Psychology of attention. Ribo T.A.

The attention of readers is proposed to the book of a famous psychologist, one of the founders of the French experimental psychology of Theodules Ribo (1839-1916), dedicated to the study of attention as a psychological process and its mechanisms. In the first chapter, involuntary, or natural, attention is considered.

The author reveals the cause of involuntary attention, describes its physical manifestations, discusses the origin of natural attention, associating it with the necessary living conditions. The second chapter is devoted to the study of another form of attention - arbitrary, or artificial, attention, which the author defines as an improved apparatus and the result of civilization. The three main periods in the genesis of arbitrary attention are investigated: the influence of simple feelings, the influence of complex feelings and the influence of habit. Experienced studies of arbitrary attention are described.

Finally, the third chapter examines painful states of attention, among which the author identifies hypertrophied and atrophied forms of attention, as well as its pathological manifestations.

The book will be interesting to both psychologists and a wide range of readers.