Many scientists see’s the capacity for attention as involuntary and unable to be controlled or improved
Back in the 1970s science saw attention as mostly stimulus-driven, automatic, unconscious, and from the “bottom up”—a function of the brain stem, a primitive structure sitting just above the spinal cord, rather than from a “top-down” cortical area. This view renders attention involuntary. Something happens around us—a phone rings—and our attention automatically gets pulled to the source of that sound. A sound continues to the point of monotony and we habituate. There was no scientific concept for the volitional control of attention—despite the fact that psychologists themselves were using their volitional attention to write about how no such ability existed! (which is an example of why we should think in terms of tuned-in and not-tuned-in rather than by existence and nonexistence). In keeping with the scientific standards of the day, the reality of their own experience was simply ignored in favor of what could be objectively observed. This may be because Anything that cannot be measured is considered meaningless or nonexistent to science.
References
- Goleman, Daniel. Davidson, A., Richard. (2017). Altered Traits Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body (p. 117). Garden City, NY: Avery.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Cognitive Science / Biology / Neuroscience Status:☀️