Attention and Consciousness: Understanding Their Relationship - Research Paper

Introduction

Consciousness and attention have a close relationship. Different studies have shown that the attentiveness that one focuses on enters into consciousness (Boxtel, Tsuchiya, & Koch, 2010). According to Ahmadi, Gilakjani, and Ahmadi (2011), attention is the processes that regulate the overall level of alertness and arousal. The term implies the cognitive and behavioral process of concentrating on a particular aspect of information, whether deemed objective or subjective, while ignoring some perceivable messages. Selective attention limit how much messages can be processed in a specific time and allows people to disregard some details which are deemed unimportant. Various theories argued that physical characteristics of the information are used to choose a message for processing (Bussche, Hughes, Humbeeck, & Reynvoet, 2010). Attention comprises of involuntary or non-volitional, and voluntary or volitional. The term can be determined by external factors such as repetition, nature, stimulus, size, and intensity of attention and change, variety, and contrast. Some internal factors include interest, motives, mindset and attitudes, and moods. In psychologists, consciousness is a term that shows people's awareness of unique memories, thoughts, sensations, feelings, and the environment (Ahmadi et al., 2011). For instance, Sigmund Freud's personality approach differentiate activity in neural connections in the mind where he argued that people encounter various state of consciousness depending on what their brain does at a particular time (Qian, & Liu, 2015). Multiple psychologists believe that awareness and attention have intimate relationships in that when a person pays attention to a particular object, he/she becomes conscious of its different attributes. Multiple researchers have dissociated consciousness and attentiveness using neurophysiological and psychophysics measurements such as fMRI (functional neuroimaging) and EEG (Electroencephalogram) (Qian, & Liu, 2015). However, this research focuses on the relationship between consciousness and attention in psychology.

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The Objectives of the Research

There is no doubt that consciousness relates to attention because they assist in relating memories to the present sensations, which give persons a sense of continuity with experience or personal identity. Besides, both attention and consciousness help individuals to plan and control their future actions. Therefore the purpose of the research study was:

• To analyze the relationship between attention and consciousness
• To explore which factors affect the level of attention and consciousness
• To show the link between ADHD and consciousness.

Research Questions

Based on the objectives or purposes of the study, the research opted to answer the following questions:

• What is the relationship between attention and consciousness?
• Which factors affect the level of attention and consciousness?
• What is the link between ADHD and consciousness?

Literature Review

Concept of Attention

Various studies argued that attention could be involuntary or non-volitional, where one can attend to condition or object without making consciousness effort (Tsuchiya & Koch, 2008). For example, a mother concentrating on a crying child or attention to people of the opposite sex or bright colors. The evidence has shown that volitional attention demands much on consciousness effort, especially when solving mathematics problems, or answering questions either in examination (Qian, & Liu, 2015). Both internal and external factors the ability of a person to pay attention to particular things or objects. In external factors, the nature of stimulus determines the degree of attentiveness. For instance, pictures related to handsome men and beautiful women attract more attention. According to Lavie, Beck, and Konstantinou,(2014), the immense stimulus attracts the attention of the people more like the strong smell, bright sound, and extensive building. Besides, variety and change strike attention easily than the absence of change. Accordingly, repetition is the factor that secures attention in that one may ignore a stimulus for the first time, but when it is repeated many times, it captures one attention.

On the other hand, internal factors like interest attract a person's attention. Qian and Liu (2015) suggested that people attend an object depending on their interests, like watching a movie or a particular channel on a television. Some evidence has shown that motives are the significant determinant of attention, which can range from thirsts, sex, hunger, fear, and curiosity (Mole, 2008). Also, people's readiness to respond to a particular stimulus determines their attention. For example, when a student is an expectation of the exam timetable, and it gets displayed to the notice board, the schedule apart from other notices could attract attention quickly. According to different researchers, attitudes and moods may influence attentiveness. For example, when a person is angry or disturbed, he/she notices the mistakes of others quickly (Van Boxtel et al., 2010). However, some people suffer ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), which is associated with lesions in basal ganglia and frontal lobe. The condition of ADHD was described by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman in the year 1845, although some evidence associates the disease with alcohol consumption and maternal smoking during pregnancy (Mole, 2008).

Consciousness

Sigmund Freud, a psychologist, defines consciousness as a part of the brain that contains all the sensations, thoughts, experiences, and emotions (Lavie, Beck, Konstantinou, 2014). The level of consciousness includes a conscious mind, which entails what people are aware of every day, precociousness, which shows when one stores information and the unconscious brain, which indicates unpleasant memories. Psychologists clarify walking consciousness as language, perception, problem-solving, and language. States of consciousness include sleep, hypervigilance, dreaming, and meditative state. Multiple studies have indicated that some drugs such as alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy can affect the individual level of consciousness (Qian, & Liu, 2015). Lavie, Beck, and Konstantinou, (2014) indicated that people who lack awareness have sleeping difficulties, a situation which leads to irritability, mental disorder, changes in personality, and increases anxiety. Various researches argued that people who have a high level of consciousness could monitor and control their feelings or emotions (Mole, 2008). These individuals have proper inhibitory control, cognitive inhibition, working memory, and attention.

Relationship Between Consciousness and Attention

Various psychologists have shown that awareness and attention are related concepts. For example, an individual cannot become conscious of a particular object without attending it (Mole, 2008). Current evidence shows that perpetual consciousness and top-down attention are distinct, although they rely on neurobiological processes. Conscious and attentiveness serves the three roles concerning cognition. First, both concepts assist in monitoring people's interactions within the environment. Through monitoring, people maintain their awareness of how they adapt to a particular situation they find themselves. Secondly, both attention and consciousness assist in relating the memories to the present sensations, which give persons a sense of continuity with experience or personal identity (Ahmadi et al., 2011).Third, attention and consciousness help individuals to plan and control their future actions where they can base their information from links and monitoring between present sensations and memories. Thus, attention includes both conscious and unconscious processes since it allows people to limit mental resources.

However, many scholars have disputed the relationship between perpetual consciousness, and selective attention is intimate. For instance, objects or events can be attended without perceiving them through consciousness. According to different studies, attention emulates all the information that a person is manipulating, either in sensation, memory, and other cognitive processes (Van Boxtel et al., 2010). Consciousness involves a narrow range of messages that a person is aware of manipulating. Also, attention enables people to use limited cognitive resources since working memory limits to respond accurately and quickly to interesting stimuli as well as recall salient information. Consciousness awareness allows one to monitor the interactions within the surrounding environment to relate the present and past experience and eventually plan for future actions (Van Boxtel et al., 2010). In most cases, people may process a preconscious level of information by not becoming aware. For instance, different studies have argued that, in preconscious, the desired information cannot be retrieved from the memory (Bussche et al., 2010).

Research Methodology

In the theoretical framework, the study employed the bottleneck or filter theory, which implies that a message is selectively blocked as it passes from processing level to the next (Ahmadi et al., 2011).The approaches of bottleneck also suggest that the signal-attenuating or signal-blocking mechanisms can occur prior to perpetual processing and after-sensation.

In conducting this research study, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. The reason behind the use of the two forms of methods was because the overall research methodology was based on a systematic literature review (Bussche et al., 2010). A systematic literature review can either be quantitative or qualitative. The research employed protocol analysis to analyze the ability of people to solve problems such as cryptarithmetic and chest issues, in which participants had to involve in mathematical computation (Ahmadi et al., 2011).These investigations tested the level of the student's attention and consciousness towards a complex information process. The study targeted students with high IQ, lower IQ as well as those with ADHD to test the level of attention and consciousness in handling mathematics task. These research participants had the same age, level of education, and from the same school where the same mathematics assignment was given to them and assigned a specific time. The paper contained ten questions, and all learners were supposed to present the final answers within a duration of two hours. Their results were treated with a lot of confidentiality and privacy.

The research employed exploratory study design, which aimed to evaluate and understand the prevalence research problem (Bussche et al., 2010). For data collection, the research study utilized a systematic literature review to collect reliable, viable, and sufficient relevant articles that meet the specified inclusion criteria. The systematic Literature review involved an overview of the existing evidence regarding the formulated questions, which applied to a particular pre-specified and standardized method to critically identify and appraise relevant research and report, collect and analyze information and data from studies included in the review (Ahmadi et al., 2011).

Findings

The study found out that, consciousness and attention had a close relationship, especially when performing a difficult task. For instance, if one is working on a hard assignment, both attentiveness and conscious are vital, unlike in highly familiar work. The study found out that, persons with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder failed in an assignment because they had problems in paying attention or concentrating. The skilled and practiced students passed the task because they enhanced both their consciousness and attentiveness towards the work. The study found out that m...