Pattern · Robust · across traditions, sciences, and practices
Attention.
What is selected determines what is shaped.
Overview
Attention is the selection function that determines which signals get amplified, integrated, and acted on. Contemplative traditions and cognitive science both treat it as trainable, though they describe it very differently.
Observed in
- Daoyin
- Meditation
- Cognitive science
- Performance training
- Interoception research
Related patterns
Evidence types
- Historical
- Scientific
- Experiential
- WAMA observation
Evidence types describe the kinds of support a pattern has, not the weight of that support. Citations and counterexamples are added as they are checked.
Open questions
- Is attention a single capacity, or several with a shared label?
- How much of attentional training generalizes beyond the trained context?
WAMA lens
Attention is the smallest leverage point that consistently shows up across otherwise unrelated systems.
Pattern Ecology
How this pattern interacts with others — directionality, conditions, consequences — will be added here once the Atlas has enough connected topics to ground it. Placeholder for now.