Balancing immediate stimuli and focused attention

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The insight discusses the balance between encouraging students to be excited by immediate stimuli for their intrinsic interest rather than for its utility, while also acknowledging the importance of focused attention later in life. It compares the view of immediate stimuli as a sign of immaturity to James' argument that it's not necessarily bad to have some confusion or blooming and buzzing confusion. The insight also touches upon the concept of geniuses having the ability to focus on one stream at the exclusion of pressing stimuli, including severe pain.

David and Tamler are back for the new year and one of our resolutions was to do more episodes on William James. Today we talk about his account of ‘Attention’ from his 1890 volume The Principles of Psychology – another remarkably prescient chapter that still feels more than relevant today. What is attention and how does it function in the mind? What accounts for the different ways that we attend to things? Does attention help to shape or construct our reality? What is attention’s connection to the will? Does James anticipate predictive coding theory?

Plus we discuss the removal of the head of a renowned university for reasons that have nothing to do with the mission of higher learning.

Episode Links

Chancellor of University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Fired [nbc.com]

William James chapter on Attention from Principles of Psychology (1890) [yorku.ca]