Attention is a lot like love. Everyone knows what it is and when it's present, but the multiple components of attention defy easy definition. Attention is the thread that holds together the fabric of ...

No matter how different they seem — the learned and contemplative neuroscientist versus the toy orangutan with a penchant for off-color jokes — almost any adult who experiences them knows that ...

In 1890, psychologist William James described attention as the spotlight we shine not only on the world around us, but also on the contents of our minds. Most cognitive scientists since then have ...

We can pick out a conversation in a loud room, amid the rise and fall of other voices or the hum of an air conditioner. We can spot a set of keys in a sea of clutter, or register a raccoon darting ...

Shifting focus on a visual scene without moving our eyes — think driving, or reading a room for the reaction to your joke — is a behavior known as covert ...

When most people think of distraction, they think of flooded inboxes, cellphone beeps, Twitter feeds. An ever-present and unavoidable consequence of our fast-paced contemporary world, distraction is ...