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attention |
Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Acronyms, Idioms, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.07 sec. |
attentionIn psychology, the act or state of applying the mind to an object of sense or thought. Wilhelm Wundt was perhaps the first psychologist to study attention, distinguishing between broad and restricted fields of awareness. He was followed by William James, who emphasized active selection of stimuli, and Ivan Pavlov, who noted the role attention plays in activating conditioned reflexes. John B. Watson sought to define attention not as an “inner” process but rather as a behavioral response to specific stimuli. Psychologists today consider attention against a background of “orienting reflexes” or “preattentive processes,” whose physical correlates include changes in the voltage potential of the cerebral cortex and in the electrical activity of the skin, increased cerebral blood flow, pupil dilation, and muscular tightening. See also attention deficit disorder. attention Psychol the act of concentrating on any one of a set of objects or thoughts How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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| Turning our attention to the periods established among ourselves, for the election of the most numerous branches of the State legislatures, we find them by no means coinciding any more in this instance, than in the elections of other civil magistrates. The woman who was seated there made an attempt to occupy Pete's attention and, failing, went away. While he might have risked a drop from the eaves of the roof he feared to do so lest he attract the attention of passers-by, and probable discovery. |
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