Attention and Automaticity

Abstract Attention and automaticity are intimately related. In everyday life, attention determines what is focal, and automatic processing determines the background. Like well-choreographed dancers, attention leads and automatic processing follows. Shifts in attention bring new input to bear on the cognitive system, some of which is processed deliberately and with effort but most of which is processed automatically. Shifts in attention are driven by goals and purposes, so what is processed automatically is determined by an interaction between goals and purposes and the external environment.