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Psychology vocabulary · Cognition and Perception

Attention

Meaning in psychology, with examples

/əˈtenʃən/nounCore term

In psychology, attention means: The ability to focus mental resources on some information while ignoring the rest, for example following one conversation in a noisy room.

In Turkish: dikkat

How it is used

Cognitive psychologists distinguish selective, sustained and divided attention. Clinicians talk about attention problems, attention span and difficulty concentrating, especially when assessing ADHD.

Example sentences

  1. Divided attention tasks show how quickly performance drops when we multitask.

  2. His teacher reports that he struggles to keep his attention on one task for more than a few minutes.

Common collocations

  • selective attention
  • sustained attention
  • attention span
  • pay attention to
  • attentional bias
  • working memoryThe limited system that holds information for a few seconds and works with it while we use it, for example keeping a phone number in mind while dialling.
  • perceptionThe process by which the brain organises and interprets information from the senses, so that we can recognise objects, sounds, faces and movement.
  • ADHDShort for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, a neurodevelopmental condition with persistent inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity that affect daily life.
  • executive functionA set of higher mental skills, such as planning, holding back impulses, switching between tasks and updating working memory, that let us control and organise behaviour towards goals.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Cognition and Perception

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