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Attention
About this topic
Introduction
Attention is the behavioural and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information while ignoring other perceivable information. For example, concentrating on reading and understanding this sentence instead of listening to background noise. It is necessary for people to allocate their attention because there is a finite amount of information we can process. Allocation of attention is dynamic and changes according to the circumstances and what is judged important. The ability to maintain attention to a particular task or source of information over time is called vigilance.
Relevance to rail
Operational and maintenance staff are expected to maintain attention on their tasks, but the design of the task can make this more or less achievable. People struggle to maintain attention when there is very little going on while providing too much information means that people cannot allocate their attention effectively.
Approaches and models
- Selective attention – the ability to concentrate attention on a specific stimulus.
- Focussed attention – the allocation of attention to a specific stimulus to the exclusion of other stimuli in the environment.
- Sustained attention (or vigilance) – the ability to maintain attention to a stimulus for a continuous period. It quickly comes difficult to maintain vigilance in low stimulus environments.
- Divided (or alternating) attention – attempting to attend to two different stimulus at the same time. Attention is switched between the two stimulus in order to keep track of both.
- Distraction – the diversion of attention from the desired focus to another.
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