Ulric Neisser: Attention

Ulric Neisser was American psychologist. Explore interesting quotes on attention.

Ulric Neisser: 20 quotes 2 likes

“Attention is not a mysterious concentration of psychic energy; it is simply an allotment of analyzing mechanisms to a limited region of the field. To pay attention to a figure is to make certain analyses of, or certain constructions in, the corresponding part of the icon.”

Ulric Neisser

Source: Cognitive Psychology, 1967, p. 88-89

Parting

“Paying attention is not just analyzing carefully; rather, it is a constructive act… What we build has only the dimensions we have given it.”

Ulric Neisser

Source: Cognitive Psychology, 1967, p. 96; As cited in: A.H.C. Van der Heijden (1996)

“The attentive synthesis of any particular letter or figure takes an appreciable time, of the order of 100ms…If a whole row of letters is to be identified, they must be synthesized one at a time… To "identify" generally means to name, and hence to synthesize not only a visual object but a linguistic-auditory one… Hence the span of apprehension is limited to what can be synthesized, and then verbally stored.”

Ulric Neisser

Source: Cognitive Psychology, 1967, p. 103; As cited in: A.H.C. Van der Heijden (1996)

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