What category does Bottom-Up Attention belong to?

Bottom-Up Attention belongs to the "Concepts" category in personal knowledge management and productivity.

What are the key topics related to Bottom-Up Attention?

Key topics related to Bottom-Up Attention include: attention, cognition, perceptions, psychology, focus.

Bottom-Up Attention

Q: What are alternative names for Bottom-Up Attention?

Bottom-Up Attention is also known as: Exogenous attention, Stimulus-driven attention, Reflexive attention.

Attention captured automatically by salient stimuli in the environment.

Also known as: Exogenous attention, Stimulus-driven attention, Reflexive attention

Category: Concepts

Tags: attention, cognition, perceptions, psychology, focus

Explanation

Bottom-up attention (also called exogenous or stimulus-driven attention) is attention captured automatically by salient environmental features - loud noises, sudden movements, bright colors, or novel stimuli. It's involuntary: you don't choose to notice the flash; it grabs your attention. Bottom-up attention evolved for survival - noticing predators, threats, and opportunities without conscious effort. Features that capture bottom-up attention include: sudden onset, movement, contrast, emotional salience, and personal relevance (hearing your name). In modern environments, bottom-up attention is constantly hijacked: notifications, ads, and feeds are designed to trigger it. The challenge is that bottom-up capture interrupts top-down (goal-directed) focus. For knowledge workers, understanding bottom-up attention means: designing environments that minimize unwanted capture, recognizing what's grabbing attention and whether it should, and knowing that fighting bottom-up capture with willpower is difficult.

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