Identify and assess for impairments or deficiencies

Reliable tools for improving and rehabilitating divided attention and other cognitive functions

What is divided attention?

Divided attention is the ability of our brain respond to different stimuli or tasks at the same time thus responding to the numerous demands of the environment. Divided attention is a kind of simultaneous attention that allows us to process different sources of information and successfully complete more than one task at the same time. This cognitive ability is very important because it allows us to be efficient in our daily lives.

However, our ability to respond and perform multiple tasks in parallel has its limits. With the distribution of attention, the productivity and efficiency of actions that occur at the same time decreases. When a person has difficulty responding to multiple environmental demands at the same time, a phenomenon known as interference occurs. Interferences occur because our brains can only process a limited amount of information. However practice and cognitive training can improve divided attention, and hence the ability to perform more than one activity at the same time.

Divided Attention Examples

• Divided attention plays an important role in the learning process, since we have to simultaneously listen to the teacher, look at the blackboard or study materials, take notes, and the ability to distribute attention helps us in this. That is why it is so important for successful learning. This may be one of the reasons why people with attention problems get poor grades.
• The driver is preparing to overtake and suddenly notices a sign indicating the need to change lanes. If he is not able to simultaneously and properly respond to the sign and complete the overtaking, he will either turn off the intended route or create an emergency if he does not make a maneuver in time. To drive a car, you need to keep your attention in a very good condition.
• The waiter uses divided attention when he remembers what the client says, while trying not to forget what was ordered at the fourth table, and in addition not to drop the tray with dirty dishes in his hand.
• If a grocery store cashier has to answer one customer while serving another, he is using divided attention.
• If you're dancing with a glass in your hand, you're using divided attention to keep up with the rhythm while at the same time not spilling the drink.
• Even when we eat and talk at the same time, or watch TV and chat on the phone, we are using our divided attention.

Disorders or pathologies associated with divided attention

Divided attention can suffer as a result of many disorders, as well as problems in the process of distribution of attention itself, or problems with the subprocesses of attention on which it depends. If divided attention does not function well enough, any interference can disrupt the flow of tasks that are performed simultaneously. Thus, if divided attention is broken, we cannot talk and drive to the intersection at the same time, as this can create an emergency. Similarly, if the "Awakening Response" (activation level or general alertness) changes, this leads to a "comatose state" in which we cannot drive and talk at the same time (in fact, it is impossible to do either of these at this stage). tasks separately).

Although divided attention may suffer as a result of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, or various violations such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), first of all, the general attention is affected. In addition, quite often attention is disturbed after the transferred traumatic brain injury or hemorrhages in the brain(stroke). In these cases, the disorder of attention and its components can be of varying severity, depending on the affected areas of the brain.

Taking into account all of the above, divided attention is disturbed in almost any disorder in which attention is damaged even minimally. Thus, if a patient has contralateral hemineglect (failure to recognize the field of view opposite to the area of ​​traumatic brain injury), hypoprosexia (distraction), hyperprosexia (overattention and increased concentration), or aprosexia (inattention, inability to fix attention), he will experience difficulty when performing tasks that require divided attention.

How to measure and evaluate divided attention?

Divided attention is the most important cognitive ability in our lives, allowing us to be more efficient. The correct and simultaneous performance of any task that involves more than one action (perceptual, motor or cognitive) directly depends on our ability to distribute attention. The divided attention test can be useful in various professional fields where it is necessary to evaluate work performance (drivers or transport workers, assemblers, athletes, etc.). In addition, the assessment of divided attention may be useful academically (for example, if the student needs extra help with note-taking or problem solving) or in a clinical setting (perhaps some patients need to explain information in a simpler and more accessible way). In all these areas, it can be of great interest to perform, as it can bring tangible benefits in work, study and everyday life.

The CogniFit team used the classic Stroop Test to measure divided attention. This is how the Multitasking Test was developed, which, in addition to distributed attention, assesses cognitive flexibility and hand-eye coordination.

• : Use the arrow to follow the movement of the white ball, paying attention to the words that appear in the center of the screen. When the word that is in the center of the screen matches the color in which it is written, it is necessary to give an answer (paying attention to two stimuli at the same time). In this game, you need to adapt to changes in strategy, new responses, as well as manage the monitoring and visualization abilities at the same time.

How to restore or improve divided attention?

Divided attention, like other cognitive skills, can be trained, improved, and even learned to use it. CogniFit offers to do this professionally. With practice, we can increase the speed of our attention, learn to use less brain resources at the moment of simultaneous reaction to different stimuli, and improve the ability to process information, although this is not an easy task.

Rehabilitation of distributed attention is based on. Following this idea, CogniFit offers a series of clinical exercises designed to rehabilitate divided attention and other cognitive abilities. The brain and its neural connections can be enhanced by using the functions that depend on them. Thus, if we regularly train divided attention, we will be able to automatically perform the actions that we are trying to combine, thereby increasing their effectiveness. By automating various activities, it will be much easier for our brain to perform them simultaneously.

The CogniFit team of professionals specializing in the study of synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis processes has created personal cognitive stimulation program adaptable to the needs of each user. This program begins with an accurate assessment of divided attention and other basic cognitive functions. Based on the report received, the CogniFit cognitive stimulation program automatically suggests personalized cognitive training to improve divided attention and other cognitive functions that need to be strengthened by the test results (in this case, probably other attention subprocesses on which divided attention depends) .

To improve the distributed attention, the sequence and regularity of training is important. CogniFit offers assessment and rehabilitation tools to optimize this cognitive function. Proper stimulation requires exercising for 15 minutes a day, two or three times a week..

CogniFit cognitive stimulation program available online. With the help of a computer, you can perform a variety of interactive tasks in the form of exciting smart games. At the end of each session CogniFit will show you a detailed timeline graph of improvements in your cognitive state.

DistributionAttention is the ability of a person to simultaneously concentrate on several objects, which makes it possible to perform several actions at once. According to legend, Julius Caesar could do seven unrelated things at the same time. Peter I and Napoleon had a similar ability. However, there is reason to believe that only one type of conscious activity occurs at the same time - the subjective feeling of simultaneity is due to the rapid successive switching from one type to another. Thus, switchability - this is the reverse side of the distribution of attention. It is determined by the speed of transition from one activity to another. Poor switching leads to absent-mindedness. But absent-mindedness can also be the result of maximum composure and focus on the main object of interest.

Often, having great abilities, a person cannot realize them due to poor self-organization, lack of concentration. The main sign of self-organization is the ability to tune in to activity and maintain a working state for a long time, without making strong-willed efforts. This setting helps to carry out concentration and stability of attention. We can give some tips on managing these functions of attention, useful in organizing learning activities.

Consider a typical situation when you need to start classes, sit down at the table to do homework or prepare for exams. You can’t do it in any way, extraneous thoughts come into your head. For starters, try the simplest self-hypnosis, which allows you to get involved in any activity or state. So, you sit down at the table, on which everything is prepared, but which you hate, close your eyes and repeat 8-12 times to yourself or in a half whisper “I can write, I can write, I can write ... I write ... I I am writing!...” The intonations grow from mechanical indifference to a passionate demand. At the moment of greatest tension, you suddenly become silent, relax, lean back in your chair with your eyes closed. There is emptiness in your head, and you don’t want or expect anything, you don’t give a damn about anything. Stay in this emptiness, forget about everything, and you will feel that after a while a phrase will begin to emerge in this blissful emptiness, and then the demand to write, and the hand will reach for the paper itself. If something gets in the way, try to relax again and then hear your order again. Phrases or formulas can be anything, the main thing is short and to the point. This technique is the simplest conversation between the consciousness and the subconscious, in which both parties, without interfering or interrupting, provide an opportunity to tune in to business. The author of this technique, V. Levi, called it an "echo magnet" and singled out three phases: spell, emptiness, action.

But sometimes we are not even able to focus on what will help us get started. There is not a single thought in my head, only fragments, scraps of phrases. What to do? Sit down and write! Any lines that come to mind, even if it is not entirely logical. The main thing is not to stop and not to re-read what is written, so as not to be afraid of your confused notes and not to stop the process of working out. After a while, the work will really grab you and then you can return to the original notes - there may be something useful there, and if not, it's not scary, because these notes helped you start working.

If you have a long activity ahead of you - writing a term paper, a diploma or a report, then the interference can be very strong. Every day a person tells himself that today he is tired, but tomorrow he will start working with a fresh mind in the morning. But morning comes, and with it new things and new fatigue. Try to start a new business not in the morning, but in the evening against the backdrop of fatigue. Let it be only the first phrase or headline, the main thing is that in the morning you will not need to start from the beginning, and the new day will not be overshadowed by the need to do something unpleasant - to start, well, the previous evening was still spoiled by fatigue.

If you are involved in work and have forgotten about everything around you, you must follow the rules of mental hygiene. A person can maintain voluntary attention during monotonous work for 15 minutes, then you need to make a short pause or switch to another activity. Nothing is so tiring as monotony. There are also longer cycles of brain activity, such as the 90-minute rhythm of brain activity. Therefore, after an hour and a half of work, a longer break should be taken. During this break, you can relax with your eyes closed and do an autogenic workout or, conversely, fill the pause with active movement: dance to the music or do some rhythmic exercises. Infusions of herbs - mint, oregano, lemongrass, thyme or sweet tea will help relieve fatigue.

Intellectual activity is also subject to daily fluctuations. The physical tone of a person changes 5 times a day with maximums at 5, 11, 16, 20 and 24 hours and minimums at 2, 9, 14, 18 and 22 hours. During these periods, mental activity also decreases.

Dividing attention means focusing it on two different activities at the same time.

The ability to manage attention, to distribute it is especially necessary in the case when you have to perform two or more work at the same time. Many prominent people have had an amazing ability to distribute their attention. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, according to the memoirs of N. A. Semashko, could simultaneously listen to the speakers, lead the meeting, delve into the materials and write notes to the members of the Council of People's Commissars on certain issues. About N. G. Chernyshevsky, biographer A. P. Primakovsky writes: “Amazing ability to work allowed him to often carry out two jobs at the same time:

often he wrote an article for Sovremennik while simultaneously doing something else, such as dictating to the secretary a translation from Schlosser's German World History.

Naturally, the simultaneous performance of two types of activity leads to partial, and often to complete destruction of one of them. So, if a person performs simple arithmetic operations and at the same time listens to a story in order to reproduce it later, then the productivity of his work is reduced by almost half.

Usually, when studying the distribution of attention, the subject is asked to perform, separately and simultaneously, two tasks. The proposed tasks can be homogeneous, heterogeneous and have varying degrees of complexity. The efficiency of simultaneous and separate execution of tasks is compared.

Table 8

Test - "correction test"

Exercise. Test to determine the ability to distribute attention For this task, a test table is used. 8. You need 5 minutes. carefully looking through this table, as quickly as possible, cross out the letters c in different ways, to, but a letter a circle, for example:

Upon completion of the work, it is necessary to evaluate its accuracy and performance in order to use the data obtained both for primary self-diagnosis and for assessing the degree of development of one's ability to distribute attention after classes or independent work.

The indicator of work accuracy is calculated by the formula:

A=E/(E+O)

where BUT- work accuracy; E- the number of correctly crossed out characters; O is the number of errors.

At O == 0 A = 1, in the presence of errors, A is always less than 1. The performance indicator is calculated by the formula P=S*A, where P-productivity;

WITH- number of characters viewed.

These indicators characterize the features of your activity not only in a given test situation, but also have a wider meaning for real learning activities. For example, if you are in 5 minutes. looked at 1500 signs and correctly evaluated 1350 of them, this means a high degree of ability to sustain attention.

Switching attention consists in the arbitrary transfer of its focus from one object to another. The intentional nature distinguishes it from distraction, when a person changes the object of attention involuntarily. The physiological basis for switching attention is the movement, mobility of the focus of optimal excitation. Studies show that the change in attention often occurs quite quickly, within a second we can transfer attention from one object to another 3-4 times. Switching is facilitated if there are connections between the content of the previous and subsequent activities, interest in the upcoming activity, provided that the focus is not very deep on the previous activity, the presence of a habit of switching attention, and awareness of the importance of another task. The inertia of the nervous processes makes it difficult to switch attention.

Switching attention, a person consciously moves from one object to another, from one task to another, setting himself the goal of doing something new or taking a break. The ability to switch attention is important when you need to quickly respond to changes in the environment. Such situations are typical for a number of complex types of human activity: they arise in the work of a motor vehicle driver, a pilot, a weaver, a machine operator, an operator of monitoring and control systems, a teacher, etc. In such professions, the success of a work task depends on the ability to switch attention. Switching attention is caused by changes in the environment. For example, a car driver shifts attention from one object to another, changes his driving actions. The acceleration of the car determines the speed of attention switching, which causes overload and fatigue.

Switching attention is an important property of a person, a manifestation of her ability to control her attention, which helps her navigate the surrounding reality, quickly begin to perform new tasks. The ability to switch attention is developed in the process of practical activity. It is necessary to develop the habit of switching attention in certain conditions At school, it is necessary to organize the learning process in such a way that children from the very beginning receive a task that would require switching their attention to learning. It is necessary to ensure that they completely switch to a new subject of activity, fully comply with its requirements for activity. Compliance with a reasonable mode of switching attention in the learning process is important for the hygiene of mental work, it is a necessary condition for a rational mode of work and maintaining the optimal level of student performance in the classroom.

Distribution of attention.

The distribution of attention lies in the fact that a person can simultaneously hold several objects in the area of ​​attention, perform two or even three types of activities. Complex activities require a person to perform several types of activities simultaneously; she is forced to distribute attention, i.e., simultaneously focus it on various processes and objects, often with varying degrees of severity (For example, a car driver must simultaneously monitor the traffic situation at every moment of movement (according to the state of his own car, oncoming and passing vehicles, behavior pedestrians, road signs, the condition of the roadway, etc.), monitor the readings of instruments (speedometer, engine control devices), control vehicle movement maneuvers, coordinating actions with the steering wheel and guiding the vehicle, clutch, fuel supply, gearbox, brakes etc. Distribution of attention requires the vast majority of varieties of professional work However, there are professions that place increased demands on the distribution of attention, such as teachers, operators, multi-machine workers, vehicle drivers, traffic controllers on the roads, etc.

The ability to distribute attention is made in practice. The main condition for the successful combination of activities is the sufficient mastery of certain types of activity by a person. Success is greatly increased if the performance of one or more activities is more or less automated and does not encounter serious obstacles. In this case, the main activity falls on the nerve centers that are in a state of optimal excitation, while additional activities are provided by the intoxicated nerve centers. Additional activities require less attention to themselves, because they are performed to a large extent automated. For example, for a design engineer developing a new mechanism design, the main activity is to mentally solve the problems of implementing his idea. All his attention is concentrated on this, the solution is consistently moving from one stage to another. At the same time, without breaking away from the main idea, he keeps notes, draws individual details, performs simple calculations, without specifically thinking about how to do it, because the actions are mostly automated. These additional actions not only do not interfere with his creative work, but help to create an image of the future device.

However, it is almost impossible to distribute attention within one analyzer: listen to two speeches, listen and read. If one of the activities requires a large concentration of attention, then the distribution becomes impossible, because the concentration of consciousness on certain objects is inevitably associated with a narrowing of its field.

Different life situations require different types of attention, at the same time, each of these situations can be realized with the help of different types of attention. This applies primarily to the distribution and switching of attention, but it is not always possible to determine exactly what will achieve the goal. A young teacher with a mobile nervous system, who does not have the appropriate experience and skills, more often uses switching attention, and an experienced teacher mainly distributes attention. In certain cases, one type of attention easily passes into another, making it possible to achieve the goal in more rational ways.

The amount of attention.

It is determined by the number of objects that can be covered by attention in a limited period of time. Normatively, this time interval in experiments on tachistoscopy is 0.1 sec. At the same time, a person perceives 4-6 objects that are not interconnected. Training, the development of reading skills make it possible to perceive a larger amount of words, although this may increase errors. The amount of attention is related to the property of its concentration and is inversely proportional to it. If the maximum concentration of attention characterizes the degree of narrowing of consciousness, then the volume characterizes the degree of its expansion.

Distribution of attention -

it is the ability to perform two or more different activities while keeping your attention on them. Can attention be distributed simultaneously between two or more different activities? Maybe life constantly demands it. For example, a student at a lecture distributes attention simultaneously between what he writes down and what he hears at the moment. The teacher's attention is distributed to the whole class, to individual children, to the content of the lesson, etc. The ability to distribute attention is different for people. It is said that Napoleon could do seven things at the same time.

In order to successfully perform two jobs at the same time, at least one of them must be known so well that it is performed automatically, by itself, and the person only occasionally controls and regulates it consciously. In this case, the main attention can be paid to the second work, less familiar to the person.

The ability to distribute your attention develops gradually, with age. So, younger students do not distribute attention well, they still do not know how to do this, they do not have experience, automatic skills, so they should not be asked to do two things at the same time or, when doing one thing, divert the child's attention to another. But

it is necessary to promote the development of this skill.

When describing the properties of attention, Yu.B. Dormashev and B.Ya. Romanov proposes to define them with the help of a metaphorical searchlight beam. The direction of the beam to the region of space of potential objects of attention can be called the direction of attention. The level of illumination - the degree of attention. Intensity is the degree of clarity and distinctness. Attention volume is the angle of the beam of light or the area of ​​the spot of light. Volume is defined as the number of simple impressions or ideas clearly and distinctly perceived. The volume and degree of attention have an inverse relationship. Increasing the volume reduces the degree of attention.

The distribution of attention can be characterized as a beam splitting in two or more directions. When the beam is deliberately shifted from one object to another, attention is switched.

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