aneous stimuli that are
always competing for the hearer's attention, and make him responsive
only to stimuli coming from the officer. They make the hearer clearly
conscious of the officer. They arouse in the hearer a condition of
keen alertness that cannot be maintained for more than a few seconds
unless some further command comes from the officer. In all these ways
"attention" in the military sense, or "readiness" in the athletic
sense, affords a good picture of the psychology of attention.
Attention is preparatory, selective, mobile, highly conscious. To
attend to a thing is to be keenly conscious of that thing, it is to
respond to that thing and disregard other things, and it is to expect
something more from that thing.

Attention is, in a word, exploratory. To attend is to explore, or to
start to explore. Primitive attention amounts to the same as the
instinct of exploration. Its natural stimulus is anything novel or
sudden, its "emotional state" is curiosity or expectancy, and its
instinctive reaction consists {245} of exploratory movements. Its
inherent impulse is to explore, examine, or await.

Attention belongs fundamentally among the native forms of behavior.
The child does not have to learn to attend, though he must learn to
attend to many things that do not naturally get his attention. Some
stimuli naturally attract attention, and others attract attention only
because of previous experience and training. In considering the whole
subject of attention, then, we shall in part be dealing with native
responses, and in part with responses that are acquired. But the great
laws of attention, which will come to light in the course of the
chapter, are at the same time general laws of reaction, and belong
under the head of native characteristics.

The Stimulus, or What Attracts Attention

We can attend to anything whatever, but are more likely to attend to
some things than to others. As stimuli for attention, some objects are
much more effective than others, and the question is, in what way one
object has the advantage over another. There are several ways, several
"factors of advantage", we may call them.

_Change_ is the greatest factor of advantage. A steady noise ceases
after a while to be noticed, but let it change in any respect and
immediately it arrests attention. The ticking of the clock is a good
example: as long as it keeps uniformly on, it is unnoticed, but if it
should suddenly beat faster or louder