Dr Green on attention

@juanlovitzz,
… adaptive mechanisms to simulate an expanded attentional capacity. The most common are expectation, “automaticity,” “heuristics” and “biases” … enable us to perform tasks without significant drain on attention.
— viz Twist where KC counters Eddie Lawson’s statement that “it becomes automatic” when he says nothing truly becomes automatic, it just consumes less of your $10

… attention is not free. It is a zero-sum game. …  too much information to handle or because violated reasonable …  expectation …

…  sensory input that fails to penetrate attentional filtering.
— survival reaction trigger

2. Attention is selective.
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3. Consciousness requires attention.

…4. Attention does not require consciousness.
… This occurs in behaviors that have become automatic through overlearning, the learning of a skill well past the point of mastery. Much of normal driving occurs automatically and outside of awareness.
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Another example occurs when a driver steers a curve. Without any awareness of having done so, drivers direct their attention to the tangent point on the curve.
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5. All tasks require some degree of attention, although the required amount may be small.
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Think of overlearned, automatic behavior as a mental servant whom we have ordered to go off and perform a task for us. Periodically, we might use a small sliver of attention to check on progress and ensure that our servant is doing the job correctly …

6. All tasks have an optimal level of attention.
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Directing attention to automatic behaviors can be highly disruptive …
Conclusion

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adapting and by offloading subtasks to automatic behaviors which can run in parallel with minimal attentional control … meant when we say that someone has learned a skill …
… exceptions happen when a person is in an information-seeking mode …
“without selective interest, experience is utter chaos.”

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