The Value of Attention

Suppose you're sitting in your parlor playing checkers, and in the next room the radio's on and a news commentator is speaking in a resonant voice about:

the latest U.S. satellite attempts;

a flood in Brazil;

A Lithuanian poet who won the Nobel Prize;

the day's World Series game;

newest developments in women's fashions;

stock market activity;

the weather forecast.

From time to time something which the commentator says will cause you to perk up your ears and listen more carefully, because he’s speaking about a subject which interests you. If your fashion-conscious, you'll certainly want to hear about the clothes you'll be wearing next season. If you're a baseball fan. You’ll be listening when he announces the score of the game. If you’ve planned a fishing trip for the next day, you'll be curious about what the weather's going to be like.

And the news items to which you pay closer attention will make deeper impressions upon your memory. Do you know who won the World Series last year? Who won the Nobel Prize? What was the high close of IBM stock last December?

Well attended impressions are large sensarrows; they can be more easily located in your memory, and are easier to remember.

What are the conditions which enable you, or force you, to give your attention to one thing, and not the other?

It has already been stated that a vital part of paying attention is interest. Now, the interest that I'm talking about doesn't have to be that genuine desire to know more about whatever it is you're trying to concentrate on, for its own sake; but, speaking in broadest terms, it refers to your motivation- any reason which you have for knowing or remembering.

And every reason that you could possibly have is one either of reward, or avoidance of punishment. Actually, both are pretty much the same: reward is a profit, while avoidance of punishment is a zero--better than a minus.

If you're genuinely curious about something, you desire to reward yourself with additional information about it. If you stand to make money by remembering more about the things you're selling, cash is your reward motive. If you want people to think highly of you for being able to intelligently discuss current events, or popular novels, or history, or anything...if you want people to think more of you for your remembering their names, or playing chess well, or reciting poetry, or telling funny stories, social acceptance is the reward you seek.

If you want to avoid the discomfort of having flunked your geometry course, or the displeasure of having forgotten to keep a promise, or the annoyance over having forgotten the main theme of the third movement of the Symphonie Fantastique, your reward will be the maintenance of security ... avoidance of self or social dissatisfaction. You are trying to avoid jeopardizing your chances of winning the reward of social acceptance.

Generally, the stronger your motive for remembering something, the greater an interest you'll take in it, and, consequently, the better your attention will be. And, when you pay attention, you stand a better chance of remembering!

Now... precisely what are the circumstances which act as motivations for remembering, and how do they do it?

Impulsive curiosity is that trail which induces you to take a second look, or to try to find out more about something, because you can't quite believe what you saw or heard the first time. The surprise, the exaggeration, the intense, the unusual...these things provide vivid impressions--large sensarrows. Someone swims across the English Channel. A woman's hat contains a live bird in a cage. A new species of animal is discovered. You meet a man who's nine feet tall. You smell garlic for the first time. You see a building constructed entirely of glass.

Curiosity inspires you to want to know more about something, after a little information, or even a lot, has aroused your genuine interest. Your hobby, your country, celebrities, a member of your family, something about which you don't fully understand, and would like to ... these things, and countless others like them play familiar roles in your everyday life. When someone begins to speak about something and you recognize what it is he's speaking about, your personal pride and ego will focus your attention upon it, so that you might learn even more about it.

Man instinctively likes to win--arguments, athletic contests, fights, games ... his ego is satisfied when, after pitting his mind, or his body, or both, against other men, nature, or his own past performances, he comes in first. If you bring yourself to believe that you might become an excellent card player, your chances of remembering the rules and the finer points of play increase tremendously, because your motive is inborn, and your goal appears close enough to induce you to reach out for it. If you won a spelling bee in the fourth grade, chances are that you'll forever take pride in your superiority at spelling, and consequently will remember how to spell difficult words with comparative ease. All this ties in with ego, and desire for social approval.

The cash profit is a powerful motivation indeed. The contestant on a quiz show will show an amazing command of knowledge about the subject which can win for him security, the luxuries he has always sought, the fulfillment that comes of being revered by many people. The commission incentive endows salesmen with the drive to remember enormous gobs of information, from names of customers to the smallest factual details about products.

And so forth ... motivation, based on desire for reward or fear of loss, inspires attentiveness, which in turn produces strong memories. When you open the filing cabinet drawer, when you prepare your mind to receive information, the sensarrows come pouring in from whatever direction your sights are focused on.

Once you have directed your interests, factors involving the nature of the sensarrows, in regard to their relation to other sensarrows, come into play. ...