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The different forms of attention

    There are different types of attention, which are some of the most complex processes that take place in the human brain. This brain function helps people filter stimuli, process information and focus on one specific thing, with the frontal lobe taking in and processing all the information coming from the nervous system.

    • Focused attention describes the ability to respond specifically to a particular stimulus, which requires ignoring all other stimuli in the environment.
    • Sustained attention is essential when one has to concentrate on a task for a long time, i.e. perform a specific cognitive activity over a long period of time.
    • Divided attention allows people to do several things at the same time, and even in the case of not very demanding tasks, the brain has to divide attention in such a way that it can do several tasks.
    • Alternating attention is the most important type in terms of cognitive flexibility, because it enables you to shift your attention from one task to another and to switch between different tasks.