mental Researches on Attention, 1879; Pilzecker, Die Lehre von der sinnlichen Aufmerksamkeit, 1889; Ribot, Psychologie de l'Attention, 1889, who states that " attention acts always on muscles and by means of muscles" (p. 3); Sanctis, Studien über die Aufmerksamkeit, 1898; Stout, Apperception and the Movement of Attention, 1891; Sully, The Psycho-physical Process in Attention, 1890; Waller, The Sense of [Muscular] Effort, 1891; and Washburn, Subjective Colours and the After-Image: their Significance for the Theory of Attention, 1899.

24.-DELIBERATE ATTENTION.

Deliberate attention, together with attention under difficulties, or rapt attention, have generally been confused with attention as such. Suppose that I wish to follow a difficult argument in the book which I am reading. Though I strive to attend, my thoughts, as a matter of fact, are wandering nearly all the while. [Is this so with you? Describe.] I recur to the argument again and again, and fly off at a tangent almost instantly. We encounter here an ineffectual desire. My wish to attend is only a pious wish, and is not converted into activity in the required direction. On such occasions there may be no felt effort traceable; we may return to our subject with ease; and yet leave it, against our intention, in the same manner. Deliberateness of process is in such cases at a discount. We have to persist ceaselessly wishing to attend, because a single resolution does not suffice. Effort is here useless. The wish, again, must not be confounded with the deed. We are really active in other directions, whatever our wish may be.

If the volitional state is said to occasion certain changes, this belief is explicable on the basis of an insufficient induction; for volition, or an unequivocal resolution, may exist in perfection without influencing the trend of thought. [Observe such occasions.] This state is, at best, a fairly reliable sign that a change will take place. Apart from this, its prophetic function, it has only the significance of an item in a series. We might as well argue that the danger signal itself brings the train to a standstill, because the second event usually follows the first; or that trains can only stop when a danger signal is exhibited.

Attention may be successful or telling without the presence of marked strain. A trained musician follows with ease an involved piece of music, which feat he could not have accomplished at an earlier stage of his career, however great the effort. It is not that he is now more eager to attend than he formerly was. On the contrary, he is less absorbed. But though arduous attention has diminished, its desirable effect has increased. Re-attention, by excluding waste of attention, has the virtue of making attention less troublesome, and of enabling us to attend to much with little effort.

Deliberate attention so-called is not essentially different from casual attention. Neural functioning is in the former case more pre-adjusted; it is more exclusive, or keener; it is less diffuse. [Test this.] Hence we are more likely to reach a goal quickly. However, the process is still the same in both instances. We are busy with some unfamiliar detail, till,

through repeated endeavours, it becomes familiar. Then we are enabled to busy ourselves with a second detail, then a third, until we have at last completed our examination. Attention is strenuously deliberate when it is accompanied by a somewhat more than usually decided notion of an end to be attained. It is action, guided by a rather pressing need or functional tendency, and argues more than normal absorption. In substance, all attention is deliberate, since all thought and action is relational. As I walk along the road my eyes are turned to at least sixty objects a minute, and each object discerned implies deliberate activity. [Test repeatedly, and describe.] It is a non-organic view which gives rise to psychological word-couples such as habitual-deliberate, voluntaryinvoluntary, attentive-inattentive.

Opinions on Voluntary and Involuntary Attention.—Baldwin, Senses and Intellect, 1890, p. 69: Attention "is the act of holding a presentation before the mind. It is in all cases a conscious act." Drobisch (Psychologie, 1842, p. 80) distinguishes between voluntary and involuntary attention, "the former is directed to objects, the latter is attracted by them." Hamilton, Metaphysics, 1877, i, p. 237: "Attention is a voluntary act." Herbart, Lehrbuch, 1816 (Hartmann's edition), p. 147: "Attention is partly involuntary and passive, and partly voluntary and active." Höffding (Psychology, 1891, p. 315) distinguishes between the two classes. Maudsley, Physiology of Mind, 1876, p. 312: "It is an obvious distinction to make between involuntary and voluntary attention, the interest of the object or subject forcibly soliciting it in the former case, while it is said to be directed by an effort of will in the latter case. Ribot, Psychologie de l'Attention, 1889, p. 3: "There are two well-distinguished forms of attention, the one spontaneous, natural; the other voluntary, artificial." Stout, Analytic Psychology, 1896, i, p. 180: "Attention is the self-direction of the mind to an object." Sully (Human Mind, 1892, i, p. 164) says of voluntary attention that it "is marked off by a clear idea of end or purpose." Wundt, Grundriss der Psychologie, 1896, p. 245 : "That condition which is characterised by peculiar feelings, and which accompanies the clearer apprehension of any psychic content is called attention."

According to the views submitted in this chapter, the characteristics enumerated in the above list are of no more scientific value than differences of stature in human beings. The organic flux in thought and action, by excluding this and including that, necessarily implies "predominance,” ," "fuller presentation," "clearer apprehension," "heightened reaction, "concentration," and the like. It would be interesting to have it defined when "concentration" or "predominance" are absent.*

25. THE MEASURE OF ATTENTION IS ITS EFFECTIVENESS.

We conclude, then, generally, that the sole measure of attention, as far as a particular field is concerned, e.g., this page, is what is immediately given of that field, and that felt strain, desire to attend, or attempts to attend, are not a measure of attention. A desire to attend may or may not be followed by the desired attention; an attempt, however desperate, may equally fail.

Let us add an illustration, so as to make the trend of this section plainer. The novice, in his struggles to follow a demonstration, succeeds but

*To this, Külpe (Zur Lehre von der Aufmerksamkeit, 1897, p. 31) replies: "I cannot recall ever doubting whether in a special instance I was attending or not." I would suggest that not casual recollection but conscientious experiment should form the basis of a serious statement.

casually, the main portion of his energy being spent, as a matter of fact, in other directions. When, at last, he has grasped the matter thoroughly, he turns to it with ease, and attends to it more than previously, without any waste or friction in the effort to attend.

26.-ATTENTION HAS NO FOCUS.

" #

Normal, as distinguished from keen and lax, attention allows of elaboration without our observing any appreciable strain or noting any restlessness. Imagining this normal strain as a centrally placed point in a line of points gradually thickening from left to right, X . . . Y . . . Z, we obtain towards X a lessening of the strain, and, towards Z, an increase of the strain. [Test your capacity.] The one end like the other is quickly reached. We soon cease to perceive, and we rapidly become incapable of further scattering our thoughts. By our very organisation the pendulum of attention ever tends to rest at Y, and this tendency we cannot counteract except by violent means, and then only fitfully. Under normal circumstances, we must attend, must burn up the normal allowance of fuel, must "move on.' What we have stated implies that there is no precise point which we may call the focus of attention. While writing now, there are some details which I but just distinguish, others which require normal effort, others which demand sensible strain, and still others which I do not observe at all. [Describe minutely such an instance.] The totality of my present sensations and images is the result or the equivalent of neural processes of a complex character. Throughout life we always, at one and the same time, attend more to some details and less to others. Even in studying the book referred to, some of the energy went into the act of reading. If we try not to attend at all, we are soon forced to attend; and if we make a supreme effort to fix the attention, we only succeed to a very limited extent, and for a brief period, and that effort narrows the field of attention proportionately. Details, which we should have perceived normally, escape us, when the limited field of attention is already occupied.

27. ABNORMAL ATTENTION.

Under ordinary circumstances, as we have seen, the total amount of energy, as well as the rate of its expenditure, is nearly constant in the human being. A consideration of abnormal instances will bring into relief the normal state of attention, and yield further proof of the probable correctness of our interpretation.

We are usually awake for about sixteen hours, and asleep for about eight. During sleep the senses are apparently inactive. The noises in the room

...

As early as Locke this was recognised. He says: "Hinder the constant succession of fresh [ideas a man,] I think, cannot, though he may commonly choose, whether he will heedfully observe and consider them" (Human Understanding, bk. 2, ch. 14, sec. 15). So Hamilton, Metaphysics, ed. 1877, i, p. 247 : “We may close our ears or shut our eyes; .. but we cannot, with our organs unobstructed, wholly refuse our attention at will."

and in the street, as well as other stimuli, have ceased to appeal to us. Taking the case of dreamless sleep, there is a considerable decrease in the total energy to be expended, e.g., waking in the night we feel drowsy, and thought as well as locomotion encounters opposition. There is in sleep no need urging us to attend to what is going on about us, and hence it is impossible that ordinary stimuli should affect us. As we have seen, it is attention or neural activity which transforms the unintelligible into the intelligible; and as attention is absent there can be no intelligible apprehension. In the waking state, only a fraction of what takes place is assimilated by us. In the sleeping state, even that fraction is ignored; and this is not because of our being absorbed, but because of a reduction or a diversion of neural activity. As far as appreciable systems are concerned, we meet with death in deep sleep. Central activity having lapsed, sensations have ceased with it. The life of thought is there only potentially, or in a rudimentary condition. Probably only the very faintest feelings exist. We meet with a parallel to this in the waking state. Sometimes, through ill-health, we are in a perpetual doze. [Describe such an instance.] We hardly integrate anything, or think about anything. There are no reactions worth speaking of. In deep sleep there is a further lowering of this dozing state.

In dream-sleep attention is at work at a level which is usually below the normal. Nevertheless, since to see or imagine involves central nervous processes, the forms and figures of dream life are as truly creations as the forms and figures of waking life. Still, in dream life there is almost invariably little connection between the thoughts, the most superficial suggestions appearing to be on an equality with the gravest considerations. [Verify this.] All that requires appreciable effort is missing in dreams (ch. 10).

In fainting we have a similar instance to that afforded by deep sleep. The amount of attention or neural activity present is almost nil, the result being that nothing is observed and that motion ceases.

The phenomena of hypnotism, considering the psychic aspect alone, resemble those of sleep, only that dreams are suggested to the "subject." The deafness and blindness of the latter are occasioned by attention being absent as far as all but the suggester, or the things suggested, are concerned. In proportion as the "subject" has visions, so far is he attending. The very fact that he imagines anything which for him possesses colour, sound or temperature, is conclusive proof, as we have seen, that his brain is busy, that he is elaborating sense elements.

Thus sleep, dreams, delirium, insanity, and other abnormal states, find their explanation in what has been said in elucidation of the normal process of attention.*

*Prof. Hibben has an interesting article on "Sensory Stimulation by Attention," in the Psychological Review, 1895, in which he analyses abnormal cases where the attention factor is prominent. Of one case he writes: "Whenever the subject is one especially interesting to her, she hears without great difficulty; but whenever there is no interest in conversation it is with greatest difficulty that she can be made to hear at all; and it is impossible to gain her attention by any sounds, however loud, if she is engrossed in any

28. THE LARGER WAVES OF ATTENTION.

The quantity of attention, in the waking state, is, as we have learnt, normally always the same in all normal persons. It might appear from this that we could at any time attend continuously along one line; but this is not so, for protracted thought in one direction tires, though we can freely continue our thought in other directions. [Notice such cases.] In accordance with this we find that in ordinary life the topics of thought change considerably. We also generally tend to pursue a subject only for a limited time if that subject requires much thought, and we incline to recur to it repeatedly rather than follow it without pause. Neural functioning, in conformity with the spatial nature of the brain, or as the result of other neural factors, tends to change its direction at intervals. Hence we become tired of one subject, and yet find no difficulty in busying ourselves with others. It is, therefore, profitable to allow for pauses in our thinking. Instead of imagining attention in time as a smooth sea, we have to look upon it as a stormy one where the surface consists of huge waves. These waves, which form the ocean of thought, represent the several subjects which constitute the field of attention in time, and the largest waves are constantly broken up, so as allow others to form. Or, we may say, that as the blood is propagated, not in a steady stream, but in waves, so in attention, or neural functioning, advance proceeds by pulsations.

29.-THE SMALLER WAVES OF ATTENTION.

Yet even this account misses a portion of the truth. The following is, for instance, observable when the attention is turned fixedly to a single aspect of an object. Sometimes, try as we will, we keep on attending afresh instead of attending uninterruptedly, as we desire. At other times we succeed in attending continuously, and then our look [after how long?] develops into a stare, and what we are observing loses all intelligibility. (Sec. 19, first conclusion.) In normal life we ceaselessly pass from detail to detail, for persistent attention to one detail, as in hypnotism, produces vacancy or non-attention. (Secs. 220 and 232.) While, therefore, normal attention tends to wander from subject to subject, it also tends to be rapidly moving within the subject from one detail to another. There are, in other words, larger and smaller waves of attention. When we dwell on a subject, we consider the several items of which it is composed. When we study a detail beyond a few moments, a vacuum results. Attention is like a river; it cannot rest; it must report progress. If the larger waves represent the subjects of thought, then the minute ripples which cover the whole surface absorbing task or play" (p. 370). Stout (Analytic Psychology, 1896, i, pp. 188-9) writes of himself: "I am somewhat deaf, and when conversation is going on among a considerable number of persons I am usually unable to hear anything which is not directly addressed to myself with a distinct utterance by my immediate neighbour; all the rest of what is being said around me is a confused murmur. I sometimes find, however, that if any one even at some distance from me happens to refer to philosophy or any other subject in which I have a keen interest, his words disengage themselves from the chaos of sounds and fix my attention."