my mind on books

• “Attention Metaphors: How Metaphors Guide the Cognitive Psychology of Attention” by Mark Johnson and Diego Fernandez-Duque (full text pdf available through the link) Citation: Cognitive Science, v. 23, no. 1 (Jan./Mar.1999), p. 83-116

Abstract: The concept of attention is defined by multiple inconsistent metaphors that scientists use to identify relevant phenomena, frame hypotheses, construct experiments, and interpret data. (1) The Filter metaphor shapes debates about partial vs. complete filtering, early vs. late selection, and information filtering vs. enhancement. (2) The Spotlight metaphor raises the issue of space- vs. object-based selection, and it guides research on the size, shape, and movement of the attentional focus. (3) The Spotlight-in-the-Brain metaphor is frequently used to interpret imaging studies of attention. (4) The debate between supramodal and pre-motor theories of attention replays the dichotomy between the Spotlight and the Vision metaphors of attention. Our analysis reveals the central role of metaphor in scientific theory and research on attention, exposes hidden assumptions behind various research strategies, and shows the need for flexibility in the use of current metaphors.

also by the same authors:

“Cause and Effect Theories of Attention: The Role of Conceptual Metaphors” Citation: Review of General Psychology. Vol. 6, No.2, June 2002 (139-152)
Abstract: In everyday discourse, as well as in science, concepts of attention are defined by metaphors. In scientific theories these metaphors determine what attention is and what count as adequate explanations of the phenomena. We analyze these metaphors in the context of three types of attention theories: (1)’Cause’ theories, in which attention is presumed to modulate information-processing (e .g., Attention as a Spotlight ; Attention as a Limited Resource), (2 )`effect’ theories, in which attention is considered to be the by-product of information-processing (e.g., the Competition metaphor), and (3) hybrid theories that combine `cause’ and `effect’ aspects (e .g., Biased-Competition models). Our analysis reveals the crucial role of metaphors in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and the efforts of scientists to find a resolution to the classic problem of `cause’ versus `effect’ interpretations.

• visual attention bibliography

A Mind Alphabet – I got this idea from Bella Dia’s “Encyclopedia of Me Meme” but will be adapting it to the “mind on books” theme. It seems like a good way to explore some different mind-related topics. I may do more than one topic for each letter & intersperse them among other posts.
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Attention – a collection of notes & resources

What is the ideal form of attention – the ability to stay in focus, or the ability to shift, strengthen and loosen focus at will?

• attention at wikipedia

• from Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves by Sharon Begley:

Without attention, information that our senses take in – what we see and hear, feel, smell, and taste – literally does not register in the mind. It may not be stored even briefly in memory. What you see is determined by what you pay attention to. …

Paying attention physically damps down activity in neurons other than those involved in focusing on the target of your attention. … Attention, then, pumps up neuronal activity. Attention is real, in the sense that it takes a physical form capable of affecting the physical activity of the brain. [p. 158]

Begley goes on to discuss the relationship between attention and neuroplasticity, based on some experiments with monkeys in which cortical areas expanded in response to attention paid to corresponding sensory inputs.

(more…)

I recently started reading Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World by Chris Frith. Here is a quote from the prologue that sets out the basic idea:

In this book I shall show that this distinction between the mental and the physical is false. It is an illusion created by the brain. Everything we know, whether it is about the physical or the mental world, comes to us through our brain. But our brain’s connection with the physical world of objects is no more direct than our brain’s
connection with the mental world of ideas. By hiding from us all the unconscious inferences that it makes, our brain creates the illusion that we have direct contact with objects in the physical world. And at the same time our brain creates the illusion that our own mental world is isolated and private. Through these two illusions
we experience ourselves as agents, acting independently upon the world….
By seeing through these illusions created by our brain, we can begin to develop a science that explains how the brain creates the mind. [p 17]

reviews at spiked review of books and Derek Bownds’ Mindblog

“limited preview” at Google Books

page for Professor Chris Frith, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging