Why We Do What We Do

chapter fourOur Brain and Attention

‘Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to focus.’

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELLScientist, inventor, engineer and innovator (1847–1922)

ABOUT THIS CHAPTER

We have an excellent capacity to focus and concentrate. From an early age, our attention directs us to what is important and relevant to us.

But our brain is constantly being bombarded with different sensory information and does not have the capacity to deal with all the inputs it receives. Our attentional system is the mechanism by which we select what we want to concentrate on and discard everything else.

We all need a better understanding of the strengths and limitations of our attentional system so that we can get the best out of it. Distractions interrupt our ability to focus and can even be fatal. We have to learn to pay attention to the right things at the right time.

This chapter provides an explanation of how we pay attention, and why we need to improve our capacity to concentrate.

Part 1: The science explained

How do we pay attention?

A huge amount of information comes in through our eyes. In fact, 90% of the information we absorb is visual.

Because we do not have the brainpower to manage at a conscious level all the information we receive, we have to filter and select what to pay attention to on a continual basis. We are constantly including and excluding information: we keep information that we are interested in and ignore ...