Abstract
A mountain climber is ascending a high cliff. He searches for handholds, checks the adjustment of his rope, the position of the person above and below him, and looks for signs of ice that will make a foothold dangerous. He carefully avoids any patch of gravel. Meanwhile, the view around him may be breathtakingly beautiful, but we say that he is paying, for the moment at least, no “attention” to it. He has a task (self-set) at hand, and to perform it adaptively he must perceive the affordances for climbing in footholds, handholds, surface conditions, and the state of his companions. Otherwise, disaster awaits them. Optimal pickup of information of this sort requires experience and skill in detection of the affordances involved. The same degree and quality of selection of information would not be found in the same man performing a task like walking along a sidewalk. Walking along a sidewalk does not require careful inspection; such a task allows a search for information relevant to tasks other than locomotion. Indeed, sidewalks are built to make the job of walking easier, to put fewer demands on the system to search for information to locomote.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bruner, J.S. Processes of cognitive growth: Infancy (Heinz Werner Lectures Series, Vol. 3 ). Barre, Mass.: Barre, 1968.
Campos, J. J., Langer, A., & Krowitz, A. Cardiac responses on the visual cliff in prelocomotor human infants., Science, 1970, 170, 196–197.
Cohen, L. B., & Gelber, E. R. Infant visual memory. In L. B. Cohen & P. Salapatek (Eds.), Infant perception: From sensation to cognition (Vol. 1 ). New York: Academic, 1975.
Condry, S., McMahon, M., & Levy, A. A developmental investigation of selective attention to graphic, phonetic, and semantic information in words. Perception and Psychophysics, 1979, 25, 88–94.
Elliot, R. Simple reaction time: Effects associated with age, preparatory interval, incentive shift, and mode of presentation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1970, 9, 86–104.
Gibson, E. J. Principles of perceptual learning and development. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1969.
Gibson, E. J., & Walk, R. D. The “visual cliff.” Scientific American, 1960, 202, 64–71.
Gibson, E. J., Poag, M. K., & Rader, N. The effect of redundant rhyme and spelling patterns on a verbal discrimination task. In Appendix to Final Report, Project No. 90046, Grant No. OEG-2-9-420446-1071 ( 010 ), Cornell University and U.S. Office of Education, 1972, pp. 1–11.
Hagen, J. W., & Hale, G. A. The development of attention in children. In A. D. Pick (Ed.), Minnesota symposium on child psychology (Vol. 7 ). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1973.
James, W. The principles of psychology. New York: Holt, 1890.
James, W. Talks to teachers on psychology: And to students on some of life’s ideals. New York: Holt, 1899.
Kahneman, D. Attention and effort. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973.
Kalnins, I. V., & Bruner, J. S. The coordination of visual observation and instrumental behavior in early infancy. Perception, 1973, 2, 307–314.
LaBerge, D., & Samuels, S. J. Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 1974, 6, 293–323.
Mackworth, J. Development of attention. In V. Hamilton & M. D. Vernon (Eds.), The development of cognitive processes. New York: Academic, 1976.
Mayr, E. Behavior programs and evolutionary strategies. American Scientist, 1974, 62 (6), 650–659.
Neisser, U. Cognition and reality. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1976.
Piaget, J. The mechanisms of perception. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969.
Pick, A. D., Frankel, D. G., & Hess, V. L. Children’s attention: The development of selectivity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975.
Preyer, W. The mind of the child. Part I. The senses and the will. New York: D. Appleton Century, 1888.
Rydberg, S., & Arnberg, P. W. Attending and processing broadened within children’s concept learning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1976, 22, 161–177.
Smith, L. B., Kemler, D. G., & Aronfreed, J. Developmental trends in voluntary selective attention: Differential effects of source distinctness. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1975, 20, 352–362.
Titchener, E. B. A textbook of psychology. New York: Macmillan, 1924.
Von Üexkull, J. [A stroll through the worlds of animals and men.] In C. H. Schiller (Ed. and trans.), Instinctive behavior: The development of a modern concept. New York: International Universities Press, 1957. (Originally published, 1934.)
Wickens, C. D. Temporal limits of human information processing: A developmental study. Psychological Bulletin, 1974, 81, 739–755.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1979 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gibson, E., Rader, N. (1979). Attention. In: Hale, G.A., Lewis, M. (eds) Attention and Cognitive Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2985-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2985-5_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-2987-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-2985-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive