Know why I am doing a series on this?

What Psychologists Don’t Talk About?

What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Concentration?

CONTENTS

Introduction

What psychologists don’t talk about concentration is, that it differs from attention

What psychologists don’t talk about concentration is, that when we study, we use conscious processes

a.  a. What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Filtering In Concentration?

b.  b. What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Intention In Concentration?

c.  c. What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Sustenance In Concentration?

Summary & Conclusion

Introduction

Everyone knows that concentration is essential for studying. But why is it that students and even adults are unable to concentrate? The answer lies in what psychologists don’t talk about Concentration.

This is a question that has haunted almost everyone and people refuse to answer this question. It is because of a lot of misunderstandings about concentration. Right from 1^st standard students up to someone appearing for competitive exams, and even executives, teachers, managers, and homemakers – almost everyone is finding it difficult to concentrate.

A prolonged mental effort seems to be a very difficult task in today's world. It is quite surprising to note that we have very little conscious control over our mental faculties. Students are not able to study for a long duration. Executives find it difficult to process several files in one sitting. Professionals abhor going through books and study materials. Can something be done to overcome the problem?

What psychologists don’t talk about concentration is, that it differs from attention.

Attention is an intricate subconscious process that occurs due to the filtering of information at three levels – Sensation, Perception, and Attention. At each level, we filter out or block unnecessary information so that we can sense, perceive, and attend.

Let us clarify this with a simple example. The diagram below shows not only how the process of attention takes place but also how it differs from concentration. When you look at something, a large set of information, shown in grey color, falls on the retina. The information that is not necessary for the individual is filtered out and sensation occurs (marked in a blue circle). Further filtering occurs and it gives rise to perception (marked in a yellow triangle) and then to attention (marked in a green square). The colors and shapes are shown only for illustration purposes.

Essentially, we don’t attend to all the information we receive from the environment. All these happen subconsciously as they are programmed into the region in the brain called the cerebellum.

Some psychologists use the word selective attention. However, they fail to understand that attention itself means selective. Unless you select and filter out unnecessary information from your perception, there is no chance for attention.

Here, we focus on a single stimulus in the environment, relegating the other information we perceive to the margin. Such a process of attention could be habitual (as in brushing our teeth or walking), involuntary (like listening to music, playing a game, or driving a vehicle), or voluntary (reading a newspaper or using a mobile).

Consider the cases of watching games and sports, movies, television serials, music, and dance programs; playing games or sports, running, driving a vehicle, doing household chores, and brushing your teeth; no one tells you to concentrate. No one trains you about how to concentrate. Yet you do it very well.

Are children told to attend classes on concentration before they are taught cycling? This is because you just have to use your attention process in all these cases, and there is no need to proceed to the next level of concentration.

What I am going to tell you now is based on my research and is not necessarily known to or accepted by other psychologists. In all the above cases no one needs any formal training in attention because they are regulated subconsciously. Initially, while they are being learned, they are conscious activities. Once learning happens they are controlled by the cerebellum in the brain. In addition to muscular coordination, it has been found that the cerebellum is also responsible for certain cognitive processes. This is the reason why infants and pet animals can use mobiles effectively.

When you are reading a newspaper or novel, you are subconsciously processing information and the sensory, motor, and cognitive functions don’t need conscious mediation. The moment you bring in consciousness, there is ‘“Conscious Capture”’ which hinders information processing.

 “Conscious Capture” is a term coined by me to indicate the predominance of consciousness over our personality. In my article on “Conscious Capture”, I have explained how simple activities like typing, driving, filling out application forms, etc., are hampered the moment we become conscious of the activity. Consciousness interferes, captures, and dominates the natural and inherent functioning of the brain.

What psychologists don’t talk about concentration is, that when we study, we use conscious processes.

Just observe yourself and compare reading a novel and a textbook and you can see glaring differences. The moment you think of wanting to remember the information (as in the textbook), your automatic processing of information stops, and your concentration falters.

The paradox of trying to concentrate is that the harder you try, the more difficult it will be.

For instance, you can watch, enjoy, and remember a movie because all these are done without conscious interference. Suppose someone tells you that you will be asked specific questions related to the movie, your enjoyment suffers and you will not be able to watch the movie. Children who are told they have to write an essay after an excursion will rarely enjoy the trip and complain about difficulty in concentration. Toddlers who love to watch cartoons when asked questions about the episodes they saw, almost start to avoid watching at a later point in time. Similarly, jogging, swimming, driving, walking on a rope, etc. all become difficult the moment we become conscious of what we are doing.

If a boy can ride a bicycle, then it means that he has excellent hold over attention. However, the same attention cannot be used while studying because he has switched over from a subconscious activity to a conscious activity.

In terms of brain functions, the moment we switch over from sub-cortical activity to cortical activity, the conscious processes come in the way. Cortical activity indicates that higher centers of the brain and the cerebral cortex get involved whenever we start becoming conscious. (Mentioned in greater detail in the article ‘“Conscious Capture”’)

What is the way out?

The answer lies in learning specifically how to concentrate. Though the education system rests only on the result of effective use of concentration, still the learning of how to concentrate doesn’t happen within the system or elsewhere. In case students are told about the secret of how to use concentration, their learning every day would be highly fruitful. There will be the least number of failures every year and we won’t have to lose so many students to suicide.

So, for the present purpose, let me define concentration as “Sustained Intended Filtering of Attention”.

When I put this definition on Google Search within quotes, it responded by saying, “No results found”.

Let's consider each word separately – Filtering of attention, Intention to attend, and Sustenance of attention – and try to answer them one by one. These words are used casually by psychologists as if all students know how to do it. And that is where the crux of the matter is. Because psychologists don’t talk about how exactly to do these, students and adults suffer whenever they try to concentrate.

Let me go through each one of these three separately, as it involves several intricate steps.

a.    What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Filtering in Concentration?

Deals with conscious Filtering of Attention in concentration.

 

b.    What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Intention in Concentration?

Deals with conscious Intention to Attend in concentration.

 

c.    What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Sustenance in Concentration?

Deals with conscious Sustenance of Attention in concentration.

 

a. What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Filtering In Concentration?

Concentration also involves your conscious effort to filter attention.

The first prerequisite for deliberate Filtering of Attention is to Clear your Consciousness.

The distractions are stronger than your effort to focus.

The more you try to focus the more you get distracted.

Let us say, students sit for studying. They come with a lot of baggage before they start studying. The baggage could be both physical and psychological. No one tells them to either identify the baggage or lose it. If students continue to carry the baggage and try to concentrate, they keep getting distracted by this baggage.

The following are some of the distractions.

“I am thirsty”, “I want to go to the toilet”, “My back aches”, “I have a severe headache”, “My mind wanders”, “All sorts of thoughts come to me”, “My mother scolded me”, “They are teasing me”, etc.

How to reduce distractions? This is one of the most frequently asked questions. 

Just like you remove the wood to sharpen the pencil, you need to reduce noises (distraction) to focus your attention (See the picture below) and this is a conscious activity.

To engage in self-regulated filtering the prime importance should be given to reducing distraction. Almost always we tend to ascribe distraction to outside stimulation like a loud noise, someone having a conversation, a dark barking, intense light, etc. However, these distractions are somehow not there when we play video games, watch television, use mobile phones, drive a vehicle, etc. Focusing is more of an internal function, though we blame external factors. Reducing such distractions or noises should be done from within.

Two types of noise disturb us: body noise and mental noise. Outside noise does not matter if these two types of noises are regulated by us.

The following are some pointers to Reduce Body Noise.

1.    Physical fitness is one of the major contributors to focus our attention. Engaging in sports and games provides strength to the muscles. If this is difficult, then go for a walk regularly. Walk briskly for at least 20 minutes continuously. Consult your doctor or medical professional if you have any other physical ailment before you take up walking.

2.    Give importance to body posture while focusing. Any additional strain on a particular muscle in the body results in inattention. If you are reading or writing, then sit with a straight back. Do not bend your body.

3.    Do not strain your eye muscles by lifting your reading material to eye level. Keep the book or paper on the table, sit straight, and look down. This will help you to carry on for a longer time without eyestrain.

4.    If the body or any set of muscles in the body is tired, you will get distracted. Close your eyes for a while and relax. If you did not have a sound sleep, then make sure you get it. (See my eBook on ‘Sleep Saves Lives – And Restores Wellbeing’). Ensure also that there are no aches and pains in the body before you continue with your study.

5.    Move your head or neck only as much as necessary while reading or writing. When doing other jobs move the necessary parts of the body as much as it is essential.

6.    Any kind of physical discomfort comes in the way of focusing. Diseases, disorders, and injuries cause inattention.

7.    During concentration, certain physiological changes occur in the body. There is dilation of blood vessels in the head, as more blood needs to be supplied to the brain. Simultaneously, constriction of blood vessels occurs in the peripheral regions of the body. This can be achieved by relaxing the body muscles while attending to a mental task.

8.    This will also stabilize our pulse rate. It is necessary to ensure a relaxed state.

The following are some pointers to Reduce Mental Noise.

1.    Whenever we try to concentrate, a major source of distraction comes in the form of irrelevant thoughts. We are automatically diverted from the task at hand and the mind wanders off. Though this is a common complaint, we do very little to solve the problem. All suggestions like emptying your mind of all thoughts, meditating, etc., do not work because we are not proficient in doing them. The easier way to reduce such noise is to devote some time to the thought that distracts us. If you continue the thinking process and try to carry it on to its logical end, then it loses its impact and does not trouble you anymore. Hence, wish for the thought to distract you. It will disappear on its own.

2.    The second set of noise appears due to our emotional experiences. Suppose we try to focus on a given day when we have an angry or sad mood, our inattention will have no bounds. Learning emotional intelligence solves the problem. Any emotion should be vented out as and when it occurs. The more we prolong and hide our emotions the greater difficulty we have in attending to a task. (See ‘How are Emotions connected to Stress?’

3.    Our experiences are rich in the myriad ways in which we perceive objects and events around us. Whenever we do not provide ample time for consolidating such experiences, we tend to get distracted.

4.    Developing curiosity and nurturing it will hinder distraction.

5.    Strengthening our needs like competition, achievement, and self-actualization will have a far-reaching impact on concentration.

6.    Anticipate information, ask questions before studying, and use active self-study (See my book on ‘How to study a difficult subject?’).

7.    Avoid monotony in your task; provide a wider variety to it.

8.    Changing our attitudes and interests toward the information we set out to master will automatically enhance our ability to focus.

9.    Above all, mental fitness and alertness are the most important ingredients in attention. Though physical relaxation is necessary to focus, mental agility and acuity are crucial in determining the extent to which we can carry on with prolonged conscious control of focusing our attention.

In essence, reducing body and mental noises can foster our ability to concentrate. Blaming environmental factors for our inattention is an excuse we have discovered just to postpone our learning to regulate consciousness.

Nevertheless, Focus is not enough for concentration. You are only getting ready to receive information.

b. What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Intention In Concentration?

Concentration also involves your conscious effort of Intention to Attend.

Most people who talk about concentration think that if you can focus your attention, then you have got it. However, they are not right. The other two processes are also equally important for the achievement of concentration.

Western psychology borrows heavily from biology and thinks that things are quite simple. An individual is considered a passive organism where they receive information from the environment. They are sometimes unable to explain why there are individual differences in perception. For instance, if two friends are sitting at a table having dinner, a strange sound is heard by one person whereas the other person says he can’t hear it even if he strains a lot.

How many times have we sat gazing into nothing? If what the psychologists say is right, we must be able to see all images that fall on the retina.

Though now and then a study comes out about the Ascending Reticular Activating System, most psychologists don’t seem to bother too much about it. They continue to parrot what other lay people say about concentration. They assume that once our consciousness is clear, we will be able to receive information.

However, it is not so simple. Our consciousness has to be told what to receive. And rather than passively receiving information, we have to let our consciousness select relevant information. Only then, we will be able to receive information.

Focusing with Intention

You have a torch with you, and you can shine the light wherever you want! You see the spot that is lighted up and people believe that the concentration is as simple as that! Physically, it is easy to do two things simultaneously: Shine the torch and See the spot where the light falls.

Psychologically, we don’t even know where the torchlight is focused! Our thoughts, perceptions, and emotions might be elsewhere from the focus. Concentration is not merely focusing. It is also bringing into awareness what is being focused on! For example, the light from the torch may shine on a spot, but if we are looking elsewhere and not on the lighted area, there is no use of the torch and of focusing!

Students use the focus of attention (torchlight) on empty spaces where there is total darkness and there is no front or back or any direction. Just like space, our mind is directionless, and to shine a torch in space is useless because the light does not fall on any opaque object and there is no reflection coming from any object.

This is where the Intention to Attend comes into the picture. Focusing has to go simultaneously along with gathering information. This gathering of information must be the intention behind focusing. It is only then that concentration will work effectively.

So, ‘Intention to Attend’ happens at six levels:

Preparation, Awakening, Semantics, Tracking, Parallel Processing, and Reorganization.

Let me give three examples of how these operate in real life.

Example 1: Searching for a specific book in the library.

Let’s say you only know the title of the book and the books in the library are not yet indexed. You first mentally prepare in terms of whether the title is lengthy or not, and try to remember some important words from the title. For instance, let’s say the title is “Introduction to Psychology” You start seeking it by reading only the first word of each book you encounter. Only if the word matches will you seek for the other word and not otherwise. Once you receive it, you will confirm whether all the words match.

Example 2: Searching for a lost key.

Suppose you are searching for a lost key. Before you start searching, you prepare mentally in terms of thinking of where you lost it, when was the last time you remember having used it, and if you have to find it, where should you look. Once you mentally prepare, you start seeking it using not only your eyes but also by touch or by listening. For instance, you may see if it is on the table, you may touch your pocket, or you may shake a few containers and try to listen to the sound the key would make. Once you finish searching one place you will immediately shift to another place according to your preparation. You will not waste time looking everywhere in between places A and B. Once you receive it, you will confirm whether it is the same key you were looking for or not.

Example 3: Searching for your aunt in a railway station.

This is an even more complicated situation where your concentration has to be sharp. During your preparation, you will eliminate looking among all men, all children, and all young women. If you know what your aunt is wearing, let’s say, a green saree, you will eliminate all other colors. Your seeking has to be very sharp because people will be moving within a railway station. Once you find an old lady in a green saree, you will confirm it is your aunt and not someone else.

In your Preparation, you must know what you are searching for. You create a mental picture of what you are seeking. In Awakening, you are tuning your consciousness to the task at hand. In Semantics you try to associate meaning to what you are seeking. In Tracking you are trying to search for specific information by eliminating unnecessary information. In Parallel Processing you compare the obtained information with the expected information. And finally, in Reorganization, you combine all the available information.

Students are unable to concentrate because they don’t prepare for what information they seek and will not know when they have received it. If only psychologists start talking about this intricate process, probably students will overcome their problems in concentration.

As I mentioned earlier in my article on ‘What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Remembering?’, I have successfully trained thousands of students with this approach. Students scored significantly very high (p=.000) after they started using the method. One set of such studies has been published as ‘The Regulation of Consciousness in Information Processing’ in the “Journal of Indian Psychology”. Vol. 15, Nos. 1 & 2, Vishakapatnam, 1997.

The following is an excerpt from my research article to showcase how this method works for the students.

"The program is divided into six stages where the participant is introduced to each stage in succession -- preparation, awakening, semantics, tracking, parallel processing, and reorganization. In the preparatory stage, the consciousness is regulated to receive information as a whole that is relevant to the topic under study. This, in turn, awakens the consciousness to see the general relationship that exists between the major highlights of the study material. Once the essence of what is contained in the literature is grasped, the semantics, or central idea, of the material becomes clearer through association and tagging. It is at the fourth stage that tracking for specific information part by part, is attended to and rehearsed. Such tracking is guided by the grand design of the whole idea. Parallel processing takes place in the fifth stage where each part is woven into the whole and is understood in the light of the general picture obtained in earlier stages. Finally, a reorganization of the material is undertaken by chunking parts into the existing whole."

How it works practically, we shall see in ‘What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Chunking?’’ and ‘What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Textbooks?’

c. What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Sustenance In Concentration?

Concentration also involves your conscious effort to sustain your Attention.

Four prerequisites are essential to maintain sustenance of attention in concentration – Duration, Speed, Quantity, and Quality.

Duration: How long will you maintain your attention?

In the examples above, you may hold your attention until you find the book, key, or the aunt. This is relative to the kind of information and the availability of information.

Students are usually told to take a break after, say for instance, every 50 minutes. However, this assumption is erroneous. When students use their study techniques systematically, they can hold their attention for as long as three hours at a stretch or even more. This is the usual time during the examination, too. No test centers will provide a break after every 50 or 90 minutes. So, the duration of concentration is not to be decided by the clock on the wall but by your capacity to process information. As and when you feel your concentration is waning, it is essential to take a break. When you seek information rather than receive it, there is very little chance of losing your concentration. This is because your brain is active rather than being passive.

Some students are told to keep time as a target for studying. This is very unproductive and becomes a waste of time as students tend to keep time as a frame of reference. I have seen students looking at their watch several times, wasting time arranging things, going for water or toilet breaks, etc., where their major aim is to spend time rather than study!

Fixed timing is for institutions, not individuals. Do not keep a fixed ‘timetable’ to study. Even if you (or some others) have allotted time, decide on what you should do within this duration.

So, be flexible about the duration when you concentrate.

Speed: How fast or slow will you process information?

Once again, it depends on the situation. In the examples above, if you are in a hurry, you will have to work very fast. Otherwise, you will have to sustain your attention until you obtain the information.

Students should learn to work as fast as possible. Their thinking speed must be very fast compared to their reading or listening speed. When information is coming at a slow pace, you can use the time for gathering additional information.

Distraction occurs especially when the processing speed is very slow. We like to watch movies, sports, etc., mainly because they move at a higher speed. Going through each bit of information is unnecessary. As explained in the examples, students should learn to choose information rather than passively receive information. This will ensure an increase in speed.

Quantity: How much information can you process?

The lesser the quantity of information the better it is for your concentration. Too much cramping of the information will tire you or you may get bored with too less of information.

Students are told to keep the wrong targets for studying, which is detrimental to their concentration. Instead of saying, “I will study 10 pages or one chapter”, it is better for concentration, and subsequently memory to say, “I will study 5 concepts, I will work out 5 problems, I will answer 20 multiple choice questions. I will write an essay, etc.” When you keep the number of pages as a target, you will be more bothered about finishing the pages rather than processing information to remember. So, the quantity should be specific and information-oriented.

Quality: How important is the information to you?

You have to pick and choose the most relevant information and discard unimportant information. The greater the quality, the better will be your concentration.

Eliminating irrelevant information is more crucial to concentration. As we have seen in the beginning, the whole essence of attention and concentration is the filtering of information. Choosing the right information and discarding unnecessary information will not only save time but also increase our processing capacity.

Students should always go by questions as a frame of reference, and their study should be to answer those questions. I have already enlisted the type of questions one will face during the examination or study. (See ‘Pass any exam equipped with these Questions”).

A particular task should determine what we set out to do, be it studying or searching for a book in the library, a lost key, or an aunt.

So, this is when the quality will sustain your concentration.

Before we conclude, let’s see how these four prerequisites of sustenance of attention in concentration operate. Watch the following video.

Summary & Conclusion

The following figure summarizes the process of concentration.

As the figure above illustrates, Concentration is a sustained intended filtering of attention. This is a conscious process involving:

Reducing body and mental noises (Filtering)

Preparation, awakening, semantics, tracking, parallel processing, and reorganization (Intention), and

Duration, speed, quantity, and quality (Sustenance)

During concentration, we are not regulating our attention. Attention is a subconscious process. We are only regulating our consciousness to make sure our attention is unhindered.

For instance, when you ride a bicycle, you do not attend to the riding but you are looking ahead. You don’t look at the pedals, the tire, or any part of the cycle. You are not consciously bothered about balancing! You are directing your consciousness towards where you go, what interferes with your path, or things you should avoid.

This is exactly what you should do while studying. Your reading should become automatic and you must concentrate on only where you should find the information, what information is relevant, and which information to eliminate.

Thus, the essence of concentration is to decide on what to take in. Our information processing should depend on Regulated Consciousness. Contrary to popular understanding Concentration is not passively receiving information, but actively picking up information. This is something that psychologists don’t talk about Concentration.

Know why am I doing a series on this?

What Psychologists Don’t Talk About?

Let me know if I am wrong. I have started this series because there are hundreds of things psychologists don’t talk about. I feel that it would benefit everyone if they did so. I hope at least now, they will make a beginning.

This is an attempt to bring to the fore what has been hidden for a very long time.

Next:

What Psychologists Don’t Talk About Chunking?

The following e-book written and published by me can be purchased from a national digital bookstore. The cost of this e-book is ₹ 50/- only.

One answer to reducing problems in concentration lies in what I call

“Sub-conscious Tuning”

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The following e-book written and published by me can be purchased from international digital bookstores. The e-book costs $ 4.99/- only. Click Here.

Alternatively, you can order directly from me and obtain the e-book for ₹ 250/- only. Contact me and mention the name of the e-book under Comments.