Thinking about attention: Successive approximations to a productive taxonomy

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Attention is crucial for understanding normal cognition and disorders.
• Posner's tripartite taxonomy (alerting, orienting, executive control) and the Attention Network Test (ANT) have been influential.
• Previous work expanded this framework to include exogenous and endogenous control modes across space, time, and task domains.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a revised taxonomy of attention.
• To present the Combined Attention Systems Test (CAST) for measuring attentional efficacy.
• To incorporate the distinction between overt and covert attentional processes.

Main Methods:

• Building upon Posner's tripartite taxonomy of attention.
• Developing the Combined Attention Systems Test (CAST) to measure six types of attention.
• Integrating the concepts of exogenous and endogenous control modes and domains (space, time, task).
• Incorporating the distinction between overt and covert attentional behaviors.

Main Results:

• The study outlines a more comprehensive taxonomy of attention.
• The CAST provides a tool to measure the efficacy of these refined attentional networks.
• The taxonomy now accounts for both observable actions and internal thought processes.

Conclusions:

• The proposed taxonomy offers a more nuanced understanding of attention.
• The CAST is a valuable instrument for assessing complex attentional functions.
• This framework advances the study of attention in both healthy and clinical populations.