Selective Attention - when we look do we really see what is there?

As a philosopher and a tutor engaged in working with forty students or so of differing abilities, I am interested in how we look at things as well as how we may help people.

Close your eyes and think of the colour blue.

When you open them, psychologists tell us - and you can test this on yourself - you will see many incidences of blue in your environment. It is as if the blue things suddenly leap up for our attention, waving little flags to our consciousness.

You can try this for yourself with varying objects. You buy a green sports car - and then you spot them all over the place. You are interested in an empty shop for your business, and when your attention turns to do a reccy, there they are. All waiting for you - been there all along.

But it's not just physical entities we see more of when we turn our attention their way: it's also qualitative aspects - red is a quality, so too is anger or frustration. In the 1930s, American psychiatrists began exploring schizophrenia and to their delight (perhaps...), the numbers of schizophrenics found in their institutions jumped over the next two decades. However, UK institutions reported a similar percentage of patients displaying the symptoms, which leads to a debate (our A-level psychology students have to note) about what was going on: did more Americans become schizophrenic over the following twenty years, or were the doctors becoming selectively attentive and therefore found it in more people? At the same time, incidentally, the Yanks were hunting commies in all areas of life, and, tragically for the victims, finding them.

The problem.

Is it the case that when we're looking, we begin to fit more individuals into the category we're using, because we now know what we are looking for?

Or is it the case that we are squashing them in to our worldview as it were - seeing things that are not 'really' there but which fit out criteria?

(One of my teachers says, regarding stock market investments, if you do not see the set up for the trade in the first few seconds, then it isn't there - if you keep looking, you will see things that are not there, and you'll lose money. Yep, been there!)

This is what psychologists call selective attention: we can point to X and say, X! and you'll look, then look harder, and say, ah, that's what you mean by X! I really do see it!

I can show you a series of random dots and say, do you see the fox therein? And suddenly, you see the fox! Just as we see the plough in ursa major, or the face of the man in the moon. We find patterns...we make patterns. Illusions are a great way of examining our ability to perceive one thing and then another - or just be thoroughly bemused by what we see (as in the work of Escher).

If we look hard enough we begin to see. Or we look hard enough and we miss other things.

But then again, we often miss other things - if you've not seen this and related videos, check it out.

The provocation?

But that doesn't mean to say that what we are 'seeing' does exist.

Let that sink in.

Humans have often mistaken the world around them because of their thinking (think of ideological or religious crusades).

That's what the psychology of selective analysis about. It's not just about focusing on what exists, it's about seeing things that don't exist and about not seeing things that do exist (or change).

The misuse of knowledge has created witch hunts in our history (Cf: Monty Python's "She's a witch sketch!") and condemned millions to racial or gender or national stereotyping. And where has that got us but war and tension?

Turning to educational matters...

If I am told to look for patterns in children's academic behaviour, I will find them. If I am paid to find patterns in children's academic behaviour, I will be sure to justify my salary and find more instances...

I meet plenty of students who have been labelled as suffering from some form of dys-function, but
I prefer not to read teachers' reports unless there is something 'big' going on that we can help the student with. I prefer to withhold labelling until I balance the evidence and start looking for clues. Doctors - perhaps some should be reminded - are first and foremost teachers: that is what 'doctor' means - and that the first rule of medicine is first do nothing. Do not rush in with a label, that is. Hippocrates knew what harm it could cause.

This does not mean that we do not search, or avoid trying to guide our thinking and observations. For instance, currently, I'm clocking the use of printed writing and the correlation with poor spelling.

My interest comes from a theory that using cursive writing helps iron out many spelling issues. I like the theory, so I have a disposition to find what I'm looking for, which means that I am likely to reject the contradictions - no, he doesn't fit the bill, but this one! Ahah! Poor spelling and a printer of letters - gotcha!

Knowing the human disposition to see things that are not there, I am aware that I may be ignoring cases of pupils who can spell perfectly well but who struggle to join up their letters. So I have to maintain a sceptical vigilance and look for the outliers as well as those who 'fit' the thesis. Ultimately, though, I'm keen to help students improve their spelling - to take note of their errors and to make corrections.

But this informal research I'm conducting is motivated by a deeper and more controversial issue: what is the nature o f dyslexia? I could transplant other syndromes the modern educational world has cast our way to focus our concerns - ADHD, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, etc. The phenomena differ, but how we look at the issue can to some extent be predetermined by the patterns we're looking for, by what we're told to look for. And we need to guard ourselves against taking the easy path - symptom, diagnose, prescription...but if the symptom creates a debilitating label that assumes the mind is incapable of change, we may be causing harm.

I'm gathering more thoughts on dyslexia for the next article - any comments very welcome!

Meanwhile, here are some excellent resources to help those struggling with spelling and reading issues: