Reflection on atention

Having lately read " On Looking: Eleven Walks with Experts Eyes"  I have decided to write about her insight on the concept of attention. I will start by saying that it is a wonderful reading one that I enjoyed pretty much. Alexandra Horowitz, the author of this piece, Intents to study how attention works on humans, specifically how age, profession, sex or race influences how we look at the world. After sharing a walk with her dog she realizes how little we see because of our methods for attention. After that the stories goes on to tell us about the various walks she takes with professionals in all professional branches including an expert on this very subject.

I found this approach very interesting and effective. It is pretty straight forward in an  orderly manner arranging her work as a scientific investigation rather than a recollection of her experience. I can't keep from noticing the lack of things I really do appreciate. As  a biology student I tend to pay attention to things that trigger my scientific interest, as an adventurer who loves backpacking and camping I can't help to unconsciously be in search for a nice place to camp and as a man I can't help no notice women more than men. This happens because our attention is rather selective. Actually rather is kind of and understatement it is highly selective since our interests are the criteria by which information is stored in our brains. It is also interest what sometimes even decides to remind or ignore some of the thing around you. Think of it, there are a thousand faces you probably see constantly around your university, work environment, and/or near your living area which you would never recognize if they are right in front of you.

Our attention span it monitored by something called RAS (Reticular Activating System). It is responsible to filtering, acquiring and rejecting information from external stimuli,like the way it is doing it right now by making your periferal vision blury. Our brains employ this mechanisms in order to keep the brain from "overloading" since there are infinite amounts of images, sounds, smells, people and other things out there to process. We can only accept so much information at a time, so our brain prioritizes in order to be functional. Priorities will always be different from one person to another but tend to relate to a person's background.

Going even further I believe that this leaves very much to say about the relativity of our reality and how incredibly diferent the world is for everyone of us.

If you find this subject interesting you should  probably like this video I left for you: