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Attention as Optimization
- Attention is not well-described as a spotlight, but rather as an optimization strategy.
- It involves modifying and tuning other cognitive processes like seeing and hearing.
Tapping Experiment
- John Vervaeke guides listeners through a tapping experiment to illustrate the layered structure of attention.
- By shifting awareness between the tapping object, the probe, and the fingers, he demonstrates Polanyi's concept of focal and subsidiary awareness.
Transparency and Opacity in Attention
- Attention involves a dynamic interplay between focal and subsidiary awareness, shifting between transparency and opacity.
- We're aware through subsidiary awareness (e.g., our probe) of our focal object (e.g., the cup), like looking through glasses.