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UNIT – V, ATTENTION AND INTEREST, Q. Define attention ., Or, What is attention ?, Ans : Commonly speaking, attention may be regarded as the mental process which enables the mind to see or let any object occupy our consciousness. It may be called a state of mind in which the mind in which the mind centres itself on any one particular object., According to Ross “ Attention is a process of getting an object of thought clearly before the mind “., Q. Explain the characteristics of Attention., Ans : Characteristics of attention, Attention is volitional - Attention is a conative act and therefore needs the presence of volition. In other words , proper effort is needed in all acts of attention. Both physical and mental energy is consumed as a result of attending to some task., Attention is purposeful - Behind any act of attention ,there is a motive ,goal or purpose . Therefore ,stronger the purpose ,the more intense the attention. The teacher therefore should place a goal or some purpose before the students while teaching in the class., Attention is selective - Attention is essentially a selective activity of the mind . It represents a selection out of certain aspects of the observable environment. It is focussing of consciousness on an idea ,object or thought., Attention is always shifting – Though we generally attend to one thing at a time , our attention is always shifting from one object to the other. Thus ,like the flowing stream of consciousness ,our attention also flows and shifts from one object to another., Attention accompanies motor adjustment - Every act of attention has a corresponding motor adjustment of the body. While attending to something our body has to make certain adjustment . These bodily or physical postures help in the act of attention., Q. What is interest ?, Ans : The word ‘interest’ in Latin means ‘ it matters ‘ . Interest may refer to the motivating force that impels us to attend to a person , a thing or an activity ; or it may be the effective experience that has been stimulated by the activity itself., Russel describes interest as organismic conditions which lead to continuing stimulation of concern about particular objects , persons and activities., Q. What is the relationship between attention and interest?, Or, Discuss the relationship between attention and interest ., Ans : Interest and attention are closely related to eachother. Commenting on their relationship , Mc Dougall writes “ interest is latent attention ; and attention is interest in action “ . This observation is true . Interest is the mother of attention . We attend to those objects in which we are interested and thus interest prepares us mentally to pay attention towards an object , a person or a thing . While attention is always implies the activity , what we have in our mental structure in the form of an interest which is given practical shape in the form activity i.e making one attend., Attention and interest go side by side . The relationship betwen these two is very intimate. We attend to a thing in which we are interested., Generally speaking , attention follows interest but the converse is also true. If we pay attention to something , we may develop interest in it. If we attend to something continously over a long period of time , there is every possibility that our interest will also develop in that thing.