Working on Attention - Managing Cognitive Impairments And Behavioral Issues | Coursera
Attention can be defined generally, as the ability to produce, select, manage, and maintain sufficient stimulation at a specific amount of time to process any information. Simply put, it is the ability to concentrate on something. There are distinguished several types of attention; sustained, selective, divided, alternating, auditory, visual, involuntary, voluntary, and post-involuntary attention. Sustained attention is an ability to focus on one specific task and to avoid distractions. Ideas for exercising this type of attention might include different activities based on a simple task of doing something without interruption for a certain time. For example, non-stop reading, knitting, listening to a lecture, playing a game, or something else, without distraction for a certain number of minutes and increased time limit to gradual. Selective attention implies a focusing only on a specific stimulus while ignoring the rest of them. This means that you are able to perform a task without being distracted by background events. It might consist of reading or doing any other activity that needs concentration for a certain time with having music, radio, TV on, or conversation in the background, and being able to concentrate and tune the noise out. Divided attention is a very critical form of attention, meaning the ability to focus on more than one response and react to them simultaneously. The human brain can be trained to multitask. The most famous people who could perform multitasking are considered to be Julius Caesar, and Napoleon. Alternating attention is the ability to alternate the attention between two things; to switch back and forth between tasks. The entire attention is shifted from one task to another and back. It might consist of a reading for five minutes, but during those five minutes, cycling all of the commas in the task that you find. These are just simple examples of working on attention, but there are many ways to work on attention at home incorporating this techniques. Auditory attention indicates blurring out all other stimulus and focusing only on the inputs received by ears. You pay attention to what you hear without interrupting. For example, listening to an audio book or an important announcement, or etc. Visual attention means focusing on the inputs received by eyes. The perfect example of visual attention is a target shooting. Visual attention is quite important because we get from 80-90 percent of information, we have visual channel. Involuntary or non-voluntary attention accuse unexpectedly regardless of consciousness. It is passive or forced attention, like when you hear a loud noises or see bright flashes, etc. Voluntary attention is a type of attention that mostly requires a strong willed effort. When you force yourself to concentrate and finish your work. The post-involuntary attention is subconscious in nature. It is driven by interest and you don't need to make an effort to finish your work. Now, we will train your visual attention. Please find differences in the next four pairs of pictures. Be very attentive. Don't hurry up. The first picture is vegetables. Pause the video. Take your time. Check yourself on the next slide. The second picture is a watch. Pause the video. Be attentive. Find the differences. Check yourself on this slide. The third picture is a boy hunter with dogs. Take your time to find differences. Please concentrate. Be attentive. Check yourself. The fourth picture is Mona Lisa. Try to find differences. Check yourself. Now, please concentrate and find a penguin with the comp. It is not easy. Pause the video. Check yourself on the next slide. All these pictures were displayed with a growing complicacy. You've trained yourself to be attentive to details, which is very important. Try to use this skill in regular situations. Pay attention to colors, decoration, sizes, small details, etc.