In the development of attention in a child, one can note, first of all, its diffuse, unstable character in early childhood. The already noted fact that the child, seeing a new toy, very often drops the one he was holding from his hands, illustrates this situation. However, this provision is not absolute. Along with the above mentioned fact, one should also take into account another one, which is emphasized by some teachers [Faussek, On attention in young children, Pg. 1922.]: it happens that some object will attract the attention of the child, or rather, manipulation with this object will captivate him so much that, having begun to manipulate it (open and close doors, etc.), the child will repeat this action once in a while. at once 20, 40 times and more. This fact really testifies that in relation to very elementary acts associated with significant emotional charging, the child can already early show attention for a more or less significant time. This fact should not be underestimated, and it should be used to further develop attention in the child. But nevertheless, of course, the correct position remains that for preschool age, and sometimes by the beginning of school, the child still has a very weak degree of control over his attention. Therefore, in the educational process, the teacher must carefully work on the organization of the child's attention, otherwise it will be at the mercy of surrounding things and a random combination of circumstances. The development of voluntary attention is one of the most important further acquisitions, closely related to the formation of volitional qualities in a child.

In the development of attention in a child, its intellectualization is essential, which takes place in the process of the child’s mental development, attention, which first relies on sensory content, begins to switch to mental connections. As a result, the scope of the child's attention expands. The development of attention span is closely related to the overall mental development of the child.

The development of the stability of children's attention has been studied by many researchers. The following table gives an idea of ​​the results of the study:

In this table, the rapid growth of attention stability after 3 years is especially indicative, and, in particular, its relatively high level by the age of 6, on the verge of school age. This is an essential condition for "learning readiness".

Beirl determined the increase in concentration of attention by the number of distractions that the child succumbed to during 10 minutes of the game. On average, they were expressed in the following figures:

The distractibility of a 2-4 year old child is 2-3 times greater than that of a 4-6 year old. The second half of preschool age - the years immediately preceding the start of schooling, give such a significant increase and concentration of attention.

At school age, as the range of interests of the child expands and he becomes accustomed to systematic educational work, his attention - both involuntary and especially voluntary - continues to develop. However, at first, and at school, one still has to deal with significant distractibility of children.

More significant shifts come when the learning outcomes have time to affect; the size of these shifts naturally depends on its effectiveness. By the age of 10-12, i.e., by the period when for the most part there is a noticeable, often spasmodic growth in the mental development of children - the development of abstract thinking, logical memory, etc., there is usually also a noticeable increase in the amount of attention, its concentration and stability. Sometimes it is stated in the literature that a teenager (at 14-15 years old) has to observe a new wave of distractibility. However, this assertion that attention in adolescents is generally worse than in previous years cannot be accepted. It is correct, perhaps, that in these years it is sometimes more difficult to attract the attention of a child; in particular, this requires a lot of work and art from the teacher. But if you can interesting material and a good work setting to attract the attention of a teenager, then his attention will be no less, but more effective than the attention of younger children.

Speaking of these age-related differences in the development of attention, we must not lose sight of the existence of individual differences, and, moreover, very significant ones.

The development of attention in children takes place in the process of education and upbringing. Crucial for At the same time, the organization of attention has the ability to set a task and motivate it in such a way that it is accepted by the subject.

Based on the weakness of voluntary attention in children, a number of educators, from the intellectualist Herbart to the modern romantics of the active school, recommended that the entire pedagogical process be built on the basis of involuntary attention. The teacher should master student attention and chain his. To do this, he must always strive to give bright, emotionally rich material, avoiding any boring study.

Of course, it is very important that the teacher be able to interest students and be able to build the pedagogical process on involuntary attention, due to direct interest. Constantly demanding intense voluntary attention from children, without giving it any support, is perhaps the surest way to not get attention. However, building learning only on involuntary attention is a mistake. This is essentially impossible. Each, even the most exciting, case includes links that cannot be of immediate interest and cause involuntary attention. Therefore, in the pedagogical process it is necessary to be able to: 1) use involuntary attention, and 2) promote the development of voluntary attention. To excite and maintain involuntary attention, it is advisable to use emotional factors: to arouse interest, to introduce a certain emotional richness. At the same time, however, it is essential that this emotionality and interest should not be external. The external entertainingness of a lecture or lesson, achieved by the communication of anecdotes that are very loosely related to the subject, leads to distraction rather than concentration. Interest must be related to the subject of study or work; its main links should be saturated with emotionality. It must be connected with the consciousness of the significance of the work that is being done.

An essential condition for maintaining attention, as follows from the experimental study of the stability of attention, is the diversity of the reported material, combined with the consistency and coherence of its disclosure and presentation. In order to maintain attention, it is necessary to introduce new content, linking it to the already known, essential, basic and most capable of interest and give interest to what is associated with it. A logically coherent exposition, which, however, is given each time the most tangible reference points possible in the field of the concrete, is also an essential prerequisite for attracting and maintaining attention. At the same time, it is necessary that the students ripen those questions to which the subsequent presentation provides answers. For these purposes, a construction is effective that first poses and sharpens questions for students and only then gives them a solution.

Since the basis of involuntary attention is interests, in order to develop a sufficiently fruitful involuntary attention, it is necessary first of all to develop broad and properly directed interests.

Arbitrary attention is essentially one of the manifestations of the volitional type of activity. The ability to voluntary attention is formed in systematic work. The development of voluntary attention is inextricably linked with the general process of the formation of the volitional qualities of the individual.

For the perception of any phenomenon, it is necessary that it can cause an orienting reaction, which allows you to "tune" your senses to it. Such an arbitrary or involuntary direction or concentration of such activity on some object of perception is called attention. Thus, attention is the process of consciously or unconsciously selecting one information coming through the senses and ignoring the other. Without attention, perception is impossible.

Distinguish the following types attention: external and internal, arbitrary(deliberate) involuntary(unintentional) and post-voluntary.

external attention is the focus of consciousness on objects and phenomena of the external environment (natural and social) in which a person exists, and on his own external actions and deeds. internal attention is the focus of consciousness on the phenomena and conditions of the internal environment of the body.

The ratio of external and internal attention plays important role in the interaction of a person with the outside world, other people, in his knowledge of himself, in the ability to manage himself.

If external and internal attention is characterized by a different orientation of consciousness, then voluntary, involuntary and post-voluntary attention differs on the basis of correlation with the purpose of activity.

At arbitrary Attention concentration of consciousness is determined by the purpose of the activity and specific tasks arising from its requirements and changing conditions. involuntary attention arises without prior goal setting (for example, a reaction to a strong sound, bright light, novelty of the subject). Post-voluntary attention follows the voluntary. This means that a person first focuses his consciousness on some object or activity, sometimes with the help of considerable volitional efforts, then the process of examining the object or the activity itself arouses growing interest, and attention continues to be held without any effort.

All three types of attention are dynamic processes connected by mutual transitions, but always one of them becomes predominant for some time.

properties attention are called the features of its manifestation. These include volume, concentration, stability, switching and distribution attention.

Volume attention is characterized by the amount of memorized and produced material. The amount of attention can be increased through exercise or by establishing semantic connections between perceived objects.

Concentration Attention is a property expressed by the complete absorption of the subject, phenomenon, thoughts, experiences, actions on which the human consciousness is focused.

In the presence of such concentration, a person practically does not perceive extraneous factors. Only with difficulty can he be distracted from the thoughts in which he is immersed.

Sustainability attention - the ability to stay focused on a particular subject or on the same thing for a long time. It is measured by the time of concentration, provided that the distinctness of the reflection in the mind of the object or process of activity is preserved. Sustainability of attention depends on a number of reasons: the significance of the case, interest in it, the preparedness of the workplace, and skills.

Switching attention is expressed in an arbitrary, conscious movement of it from one object to another, in a rapid transition from one activity to another. It is dictated by the very course of activity, the emergence or setting of its new tasks.

Switching of attention should not be confused with distraction, which is expressed in an involuntary transfer of the concentration of consciousness to something else or in a decrease in the intensity of concentration. This is manifested in short-term fluctuations in attention.

Distribution Attention is a property that makes it possible to perform two or more actions (types of activity) at the same time, but only if some actions are familiar to a person and are carried out, although under the control of consciousness, but largely automated.

In the process of training and education, activities and communication. A person develops the properties of attention, its types, their relatively stable combinations are formed, on the basis of which mindfulness is formed as a property of the personality.

The development of attention refers to the process of improving its properties ( concentration, sustainability, volume and etc.). This process begins in the first months of a child's life, when he has only involuntary attention, and continues as he grows up, more and more enriching his attention with arbitrary views based on life experience.

Distinguish between natural and artificial ways of developing attention. The natural path is due to the slow biological processes of development of the human psyche itself. The artificial path involves the intensification of development through various psychological techniques and technologies and requires periodic consolidation of the acquired qualities. The factors that have the most significant influence on the development of attention are:

• speech developed under the influence of learning;
• copying (imitation) of the behavior of adults;
• mental activity.

During the development of attention, there are several stages.

At the 1st stage there are only signs of involuntary direct attention. It manifests itself in the form of an orienting reflex, which ensures the orientation of the child to something unusual for him that arises in this particular situation.

At the 2nd stage a significant role in the development of attention is played by non-verbal behavior of adults (facial expressions, gestures, postures), as well as paralinguistic parameters of their speech (intonation, volume, pauses, etc.). It is these elements that cause a reaction in the child and tell him where to direct his attention. The development of attention at this stage is also associated with the revival complex, which manifests itself in the emotional-motor reaction of the child when the mother appears next to him or the sound of her voice.

At the 3rd stage the child discovers for himself such means of attracting the attention of adults as making sounds, turning his head towards an adult, etc. Such actions lay the foundation for the development of the possibility of arbitrary orientation of his attention.

At the 4th stage the process of development of attention is accelerated due to the development of speech. Here, the child's arbitrary reaction to the words of adults who are emotionally emphatically addressed to him is already observed. But he mainly uses his speech to attract the attention of others.

At the 5th stage the child's speech begins to play the role of a direct tool for controlling his own attention. However, during this period, voluntary attention, unlike involuntary, is unstable. The reason usually lies in poor control of one's own feelings, in increased emotionality.

At the 6th stage still dominated by involuntary attention. Visual, bright, unusual objects and phenomena of the surrounding world pass into the psyche "out of turn". At the same time, there is an active development of control over one's behavior in connection with the school attendance regime, obedience to the daily routine. The emergence of a means of regulating one's thinking - inner speech - also intensifies the development of attention.

7th stage characterized by such a level of development of attention, which allows you to focus on some occupation related to the performance of professional duty, study. At the same time, the features of physiological development at this age negatively affect the characteristics of the properties of attention.

1. Introduction.

2. Attention:

2.1. General concept about attention. Definition.

2.2. types of attention.

2.3. Properties and functions of attention.

2.4. Absent-mindedness.

3. Ways to train and develop attention.

4. Conclusion.

5. List of used literature.

Introduction

The problem of attention is traditionally considered one of the most important and complex problems of scientific psychology. The development of the entire system depends on its solution. psychological knowledge both fundamental and applied. A high assessment of attention at the level of worldview and in the ethical aspect can be found in many authors.

The significance of attention in human life, its decisive role in the selection of the content of conscious experience, memorization and learning are obvious. It is difficult to doubt even the need for a comprehensive and detailed study of its phenomena. As F. Worden notes, from the point of view of common sense, one can assume that “the phenomena of attention play an important role in the science of behavior, but, oddly enough, this is not the case, and in psychology textbooks attention, as a rule, occupies a modest and inconspicuous position. ". Meanwhile, specific gravity studies directly aimed at solving the problem of attention or carried out under the heading “attention” is quite high and continues to grow rapidly.

In my work, I tried to give the most complete definition of the term “attention”, define its types, highlight properties and functions. Also, I tried to identify the most important ways of development and ways of training attention.

In my abstract, I used the works of such authors as J. Godefroy, R.S. Nemov, V.S. Kuzin and others.

2. Attention

2.1. General concept of attention. Definition

Mental activity cannot proceed purposefully and productively if a person does not focus on what he is doing. A person engaged in some kind of work may not hear what others are talking about and not respond if he is called. In this case, they say that he has focused on what he is doing, that he pays attention to certain objects, is engaged in them, being distracted from everything else. It follows from this that a person cannot simultaneously think about different things and perform various works. A striking example of the impact of particularly relevant information is the fact called the “party effect”, studied in 1953 by Cherry. For example, in a friendly company, at first we hear only the general noise of the voices of those who are talking. However, it is enough for someone to suddenly turn to us so that, despite the ongoing conversation around us, we immediately begin to perceive what is being said to us. It is the high significance of the signal (and not its intensity) that determines the direction of human attention.

Orientation should be understood, first of all, as the selective nature of mental activity, the deliberate or unintentional choice of its objects. The concept of orientation also includes the preservation of activity for a certain period of time. It is not enough just to choose this or that activity in order to be attentive, it is necessary to keep this choice, to keep it.

Attention is usually expressed in facial expressions, in posture, in movements. It is easy to distinguish an attentive listener from an inattentive one. But sometimes attention is directed not to the surrounding objects, but to the thoughts and images that are in the mind of a person. In this case, one speaks of intellectual attention, which is somewhat different from external attention. All this indicates that attention does not have its own cognitive content and only serves the activity of other cognitive processes.

Attention can be defined as a psychophysiological process, a state that characterizes the dynamic features of cognitive activity. They are expressed in its focus on comparatively narrow section external or internal activities, which at a given moment of time become conscious and concentrate on themselves the mental and physical forces of a person for a certain period of time. Attention is a process of conscious or unconscious (semi-conscious) selection of one information coming through the senses and ignoring the other.

2.2. Types of attention

Psychologists distinguish a number of types of attention. These are involuntary and voluntary attention, natural and socially conditioned attention, direct and mediated attention, sensory and intellectual attention.

involuntary attention, the most simple and genetically original, is also called passive, forced, since it arises and is maintained regardless of the goals facing a person. Activity captures a person by itself, because of its fascination, entertainment or surprise. A person involuntarily surrenders to the objects that affect him, the phenomena of the activity performed. The emergence of involuntary attention is associated with various physical, psychophysiological and mental causes. These reasons can be divided into three groups:

1. The nature and quality of the stimulus. Here it is necessary to include, first of all, its strength or intensity. An important role in this is played not so much by the absolute as by the relative strength of the stimulus. Of particular importance is the contrast between stimuli. The same applies to the duration of the stimulus, as well as to the spatial magnitude and shape of the object.

2. The second group of causes includes those external stimuli that correspond to the internal state of a person, and, above all, to his needs. So, a full and a hungry person will react differently to a conversation about food.

3. The third group of reasons is connected with the general orientation of the personality. For example, walking along the same street, a janitor will pay attention to garbage, a policeman - to an incorrectly parked car, an architect - to the beauty of an old building.

Unlike involuntary voluntary attention driven by conscious purpose. Arbitrary attention is usually associated with the struggle of motives and motives, the presence of strong, oppositely directed and competing interests, each of which in itself is able to attract and hold attention. In this case, a person makes a conscious choice of a goal and, by an effort of will, suppresses one of the interests, directing all his attention to satisfying the other.

natural attention given to a person from his very birth in the form of an innate ability to selectively respond to certain external or internal stimuli that carry elements of informational novelty. The main mechanism that ensures the work of such attention is called the orienting reflex.

socially conditioned attention develops for life as a result of training and education, is associated with volitional regulation of behavior, with a conscious selective response to objects.

immediate attention is not controlled by anything other than the object to which it is directed and which corresponds to the actual interests and needs of a person.

mediated attention regulated by special means, such as gestures, words, signs, objects.

Sensual and intellectual attention. The first is predominantly associated with emotions and the selective work of the senses, and the second - with the concentration and direction of thought. In sensory attention, a sensory impression is at the center of consciousness, while in intellectual attention, the object of interest is a thought.

2.3. Properties and functions of attention

Attention means the connection of consciousness with a certain object, its focus on it. The features of this concentration determine the basic properties of attention. These include: stability, concentration, distribution, switching and attention span. Sustainability- this is a temporal characteristic of attention, the duration of attracting attention to the same object. Stability can be determined by peripheral and central factors. Experimental studies have shown that attention is subject to involuntary periodic fluctuations. The periods of such oscillations, in particular according to N. Lange, are usually 2-3 s, reaching a maximum of 12 s. If you listen to the ticking of the clock and try to focus on it, then the person will either hear or not hear them.

Methods for studying the stability of attention are of great interest. The goal of research is to establish how firmly and stably it persists for a long time, whether fluctuations in its stability are noted, and when fatigue phenomena occur, in which the subject's attention begins to be distracted by side stimuli.

To measure the stability of attention, Bourdon tables are usually used, consisting of a random alternation of individual letters, with each letter repeated in each line the same number of times. The subject is asked to cross out the given letters for a long time (3-5-10 minutes). The experimenter notes the number of letters crossed out during each minute and the number of gaps found. Work productivity and the number of errors made can serve as an indicator of fluctuations in attention.

Concentration of attention- this is the degree or intensity of concentration, i.e. the main indicator of its severity, in other words, the focus in which mental or conscious activity is collected. Concentration is a consequence of excitation in the dominant focus with simultaneous inhibition of other areas of the cerebral cortex.

Under distribution of attention understand the subjectively experienced ability of a person to keep a certain number of heterogeneous objects in the center of attention at the same time. It is this ability that allows you to perform several actions at once, keeping them in the field of attention. Sometimes a person is really able to perform two types of activity at the same time. In fact, in such cases, one of the activities performed should be fully automated and do not require attention. If this condition is not met, the combination of activities is impossible.

Schulte tables are used to study the distribution of attention. These tables show two rows of randomly scattered figures, red and black. The subject must name a series of numbers in a certain sequence, alternating each time a red and a black number. Sometimes the experiment is complicated - it is necessary to show the red number in the forward order, and the black one - in the reverse order. Studies have shown that there are distinct individual differences among individual subjects. Researchers believe that these differences can reliably reflect some variations in the strength and mobility of nerve processes and can be successfully used for diagnostic purposes.

Many psychologists believe that the distribution of attention is the reverse side of it. switchability. Switching or switching attention is determined covertly, moving from one type of activity to another. In general, the switchability of attention means the ability to quickly navigate in a changing situation. The ease of switching attention is different for different people and belongs to the number of well-trained qualities.

The next property of attention is its volume. It is known that a person cannot simultaneously think about different things and perform various works. This limitation forces us to split the incoming information into parts that do not exceed the capabilities of a person. In the same way, a person has a very limited ability to simultaneously perceive several objects independent of each other - this is the amount of attention.

The study of the volume of attention is usually carried out by analyzing the number of simultaneously presented elements (numbers, letters) that can be clearly perceived by the subject. For these purposes, a device is used - a tachistoscope - which allows you to present a certain number of stimuli so quickly that the subject cannot move his eyes from one object to another. The amount of attention is an individual variable, but the classic indicator of the amount of attention in people is considered to be 5 simultaneously clearly perceived objects.

Attention in human life and activity performs many different functions. It activates the necessary and inhibits currently unnecessary psychological and physiological processes, promotes an organized and purposeful selection of information entering the body. Directivity and selectivity of cognitive processes are connected with attention. Their setting directly depends on what at a given time seems to be the most important for the body, for the realization of the interests of the individual.

For receptive processes, attention is a kind of amplifier that allows you to distinguish the details of images. For memory, attention acts as a factor capable of retaining the necessary information in working memory. For thinking, attention acts as an obligatory factor in the correct understanding and solution of the problem. In the system of interpersonal relations, attention contributes to better mutual understanding, adaptation of people to each other, prevention and timely resolution of interpersonal conflicts.

2.4. distraction

Absent-mindedness is the inability of a person to focus on anything specific for a long time. There are two types of absent-mindedness: imaginary and genuine.

Imaginary absent-mindedness- this is a person's inattention to directly surrounding objects and phenomena, caused by focusing on any object. Sometimes it is called "professional", as it is often found in people of this category. The attention of a scientist can be so concentrated on the problem that occupies him that he does not recognize his acquaintances, answers out of place. The physiological basis of imaginary absent-mindedness is the center of optimal excitation in the cortex, which causes inhibition in the areas surrounding it. The vagueness of the reflection of various kinds of external influences during scattered attention is explained by the fact that it occurs in areas of the cortex that are in a state of inhibition.

Absent-mindedness as a result of inner concentration does not cause great harm business, although it makes it difficult for a person to orient himself in the world around him. Worse genuine distraction. A person suffering from genuine absent-mindedness has difficulty keeping voluntary attention on any object or action. The arbitrary attention of an absent-minded person is easily distracted. Physiologically, true absent-mindedness is explained by the insufficient force of internal inhibition. Excitation arising from the action of speech signals is difficult to concentrate. As a result, unstable foci of optimal excitability are created in the cerebral cortex of a distracted person.

One of the reasons for true absent-mindedness is the overload of the brain with a large number of impressions. Dispersion of interests can also lead to genuine distraction. The cause of true absent-mindedness may also be the improper upbringing of the child in the family: the absence of a certain regime in the child's classes, entertainment and recreation, and release from work duties. Boring teaching, which does not awaken thought, does not affect feelings, does not require effort of will, is one of the sources of absent-mindedness of students.

3. Ways to train and develop attention

Attention, like all other mental processes, has lower and higher forms. The former are represented by involuntary attention, and the latter by voluntary attention. Direct attention is also a lower form of its development than indirect attention.

The history of the development of attention, like many other mental functions, was tried by L.S. Vygotsky in line with his cultural and historical concept of their formation. He wrote that the history of a child's attention is the history of the development of the organization of his behavior, that the key to the genetic understanding of attention should be sought not inside, but outside the child's personality.

According to L.S. Vygotsky, from the very first days of a child's life, the development of his attention takes place in an environment that includes the so-called double row of stimuli that cause attention. The first row is the surrounding objects themselves, which attract the attention of the child with their bright, unusual properties. On the other hand, this is the speech of an adult, the words he utters, which initially act as stimuli-indications that direct the involuntary attention of the child.

Initially, the processes of voluntary attention, directed by the speech of an adult, are for the child rather processes of his external discipline than self-regulation. Gradually, using the same means of mastering attention in relation to himself, the child passes to self-control of behavior, that is, to voluntary attention.

According to observations and experimental studies, the sequence of the main stages of children's attention looks like this:

1. The first weeks-months of life. The appearance of an orienting reflex as an objective, innate sign of the child's involuntary attention.

2. End of the first year of life. The emergence of orienting-research activity as a means of the future development of voluntary attention.

3. Beginning of the second year of life. Detection of the beginnings of voluntary attention under the influence of the adult's verbal instructions, the direction of gaze on the object named by the adult.

4. Second or third year of life. A fairly good development of the above-mentioned initial form of voluntary attention.

5. Four and a half - five years. The emergence of the ability to direct attention under the influence of a complex instruction from an adult.

6. Five or six years. The emergence of an elementary form of voluntary attention under the influence of self-instruction (with reliance on external aids).

7. School age. Further development and improvement of voluntary attention, including volitional.

Attention plays an important role in various professions related to comprehension. a large number information and communication. That is why it is important to create the conditions necessary for its emergence, preservation and development. Among these conditions are the following.

Ensuring high performance of all human organs and systems:

Proper daily routine, good nutrition and rest;

Timely diagnosis and treatment of visual impairment, hearing impairment, diseases of internal organs.

Accounting for the daily rhythm of working capacity;

Alternate mental and physical activities.

Creating a favorable working environment:

The absence of strong external stimuli - ensuring silence (light noise contributes to concentration);

Ensuring hygienic working conditions;

The optimal physical factor (a posture in which nothing distracts, the absence of unnecessary movements);

Habitual working conditions.

Organization of activities:

Set priorities (determine what is important and what is secondary, giving preference to the main);

Set specific goals;

Determine the end goal and break it down into steps to achieve it.

Raising a critical attitude towards oneself and work: after the completion of the activity, it is necessary to analyze whether the goal has been achieved, what contributed to its achievement, and what hindered it.

In addition, the development of sensations (music, works of art), the cultivation of receptivity and observation, as well as an increase in the intellectual level have great importance to develop attention.

Ways of both development and training of attention can be:

Meditation (one of the terms used to refer to a way to switch attention from the outside world to the inner world). There are different techniques of meditative immersion: meditation on a candle flame, on meditative candles, listening to audio cassettes with a recording of a meditation session.

Palming (derived from the word palm, which means “palm” in Russian). The human palms are an excellent tool for protecting the eyes. When a person closes his eyes, it contributes to their relaxation and rest. However, the eyes, designed by nature itself to perceive light, cannot completely relax when even an insignificant amount of its rays is applied to them. An exercise to achieve this was called "palming" by William Bates. Exercise: put one of your favorite things in front of you (preferably a bright color). Then, for a few minutes, look at the object carefully, calmly. After that, you should close your eyes, try to remember the subject in detail and keep them in your mind. Then open your eyes, look at the object and determine what details have been forgotten in the mental image. The exercise should be repeated until the object is accurately reproduced in the mental image.

Another way to train attention can be the way of “memorizing faces”. To do this, you should sit down, concentrate and try to describe the facial features of acquaintances: nose, eyes, mouth, chin, hair color, general head shape. It turns out that not every person can accurately reproduce in memory the faces of even the closest people. This exercise trains observational abilities well.

Activation of the auditory center. The well-known Russian physiologist Academician P. Anokhin in his research found that in the activity of the human brain, situations sometimes arise when all its structures are activated. In this case, they work as a whole and perform the task in the most efficient way. To create such a situation, a set of special exercises has been developed that involve additional structures in the processes of brain activity, in particular the auditory center.

1. Walking down the street, you need to try to catch and keep in mind certain phrases of people passing by.

3. Standing so as not to see people talking to each other, try to distinguish their voices and establish the identity of each of them.

4. You can try to remember the words addressed to you during the past day. Very few people are able to repeat verbatim what was said to them just a few minutes ago.

5. Being present at a lecture, meeting, meeting, then try to write down everything that you remember from what you heard. Mentally discussing the speech, convey, if possible verbatim, the words used in it. It is not only useful for the development of auditory perception, concentration and attention, but also serves as one of the the best means in the improvement of oratory.

4. Conclusion

In my essay, I gave the concept of attention, identified its types and functions, considered ways to train and develop attention.

But this is not the limit. The study of the human psyche and personality, cognitive processes and methods of their training and development is becoming more and more perfect. Psychologists invent newer, more modern models to study these processes. A person, using these models, gets to know his inner world more deeply, which allows him to discover new abilities of a person.

5. List of used literature

1. Andreev O.A., Khromov L.N. Learn to be attentive. - M.: Enlightenment, 1996. - 160 p.

2. Godfroy J. What is psychology: In 2 vols. Vol. 1: Per. from French - M.: Mir, 1992. - 496 p., ill.

3. Dormashev Yu.B., Romanov V.Ya. Psychology of attention. - M.: Trivola, 1999. - 336 p.

4. Kuzin V.S. Psychology. Textbook. - M.: AGAR, 1999. - 304 p., ill.

5. Nemov R.S. Psychology: Proc. for students of higher ped. textbook institutions: In 3 books. Book. 1. General foundations of psychology. - M.: VLADOS, 1997. - 688 p.

Vygotsky L.S. Development of higher forms of attention in childhood // Reader on attention. - M., 1976.

Nemov R.S. Psychology. Textbook. Book 1. General foundations of psychology. - M., 1997.

Psychology and pedagogy. Tutorial// Answer. ed. V.M. Nikolaenko. - M., 1999.

Individual features of attention are due to features nervous system:

Strong type of nervous system - high concentration and stability of attention; weak type - low concentration and stability;

Mobile type of the nervous system - high switchability of attention; inert type - low switchability.

One of the individual features of attention is distraction. Absent-mindedness in some cases is due to low concentration and stability of attention (inability to concentrate), in other cases - low switchability (inability to switch attention).

Chapter 2. Ways to develop attention.

Attention, like all other mental processes, has lower and higher forms. The former are represented by involuntary attention, and the latter by voluntary attention. Direct attention is also a lower form of its development than indirect attention.

The development of attention means the process of improving its properties (concentration, stability, volume, etc.). This process begins in the first months of a child's life, when he has only involuntary attention, and continues as he grows up, more and more enriching his attention with arbitrary views based on life experience.

Distinguish between natural and artificial ways development of attention. The natural path is due to the slow biological processes of development of the human psyche itself. The artificial path involves the intensification of development through various psychological techniques and technologies and requires periodic consolidation of the acquired qualities. The factors that have the most significant influence on the development of attention are:

speech developed under the influence of learning;

copying (imitation) of the behavior of adults;

mental activity.

There are several stages in the development of attention. At the 1st stage, there are only signs of involuntary direct attention. It manifests itself in the form of an orienting reflex, which ensures the orientation of the child to something unusual for him that arises in this particular situation.

At the 2nd stage, non-verbal behavior plays a significant role in the development of attention.

adults (facial expressions, gestures, postures), as well as paralinguistic parameters of their speech

(intonation, volume, pauses, etc.). It is these elements that cause a reaction in the child and tell him where to direct his attention. The development of attention at this stage is also associated with the revival complex, which manifests itself in the emotional-motor reaction of the child when the mother appears next to him or the sound of her voice.

At the 3rd stage, the child discovers for himself such means of attracting the attention of adults as making sounds, turning his head towards an adult, etc. Such actions lay the foundation for the development of the possibility of arbitrary orientation of his attention.

At the 4th stage, the process of developing attention is accelerated due to the development of speech. Here, the child's arbitrary reaction to the words of adults who are emotionally emphatically addressed to him is already observed. But he mainly uses his speech to attract the attention of others.

At the 5th stage, the child's speech begins to play the role of a direct tool for controlling one's own attention. However, during this period, voluntary attention, unlike involuntary, is unstable. The reason usually lies in poor control of one's own feelings, in increased emotionality.

In the 6th stage, involuntary attention still predominates. Visual, bright, unusual objects and phenomena of the surrounding world pass into the psyche "out of turn". At the same time, there is an active development of control over one's behavior in connection with the school attendance regime, obedience to the daily routine. The emergence of a means of regulating one's thinking - inner speech - also intensifies the development of attention.

The 7th stage is characterized by such a level of development of attention that allows you to focus on some occupation related to the performance of professional duty, study. At the same time, the features of physiological development at this age negatively affect the characteristics of the properties of attention.

There are various attention tests and attention exercises that can be used in teaching children because they are both interesting and beneficial to the overall development of the child. Similar tests can (and should) be used in older populations as well.