ere, then of the game played, etc. In the same way the
attention of the student turns without effort to his favourite school
subject, and its various aspects may pass in view before him without
any effort or determination on his part. Because in this type of
attention the different thoughts stand out in consciousness without any
apparent choice, or selection, on the part of the mind, it is described
as non-voluntary attention.

VOLUNTARY ATTENTION

=Nature of Voluntary Attention.=--The most important form of attention,
however, is that in which the mind focuses itself upon an idea, not as a
result of outside stimulation, but with some further purpose in view.
For instance, when a person enters a room in which a strange object
seems to be giving out musical notes automatically, he may at first give
spontaneous attention to the sounds coming from the instrument. When,
however, he approaches the object later with a desire to discover the
nature of its mechanism, his attention is focused upon the object with a
more remote aim, or end, in view, to discover where the music comes
from. So also, when the lad mentioned in Chapter II fixed his attention
on the lost coin, he set this object before his attention with a further
end in view--how to regain it. Because the person here _determines_ to
attend to, or think about, a certain problem, in order that he may reach
a certain consciously set end, this form of attention is described as
voluntary, or active, attention.

=Near and Remote Ends.=--It is to be noted, however, that the
interesting end toward which the mind strives in voluntary attention may
be relatively near or remote. A child examining an automatic toy does it
for the sake of discovering what is in the toy itself; an adult in order
to see whether it is likely to interest his child. A student gives
attention to the problem of the length of the hypotenuse because he is
interested in the mathematical problem itself, the contractor because he
desires to know how much material will be necessary for the roof of the
building. One child may apply himself to mastering a reading lesson
because the subject itself is interesting to him, another because he
desires to take home a perfect report at the end of the week, and a
third because a sense of obligation tells him that teacher and parents
will expect him to study it.

=How we Attend to a Problem.=--Since voluntary attention implies mental
movement directed to the attainm