Five styles of attention

Five styles of attention: 

1. vigilance, 
2. sustained attention, 
3. alertness, 
4. focused attention, 
5. divided attention. 

Vigilance and sustained attention are similar, and together with alertness comprise the intensity axis of attention, associated with the right hemisphere; focused and divided attention comprise the selectivity axis of attention. 

Focused attention is lodged in the left hemisphere. 

Divided attention belongs to both hemispheres, with the right hemisphere more dominant. 

Intensity is a dimension of wakefulness: 

1. alertness makes us responsive to the world; 
2. sustained attention makes the world continuous and unfragmented; 
3. vigilance opens us to new and unfamiliar inputs.