Humane Interface, The: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems

2-3. Locus of Attention

You have a degree of control over making unconscious thoughts conscious, as you demonstrated when you brought the final character of your first name “into mind.” You cannot deliberately make conscious thoughts unconscious, however. “Don't think about an elephant,” a girl whispers to a boy, knowing that the boy cannot comply. But in a few moments, unless the conversation stays on elephants, the animal will fade into the boy's unconscious. When that happens, the boy is no longer paying attention to the thought of an elephant: The elephant is not his locus of attention.

I use the term locus because it means place, or site. The term focus, which is sometimes used in a similar connection, can be read as a verb; thus, it conveys ...