Attentional Processing
The Brain's Art of Mindfulness
Published on 1. January 1995
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-674-05268-0 (ISBN)
Description
The familiar experience of attention - the emphasis on a particular mental activity so that it "fills the mind" - has been subjected to much scientific inquiry since the 1970s. This text provides a systematic view of the attention process as it occurs in everyday perception, thinking and action. Drawing from a variety of research methods and findings from cognitive psychology, neurobiology and computer science, it presents a synthesis of current knowledge about attentional processing. It explores how we are able to restrict the input of extraneous and confusing information or prepare to process a future stimulus in order to take effective action. As well as describing the pathways in the cortex presumed to be involved in attentional processing, the text examines the hypothesis that two subcortical structures, the superior colliculus and the thalamus, contain circuit mechanisms that embody an algorithm of attention.
In addition, it discusses various ways of posing the problem, from an information-processing description of how attention works to a consideration of some of the cognitive and behavioural consequences of the brain's computations, such as desiring, judging, imaging and remembering. This text integrates contributions from several fields of neuroscience, bringing together the latest efforts to solve the puzzle of attention: how it works, how it is modulated, what its benefits are and how it is expressed in the brain.
In addition, it discusses various ways of posing the problem, from an information-processing description of how attention works to a consideration of some of the cognitive and behavioural consequences of the brain's computations, such as desiring, judging, imaging and remembering. This text integrates contributions from several fields of neuroscience, bringing together the latest efforts to solve the puzzle of attention: how it works, how it is modulated, what its benefits are and how it is expressed in the brain.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
26 line illustrations, 4 tables, bibliography, index
Dimensions
Height: 242 mm
Width: 164 mm
Weight
490 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-05268-0 (9780674052680)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
Part 1 Introduction: a multidisciplinary approach; the goals of attention; the manifestations of attention; the expression of attention; plan of the book. Part 2 Selective attention: early theories of selective attention; selection of what, where and which; six properties of the attended area; metaphors of selective attention; selection of an object in a cluttered field; experimental tasks; selective attention to actions; summary. Part 3 Preparatory attention and maintenance attention: preparatory attention; attentional preparation or cognitive expectation?; perceptual preparations for objects and their attributes; perceptual preparation for locations of objects; the "peaked distribution" of attentional activity; shifting visual attention through space; the resource view of preparatory attention; maintenance attention; summary. Part 4 Attentional processing in cortical areas: areas of specialized (modular) processing; attention to object information in ventral cortical streams; attention to spatial information in dorsal cortical streams; attentional control versus attentional expression; summary. Part 5 Attentional processing in two subcortical areas; the superior colliculus; the thalamus; thalamic circuitry. Part 6 A cognitive-neuroscience model of attention processes in shape identification; an experimental trial containing a warning signal and a target; summary - the expression, mechanism and control of attention in shape identification. Part 7 Synopsis: a cognitive-neuroscience theory of attention.