What is Attention? and how can we regain it?

Attention has been defined by Gazzaniga, et al. (2002) as "a cognitive brain mechanism that enables one to process relevant input thoughts, or actions while ignoring irrelevant or distracting ones." Oken et al (2006) refer to attention as merely an overall level of alertness or ability to engage with surroundings and interact with arousal, vigilance, and the sleep-wake spectrum. According to Wei, Wang, and Klausner (2012), because attention is the main cognitive gatekeeper to processing, storing, and retrieving information, learning cannot proceed in its absence. This suggestion by Wei, Wang, and Klausner (2012) that attention is an important cognitive function that is essential for information processing and its function as a gateway is reinforced by Gazzaley (2011); Zanto & Gazzaley (2009) who also mention that for information to move on to further cognitive processes such as perception, understanding, learning, and memory there must be attention and any loss of attention can have severe psychological consequences. It is through the combination of sensory inputs with past knowledge that efficient task selection and execution, the role of the brain’s executive control, and its relationship with the prefrontal cortex (Miller and Buschman, 2014) that attention is triggered. It has been proposed by Driver & Vuilleumier (2001); Kastner & Ungerleider (2000) that Attention has evolved to deal with the dilemma of limited processing resources and when there is more information than can be processed at any one time the information to be processed competes for representation. This is termed the attentional selection system (Driver & Vuilleumier, 2001; Kastner & Ungerleider, 2000). Desimone & Duncan (1995) suggest that the senses are continuously bombarded with a multitude of sensory impressions and a key challenge is to select which impressions are relevant and which inputs should be ignored. This process of selecting a subset of the input, and ignoring the rest, is referred to like attention and is controlled either voluntarily in a goal-directed (i.e., top-down/endogenous) manner or by the properties of the stimulus features in an automatic stimulus-driven (i.e., bottom-up/exogenous) manner (Pourtois, Schettino, & Vuilleumier, 2013; Theeuwes, 2010). According to Katsuki and Constantinidis (2014), top-down orienting is easily suppressed, is affected by subject’s expectancies, referring to internal guidance of attention based on prior knowledge, wilful plans, current goals, by simultaneous memory load, is resource-limited, and requires conscious awareness. On the other hand, bottom-up orienting appears to be its antithesis as it cannot be suppressed, guidance purely by externally driven factors to stimuli that are salient because of their inherent properties relative to the background is resource-free, is unaffected by the person’s expectations or by concurrent memory load and does not require conscious awareness. Two main perspectives have emerged regarding the role of each of these processes in attentional selection) those being the bottom-up, Salience Driven Selection Hypothesis (Itti & Koch, 2001) and the top-down, Contingent-capture hypothesis (Folk, Remington, & Johnston, 1992). Posner and Peterson (1990) have identified three subsystems of attention within the top-down and bottom-up process, which is alerting "achieving and maintaining an alert state," orienting or selecting, "selection of information from sensations, stimuli, responses, memories or thoughts," and executive control "resolving conflict among responses as well as prioritizing among responses." Dean (2006) has suggested that each of these types is independent of one another because each one serves different attention functions (Engle & Redick, 2006). Yiend, Mathews, & Cowan (2005) mentions that Selective attention is a two-pronged process of attention, involving the focusing of attention and the inhibition of attention and during selective attention, task one is focusing their attention to the stimuli relevant to the task at hand and inhibiting one’s attention to irrelevant stimuli. Yiend, Mathews, & Cowan (2005) continue and suggest that Inhibition of one’s attention to irrelevant stimuli is almost always, if not always, only partial, rather than a complete blocking of all attention paid towards the irrelevant stimuli. Executive attention refers to our ability to regulate our responses, particularly in conflict situations where several responses are possible (Rothbart et al, 2003). In association with the top-down and bottom-up, attentional processes according to Petersen & Posner (2012); Posner & Petersen (1990) are supported by three independent networks that interact with one another. These networks, (1) the alerting network underlies both phasic alertness (i.e., a brief increment in arousal) and vigilance (i.e., sustaining attention for a long time) (Posner, 2008); (2) the posterior network directs attentional orienting towards a potentially relevant source from the environment for stimuli selection (Posner, 2016); and (3) the anterior network modulates executive control processes to adapt the individuals’ behavior’s for long-term goals (Shenhav, Botvinick, & Cohen, 2013). It has been hypothesised by Kahneman (1973) that there is a capacity of the amount of attention an individual has, the capacity theory of attention there is a general limit on an individual’s capacity to perform mental work, and once this capacity has been reached. One way in which to improve attention is using play/ physical activity and by using the Relaxation theory. Firstly, the relaxation theory proposes through play that, individuals restore the energy that they exhausted during their work. Hence, after working for a period, individuals need to play to relax and to generate sufficient reserve energy for work (McClelland, Acock, and Morrison (2006). Secondary in accidence with the proposition within the relaxation theory is the Attention Restoration Theory (Kopec, 2006). The Attention Restoration Theory states that attentional loss is driven by mental fatigue which is caused by excessive directed attention and that attentional capacity and mental balance can be restored by engaging in effortless attention. Kaplan (2006) proposed that the form of attention called involuntary attention, this needing no effort is not likely to become fatigued and that directed attention, in turn, would have a chance to recuperate. It is through the Attention Restoration Theory that Kaplan (1989) proposed that there are four cognitive states, or states of attention, along the way to restoration: these being 1) clearer head, or concentration 2) mental fatigue recovery 3) soft fascination, or interest and 4) reflection and restoration. Interestingly, although the Attention Restoration Theory has been mostly associated with natural settings, recent literature suggests that the inclusion of built environments is relevant and appropriate (Scopelliti & Giuliani, 2004)