Effective Attention Is All You Need.

One of our most precious assets is our attention.  Attention is the driver for success and is also limited by a variety of factors. This article will provide a historical overview of the cognitive and behavioral research on attention & effort to help inform a variety of use-cases and applications across multiple domains.

Recent attention-related breakthroughs

In our digital age, competition for user attention is fierce. For example, unless I’m diligent in adjusting the notification preferences on my devices, I will be interrupted by pings, buzzes, and prompts vying for my attention throughout the day and night!  Let me sleep! Google researchers understood the value of attention, and in June of 2017, they released a groundbreaking paper titled, Attention Is All You Need. This provided the architectural breakthrough (the transformer model) that allowed AI to truly understand and generate human language. The transformer is similar to an intelligent reader that can understand the relationships between words (or other information) in a sentence (or other data), allowing it to do amazing things like translate languages and answer questions. It does this by focusing its attention on the most important elements within an input and understanding how the remaining elements relate and engage with these. This has led to a wave of innovation that is reshaping how we live and work.

The psychologist, philosopher, and historian, William James, is credited with laying the groundwork for research on attention. In his groundbreaking work "The Principles of Psychology" (1890), James provided foundational insights into the nature of attention, distinguishing between what he termed "passive" and "active" attention. Passive attention, he described, is involuntary and driven by sensory stimuli, capturing our focus without conscious effort. 

Active attention, on the other hand, is volitional and requires deliberate effort, allowing us to select and maintain focus on specific objects or thoughts. James emphasized the selective nature of attention, famously stating, 

"Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others." 

James’ work laid the groundwork for future research by highlighting the dynamic interplay between involuntary and voluntary control over our attentional processes, and how attention shapes our conscious experience.

Kahneman’s Attention Capacity Model

Following in James’ footsteps, Daniel Kahneman (a psychologist) was particularly influential in establishing the idea of attention as a "finite resource." Kahneman introduced his attention capacity model in his influential book, Attention and Effort, released in 1979 in which he explains that we have a limited pool of mental resources that can be distributed among various tasks. This "capacity" is not fixed but fluctuates depending on factors like arousal, motivation, and the complexity of tasks. When we engage in activities requiring cognitive effort, we draw from this pool of resources. If the demands of the tasks exceed our available capacity, performance suffers, leading to errors, fatigue, or an inability to process information effectively  (if [Task Demand] > [ Attention Capacity] then blegh!

Image source: https://fs.blog/daniel-kahneman-the-two-systems/

Kahneman's attention capacity model proposes that the amount of available capacity is influenced by our arousal state. A moderate level of arousal, like feeling alert and engaged, can actually increase our available resources, allowing us to handle more demanding tasks. 

But excessive arousal, such as extreme stress or anxiety, can actually impair performance by consuming too many resources and creating a "bottleneck." 

Simultaneously, sustained effort, even with adequate arousal, depletes these resources, leading to mental fatigue and diminished capacity.

Here's an example:

Imagine you're preparing for a presentation.

• Low Arousal: If you're feeling sluggish and unmotivated (low arousal), you'll struggle to focus, process information, and organize your thoughts, making it difficult to prepare effectively.

• Optimal Arousal: If you're feeling alert and engaged (moderate arousal), you'll be able to concentrate, retain information, and efficiently structure your presentation. Your available cognitive resources are maximized.

• High Arousal: If you're feeling overwhelmed and anxious (high arousal), your mind might race, you'll struggle to recall details, and you might make careless mistakes. This is because the anxiety itself is consuming a significant portion of your cognitive resources.

• Sustained Effort: Even with optimal arousal, if you spend hours straight preparing without breaks, you'll experience mental fatigue. Your ability to focus and process information will decline, regardless of your initial arousal level. This illustrates the depletion of the finite resource.

Types of Attention

Our brain has the ability to switch between attention modes, for example: it can encompass sustained focus on complex material over time (System 2), passive attention (System 1), engage in selective filtering of distractions, alternate shifts between tasks, and divide focus among multiple activities, showcasing the brain's adaptable nature.  Next, we’ll discuss a few of these.

image source: https://www.rogerleishman.com/2017/12/thing1.html

Sustained Attention/ Active Attention (System 2)

The kind of attention that is most salient to organizations and employers is known as sustained attention or controlled attention processing (Kahneman calls this System 2 thinking). This is the ability to maintain focus on a complex task or stimulus over an extended period. Think of a student studying for a long exam. This type of attention requires significant mental endurance, as it involves resisting distractions and maintaining a consistent level of concentration. Factors like fatigue, boredom, and environmental distractions can significantly impact our ability to sustain attention, making it a crucial aspect of performance in many demanding situations.

One of the earliest researchers on attention was Norman Mackworth, whose pioneering work in the mid-20th century laid the foundation for our understanding of sustained attention, particularly through his research on vigilance. Driven by the practical needs of WWII radar operators, Mackworth developed the now-classic "Mackworth Clock Test" in 1948, this was a tool that allowed him to quantify the decline in attentional performance over time, a phenomenon he termed "vigilance decrement." His research revealed the human tendency to miss infrequent signals during prolonged monitoring, a critical finding that highlighted the limitations of sustained attention in his seminal work, "The Breakdown of Vigilance During Prolonged Visual Search."

Later in the 1970’s, Kahneman labeled this type of deliberate and effortful cognition, controlled attention processing. As noted above, this type of processing is characterized by conscious awareness, intentional focus, and the active allocation of limited attentional resources. In his book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (2011), Kahneman says: "System 2 is the slow, deliberate, analytical, and consciously effortful mode of thinking.” It is typically employed when dealing with novel, complex, or demanding tasks that require careful consideration and analysis. Controlled processing is slow, serial, and easily disrupted by distractions, as it relies heavily on the conscious control of cognitive resources. Unlike automatic processing, which we’ll discuss shortly, controlled processing demands significant mental energy, making it susceptible to fatigue and capacity limitations. This mode of attention is essential for tasks that require problem-solving, decision-making, and learning new skills, as it allows for the flexible and adaptable application of cognitive resources to achieve specific goals.

When people refer to "System 2" they're essentially talking about the mental operations that underlie controlled attention, including:

• Effortful mental activity  

• Complex computations  

• Rational decision-making

Automatic Attention Processing/ Passive Attention (System 1)

In contrast to sustained/active attention, automatic/passive attention, is constantly at work in our daily lives. It's in charge when you instinctively flinch at a sudden loud noise, or when you instantly recognize a familiar face in a crowd. It guides your rapid assessment of a situation, like deciding to cross the street because you see an approaching car. System 1 drives emotional reactions, such as feeling a surge of fear when you see a spider, or a wave of disgust when you smell something foul. It's responsible for the "gut feelings" and snap judgments that often guide our initial responses, relying on heuristics and past experiences to provide quick, but not always accurate, assessments.

In the 1970s, Walter Schneider and Richard Shiffrin conducted groundbreaking research that fundamentally altered our understanding of automatic attention processing. Their experiments, particularly those published in their seminal 1977 papers, "Controlled and automatic human information processing: I.  Detection, search, and attention" and "Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory," explored how practice transforms effortful tasks into effortless ones.  Their findings revealed the stark contrast between controlled, serial processing and automatic, parallel processing, demonstrating that with consistent practice, tasks could become so ingrained that they required minimal conscious attention.This work provided the empirical foundation for understanding how passive attention operates, highlighting the transition from conscious control to automaticity in cognitive processing.  

Building on Schneider and Shiffrin’s findings, Kahneman's concept of automatic processing, or "System 1" as he terms it in "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (2011), describes a rapid, effortless, and often unconscious mode of cognitive operation. This system operates on heuristics (mental shortcut to help people make quick judgments) and learned associations, providing quick judgments and reactions without demanding significant attentional resources. As Kahneman explains, "System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.” This mode of processing is crucial for everyday tasks like driving on familiar roads or recognizing familiar faces, allowing us to navigate our environment efficiently. It relies heavily on learned patterns and ingrained habits, making it susceptible to biases and errors when confronted with novel or complex situations. “System 1 is effortless." 

In conclusion, the journey through the landscape of attention, from William James's foundational observations to the modern understanding of its finite capacity and dual-process nature, reveals a complex and essential cognitive function. Whether it's the volitional focus of sustained attention, as explored by Mackworth and codified by Kahneman's System 2, or the effortless efficiency of automatic processing, as illuminated by Schneider and Shiffrin and further developed into Kahneman's System 1, attention shapes our experiences and interactions with the world. Recognizing the limitations and strengths of these attentional modes allows us to design more effective learning environments, create user-friendly technologies, and ultimately, better understand the human mind. As we navigate an increasingly information-saturated world, the ability to manage and direct our attention becomes ever more critical, highlighting the enduring relevance of these pioneering research efforts.

References:

Kahneman, D. (1973). Attention and effort. Prentice-Hall.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

McIntosh, R. D., Manly, T., Brennan, A., & Donaldson, D. I. (2023). Quantifying the Transition from Unconscious to Conscious Detection of Temporal Patterns in Vigilance Tasks: A Unique Adaptation of Mackworth’s Clock Test. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 35(10), 1732–1745. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11417935/

Schneider, W., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1977a). Controlled and automatic human information processing: I. Detection, search, and attention. Psychological Review, 84(1), 1–66.  

Schneider, W., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1977b). Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory. Psychological Review, 84(2), 127–190.  

Vaswani, A., Shazeer, N., Parmar, N., Uszkoreit, J., Jones, L., Gomez, A. N., ... & Polosukhin, I. (2017). Attention is all you need. In Advances in neural information processing systems (pp. 5998-6008).

Wolpert, D. M., Diedrichsen, J., & Flanagan, J. R. (2015). Basics for sensorimotor information processing: Some implications for learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 33.https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00033/full