A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins.

  • Mary Whiton Calkins
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    118/446 page 100
    But though the object of attention is not inevitably distin¬ guished by each of these characters, it is probably always describable in at least one of these ways: it is pleasant or unpleasant, or else novel, or it is closely connected with experience. III. The Classes, Conditions, and Results of Attention A common classification of attention is as (i) natural or instinctive, and (2) acquired. It will be observed that this distinction does not imply any difference in the nature of the two sorts of attention. Natural and acquired attention do not differ at all, regarded merely as attention. The difference lies simply in the fact that attention of the first sort is instinc¬ tive, untaught, whereas attention of the second sort is ac¬ quired through individual experience or through imitation.* All natural attention is evidently, therefore, involuntary. Acquired attention is either involuntary or voluntary, that is, willed. To illustrate: five minutes ago I was instinctively attentive to the whistle of the incoming steamer; whereas I willed my present acquired attention to this chapter on at¬ tention. If I were attending neither to the whistle nor to the scientific discussion, but to a thrilling page of some novel, my attention would be acquired, indeed, — for a printed page is not naturally interesting, — but involuntary. Natural at¬ tention is in fact directed to objects which are unusual, pleasant, or unpleasant. The objects of acquired attention are, directly or indirectly, connected or associated with these. We have, thus, the following classification of attention as —
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