The things that we attend to are the things of which we are aware. We have to struggle to maintain focus and continue attending to the less interesting words of the our conversational partner. We have all had the experience of talking to a perfectly nice person at a party, only to discover that some other conversation is much more interesting than the one we are stuck in. This is the reason we must turn down the car radio when we seek an unknown address. How is that we can not remember the details of this object we have handled and looked at all our lives? While you have looked at a penny it is unlikely that you have paid attention to it.Īttention is a limited resource, it can be strained to the breaking point. Most people can not identify the correct coin. Without reference to a real penny can you tell which one is correct?
All but one is inaccurate in some detail. If you look at the picture below you will see fifteen representations of the common one cent piece. In 1979 Raymond Nickerson and Marilyn Adams published a study of the ability of US citizens to remember the details of the American penny. If we do not pay attention to something we are unlikely to remember it. Photons strike the retinas of our eyes, sound waves cause our ear drums to vibrate, tactile neurons are stimulated by the feel of clothes on our bodies, all of this sensory information passes into our brains.Īttention, that searchlight focus of awareness, is a prerequisite for memory. At any instant a vast flood of information streams into our central nervous system. Many events that we interpret as memory failures are actually failures of attention.
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