Mental Process
attention Audio
at·ten·tion [ uh-ten-shuhn ]
Subclass of:
Arousal
Definitions related to attention:
  • Concentration: the aspect of consciousness that relates to the amount of effort exerted in focusing on certain aspects of an experience, activity or task. Usually impaired in anxiety and depressive disorders.
    Sadock's Comprehensive Glossary of Psychiatry and Psychology
    BJ Sadock Titles Press, 2012
  • Focusing on certain aspects of current experience to the exclusion of others. It is the act of heeding or taking notice or concentrating.
    NLM Medical Subject Headings
    U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2021
  • Selection and perception of a certain stimulus or of a range of stimuli composing a part of a complex stimulus situation; concentration of the mental powers upon an object; a close or careful observing or listening.
    CRISP Thesaurus
    National Institutes of Health, 2006
  • Attention, in psychology, the concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli. Attention is awareness of the here and now in a focal and perceptive way. For early psychologists, such as Edward Bradford Titchener, attention determined the content of consciousness and...
    Encyclopedia Britannica
    Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2020
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