Table of Contents
Perception and Attention.
Attention arises through a host of complex processes that contribute to consciousness itself.
Orientation and Executive Control are two processes of consciousness that pertain to attention.
Arousal is the amount of energy we invest in the attention process and hence perception.
Short-term memory is a requirement for Sustained Focus.
Focused Attention is the ability to give a specific response to a given stimulus.
Focus held over an extended period of time is called Sustained Focus and involves short-term memory and higher levels of arousal and motivation.
Many examples of a break in sustained focus can be seen in a ballet class for three year old children.
Selective Focus Attention is a major process in figure-ground discrimination.
Selective Focus attention may involve ignoring one set of characteristics to decode another.
Read the list of words and then go back and tell the color of each word--a Selective Focus task.
Calling the letters in the word "big" small letters, is a Selective Focus task.
To identify the position of the "*" relative to the word "left*" you must ignore the semantic feature of the word--a selective focus task.
To draw a circle around the word "SQUARE" you must ignore the semantic feature of the word -- an example of selective focus attention.
Alternating Focus Attention is the ability to shift focus between two or more tasks.
An example of Alternating focus is to tell the size of print of each word and then to read the list of words.
An example of Alternating Focus is to draw a line between 1 and A, 2 and B, etc. etc.
Divided Attention is the ability to attend to two or more activities simultaneously.
Leaning to play the Piano is a good way to exercise all of the processes of attention.
The Base and Treble Clefts are classic examples of Selective Focus.
Research suggests that computer training for 3 year old children does not improve reasoning ability.
Research suggests that piano training for 3 year old children does improve temporal spatial reasoning ability. (TEN MOS. NEVER TOO EARLY TO START)
CHESS is another excellent activity for developing the focus processes.
Many children today are reported to have attention deficit disorders.
Arousal is the amount of energy one has or elects to devote to the perceptual process.
The subliminal level of arousal refers to our ability to be aware of the presence or absence of a stimulus.
Sleep learning doesnät work.
Subliminal suggestion during sleep may work.
Try it, you'll like it.
Children in comas have responded to subliminal suggestion.
Many important subliminal messages are actually transmitted at higher levels of arousal.
The process of courtship in our society relies considerably on subliminal communications.
A non-reflective level of arousal achieves a strong awareness of the stimulus without any figure-ground structure.
A reflective level of arousal achieves figure-ground discrimination without meaning.
Eidetic imagery may assist reflective arousal to achieve a semantic level of decoding.
Semantic Level of Arousal achieves figure-ground discrimination with meaning.
It is difficult to maintain the semantic level of arousal for more than 15 minutes.
Motivation is one major tool to raise the level of arousal.
Making activities relevant to ones needs raises motivation, for example, talk to preschoolers about the here and now.
Sleep deprivation and fatigue are major players in arousal.
Nutrition is a major player in arousal and deserves great consideration by each of us.
Our diets tend to be on the high side for sugar intake which can result in a sugar high followed by a long sugar low.
Talking about vitamins, here is a product that is not a taste treat but packs a real wallop when it comes to furnishing brain food. It's a yeast product that when taken with tomato juice, in my experience, improves arousal.
Many of our highly processed foods today lack the nutrients necessary to think.
Our most powerful secret weapon against competitor countries today is probably the tobacco, soda and fast foods industry.
Message is an excellent technique to improve attention.
Just the process of moving raises the level of arousal.
Stimulating the Vestibular modality improves arousal.
The the development of the neurological infra-structure for attention can be facilitated while the child is very young.
Carrying the child around provides a good source of vestibular stimulation--and its inexpensive and fun.
Swinging the child is a good source of vestibular stimulation.
I believe that ballet, gymnastics similar sports, after 3 years of age, are excellent activities to stimulate the vestibular modality.
The many positions of ballet encourage vestibular stimulation.
Television appears to exercise attention, but I believe this is a facade.
I do endorse one TV show for three year old children--"Mr. Roger's Neighborhood." Other than that, put the TV in the closet.
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