somebody while attending a meeting. Divided attention uses mental focus on a very large scale; hence because of divided attention, the user may get exhausted very quickly.

Alternating Attention: Though this attention can be closely related to divided attention, but is different as in the case of divided attention we split our attention between two tasks, while in the case of alternating attention,

the entire attention is shifted from one task to another or is done alternately.

Visual Attention: Visual attention makes use of the sensory organ eyes for paying attention to certain details.

Visual attention pays attention to the details or inputs which are received by the eyes only and blurs out all the other stimuli which is present in the environment.

Visual attention is put to use in case of advertising and reading.

Auditory Attention: This form of attention pays attention only to the sense of hearing only.

Paying attention to an important announcement can be an example of auditory attention. Auditory and visual attention both function in conjunction with each other.

Determinants of Attention :

Attention can be influenced by both external and internal factors.

External factors: These are the factors that are external in nature and are usually governed by the characteristics of the stimuli. 

These external factors could be related to the nature of the stimuli, the intensity as well as the size of the stimuli, the degree to which contrast, variety, or change is present in the stimuli.

The extent to which the exposure to a stimulus is repeated will also determine the strength of the attention.

Moreover, a stimulus that is in a state of motion will be able to catch our attention more quickly than a stationary one.

Internal (Subjective) factors: The subjective factors which influence attention are interests, motive, mindset and our attitudes & moods.

It is believed that interest is the mother of attention, as we pay attention or focus on those objects about which we have an interest.

Similarly, our needs or motives equally govern our attention for specific events or objects.

Moreover, the mental readiness of a person to respond to certain stimuli or preparedness will also determine the attention level for that person.

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