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Attention tasks require selecting specific stimuli to perceive and understand, and can be auditory, visual, or tactile. Researchers use them to study how the brain handles competing stimuli and to help those with neurological deficits. The nature of attention tasks can vary, and the ability to complete them develops with practice. Researchers design attention tasks carefully to ensure accurate results.
Attention tasks are activities that require the selection of specific stimuli to be perceived and understood. For example, doing math homework is an attention task, as the student must concentrate on the problem set to solve it. Researchers can develop attention tasks for use in studies examining how the brain handles competing stimuli and sorts information to find relevant material. Such studies may be especially important when involving people who struggle with such tasks. Their brain activity may provide insight into how attention develops and how to help patients with neurological deficits.
These activities can be auditory, visual or tactile. An example of an auditory task is to pick up on a conversation in a crowded room and pay attention to it in order to understand what the speaker is saying and respond to it. Reading is a visual task, while an activity such as feeling and understanding the texture of an unfamiliar object is tactile. Some attention tasks involve input from multiple stimuli; aircraft pilots, for example, pay attention to visual, tactile, and auditory cues.
The nature of attention tasks can vary. Focused tasks require complete concentration on specific stimuli; a surgeon is performing a focused attention task which is also an example of a sustained task, where the person needs to keep focusing to finish. Other tasks can be split or segmented, allowing people to switch tasks or handle inputs from multiple sources at the same time. Someone who cooks dinner while watching the children, for example, is engaged in a divided attention task.
In identifying and completing attention tasks, the brain handles a huge number of stimuli from the surrounding environment and quickly determines which ones are most important. The ability to do this emerges as people develop and are given the opportunity to practice. Infants and toddlers, for example, may have problems with sustained and focused attention tasks. Cognitive disorders can also cause problems because they can interfere with the parts of the brain involved in processing and prioritizing stimuli in the environment.
Researchers who develop attention tasks design them very carefully to make sure they understand exactly what they are studying. If a task is too vague or complex, it could activate numerous areas of the brain and could give confusing results. In some cases, there is an active desire to confuse or challenge individuals to learn how individuals handle environments with competing stimuli, such as driving cars while talking on the phone.
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