الدراسة التجريبية للانتباه .. كتاب علم النَّفس جميل صَليبا

An experimental study of attention

Scientists have conducted several experiments to measure attention, including the following two methods:

1- The first method. Or how to correct texts. It is based on crossing out some specific letters in a specific text. Such as asking the students to cross out the letter “ayn”, or the letter “dal”, or the letter “kaf”, etc. From a text they read. If the number of “signifiers” in this text was 25, for example, I showed the students it, then asked them to cross it out and count it inside themselves. If they reach the end of the text, and do not find this number of “signifiers,” they begin crossing them out again, in order to complete them all. The time required for this work is measured in seconds. It indicates that the strength of attention varies according to different people.

We can do another test similar to this, to measure auditory attention. This is done by reading to the students a specific text in a calm, balanced voice, and asking them to count it within themselves. . The number of “signifiers” present in it. When we finish reading this text, we ask each of them to tell us the number of “signifiers” that he heard. The closer the heard number is to reality, the more attention will be paid to it.

2 - The second method - which is the reflection time method. We have previously explained (p. 134) that the reflex time is the time required for the effect to be transmitted from the sensory nerve to the center and emanate from it via the motor nerve. The stimulus may be a word to which a word is requested to be responded to, or a sound to which it is requested to be responded to by a movement. We do not want to go into detail now about the experiments that scientists conducted on reflection time, but we want to point out here some of the results that their experiments led to, which are:
1- The younger the child is, the slower his response to the stimulus.

2 - People with little talent are slower than intelligent people to respond to influences.

3- The more intense the attention, the shorter the reflection time. The speed of responding to the stimulus is therefore dependent on the degree of attention.

4 - Fatigue leads to an increase in reflection time, which means that the teacher cannot ask the students to pay attention to his lessons at the end of the day as they pay attention to them at the beginning.

5- Irritability increases during the reflex. It is therefore a mistake to reprimand the student for his stomach in the bag, because the fear that your reprimand generates in him increases the slowness of his response.

6- Breathing exercises reduce the reflex time. It awakens attention.

7 - The experiments conducted on the time of association proved that the word indicating the tangible thing is quicker to elicit an answer than the word indicating the action. The word denoting action is quicker to elicit an answer than the word denoting the abstract meaning.