Element contents
Series: Elements in Philosophy of Mind
Attention and Mental Control
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2022
Summary
Mental control refers to the ability to control our own minds. Its primary expression, attention has become a popular topic for philosophers in the past few decades, generating the need for a primer on the concept. It is related to self-control, which typically refers to the maintenance of preferred behavior in the face of temptation. While a distinct concept, criticisms of self-control can also be applied to mental control, such as that it implies the existence of an unscientific homunculus-like agent or is not a natural kind. Yet, as this Element suggests, a scientifically-grounded account of mental control remains possible. The Element is organized into five main sections, which cover the concept of mental control, the relationship between mental control and attention, the phenomena of meditation and mind-wandering, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and emergence-based accounts of mental control, including an original account by the author.
Information
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Series: Elements in Philosophy of MindOnline ISBN: 9781108982269Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 08 December 2022
References
Abbas, A., Bassil, Y., & Keilholz, S. (2019). Quasi-periodic patterns of brain activity in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. NeuroImage: Clinical, 21, 101653.Google Scholar
Abbas, A., Nezafati, M., Thomas, I., & Keilholz, S. (2018). Quasiperiodic patterns in BOLD fMRI reflect neuromodulatory input. In International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 26th Annual Meeting. Abstract (Abstract 8422). https://cds.ismrm.org/protected/18MProceedings/PDFfiles/1118.html.Google Scholar
Abramowitz, J. S., Tolin, D. F., & Street, G. P. (2001). Paradoxical effects of thought suppression: A meta-analysis of controlled studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 21(5), 683–703.Google Scholar
Abrams, R. A., & Weidler, B. J. (2015). Embodied attention. In Fawcett, J. M., Risko, E. F., & Kingstone, A. (Eds.), The Handbook of Attention, 301–324. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, B., Eddershaw, R., Meron, D., Baldwin, D. S., & Garner, M. (2013). The effect of focused attention and open monitoring meditation on attention network function in healthy volunteers. Psychiatry Research, 210(3), 1226–1231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alexander, A. (1910). The paradox of voluntary attention. Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 7(11), 291–298.Google Scholar
Amo, C., De Santiago, L., Barea, R., López-Dorado, A., & Boquete, L. (2017). Analysis of gamma-band activity from human EEG using empirical mode decomposition. Sensors, 17(5), 989. http://doi.org/10.3390/s17050989.Google Scholar
Ampel, B. C., Muraven, M., & McNay, E. C. (2018). Mental work requires physical energy: Self-control is neither exception nor exceptional. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arango-Muñoz, S., & Bermúdez, J. P. (2018). Remembering as a mental action. In Michaelian, K., Debus, D., & Perrin, D. (Eds.), New Directions in the Philosophy of Memory, 75–96. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashinoff, B. K., & Abu-Akel, A. (2019). Hyperfocus: The forgotten frontier of attention. Psychological Research, 85(1), 1–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Atmanspacher, H. (2007). Contextual emergence from physics to cognitive neuroscience. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 14(1–2), 18–36.Google Scholar
Awh, E., Belopolsky, A. V., & Theeuwes, J. (2012). Top-down versus bottom-up attentional control: A failed theoretical dichotomy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(8), 437–443.Google Scholar
Axelrod, V., Rees, G., Lavidor, M., & Bar, M. (2015). Increasing propensity to mind-wander with transcranial direct current stimulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(11), 3314–3319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baddeley, A. (1996). Exploring the central executive. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A, 49(1), 5–28.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. (1998). The central executive: A concept and some misconceptions. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4(5), 523–526.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In Bower, G. A. (Ed.), Recent Advances in Learning and Motivation (Vol. 8), 47–89. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Baker, L. R. (1995). Explaining Attitudes: A Practical Approach to the Mind. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Baker, L. R. (2009). Nonreductive materialism. In McLaughlin, B. and Beckermann, A. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mind, 109–120. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baker, L. R. (2019). Intentionality and Emergence. In S. Gibb, R. F. Hendry, & Lancaster, T. (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Emergence, 195–205. Routledge.Google Scholar
Balota, D. A., & Marsh, E. J. (Eds.) (2004). Cognitive Psychology: Key Readings. Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Baysan, U., & Wilson, J. (2017). Must strong emergence collapse? Philosophica 91, 49–104.Google Scholar
Bedau, M. (2002). Downward causation and the autonomy of weak emergence. Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology, 6(1), 5–50.Google Scholar
Bench, C., Frith, C. D., Grasby, P. M., et al. (1993). Investigations of the functional anatomy of attention using the Stroop test. Neuropsychologia, 31(9), 907–922.Google Scholar
Benjamin, D. J., Laibson, D., Mischel, W., et al. (2020). Predicting mid-life capital formation with pre-school delay of gratification and life-course measures of self-regulation. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 179, 743–756.Google Scholar
Bennett, K. (2003). Why the exclusion problem seems intractable, and how, just maybe, to tract it. Noûs, 37(3), 471–497.Google Scholar
Bensmann, W., Zink, N., Arning, L., Beste, C., & Stock, A. K. (2020). Dopamine D1, but not D2, signaling protects mental representations from distracting bottom-up influences. NeuroImage, 204, 116243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116243.Google Scholar
Berke, J. D. (2018). What does dopamine mean? Nature Neuroscience, 21(6), 787–793.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bermúdez, J. P. (2017). Social media and self-control: The vices and virtues of attention. In Prado, C. G. (Ed.), Social Media and Your Brain: Web-Based Communication Is Changing How We Think and Express Ourselves, 57–74. Praeger.Google Scholar
Bertossi, E., & Ciaramelli, E. (2016). Ventromedial prefrontal damage reduces mind-wandering and biases its temporal focus. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11(11), 1783–1791.Google Scholar
Boayue, N. M., Csifcsák, G., Aslaksen, P., et al. (2020). Increasing propensity to mind‐wander by transcranial direct current stimulation? A registered report. European Journal of Neuroscience, 51(3), 755–780.Google Scholar
Bradley, F. H. (1886). Is there any special activity of attention? Mind, 11(43), 305–323.Google Scholar
Brady, G. (2014). Children and ADHD: Seeking control within the constraints of diagnosis. Children & Society, 28(3), 218–230.Google Scholar
Breslow, R., Kocsis, J., & Belkin, B. (1980). Memory deficits in depression: Evidence utilizing the Wechsler Memory Scale. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 51(2), 541–542.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Broersen, L. M., & Uylings, H. B. M. (1999). Visual attention task performance in Wistar and Lister hooded rats: Response inhibition deficits after medial prefrontal cortex lesions. Neuroscience, 94(1), 47–57.Google Scholar
Brown, N. M., Brown, S. N., Briggs, R. D., et al. (2017). Associations between adverse childhood experiences and ADHD diagnosis and severity. Academic Pediatrics, 17(4), 349–355.Google Scholar
Buehler, D. (2019). Flexible occurrent control. Philosophical Studies, 176(8), 2119–2137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buschman, T. J., & Miller, E. K. (2007). Top-down versus bottom-up control of attention in the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices. Science, 315(5820), 1860–1862.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. (2010). Control variables and mental causation. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 110(1pt.1), 15–30.Google Scholar
Cattell, J. M. (1886). The time taken up by cerebral operations. Mind, 11(42), 220–242.Google Scholar
Cecutti, L., Chemero, A., & Lee, S. W. (2021). Technology may change cognition without necessarily harming it. Nature Human Behaviour, 5(8), 973–975.Google Scholar
Chaieb, L., Antal, A., Derner, M., Leszczyński, M., & Fell, J. (2019). New perspectives for the modulation of mind-wandering using transcranial electric brain stimulation. Neuroscience, 409, 69–80.Google Scholar
Chau, B. K., Keuper, K., Lo, M., et al. (2018). Meditation-induced neuroplastic changes of the prefrontal network are associated with reduced valence perception in older people. Brain and Neuroscience Advances, 2, 2398212818771822.Google Scholar
Christensen, W., Sutton, J., & McIlwain, D. J. (2016). Cognition in skilled action: Meshed control and the varieties of skill experience. Mind & Language, 31(1), 37–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christoff, K., Irving, Z. C., Fox, K. C., Spreng, R. N., & Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2016). Mind-wandering as spontaneous thought: A dynamic framework. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17(11), 718–731.Google Scholar
Chun, M. M., Golomb, J. D., & Turk-Browne, N. B. (2011). A taxonomy of external and internal attention. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 73–101.Google Scholar
Ciaramelli, E., & Treves, A. (2019). A mind free to wander: Neural and computational constraints on spontaneous thought. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00039.Google Scholar
Clayton, M. S., Yeung, N., & Kadosh, R. C. (2015). The roles of cortical oscillations in sustained attention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(4), 188–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cools, R. (2008). Role of dopamine in the motivational and cognitive control of behavior. Neuroscientist, 14(4), 381–395.Google Scholar
Cools, R. (2016). The costs and benefits of brain dopamine for cognitive control. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 7(5), 317–329.Google Scholar
Csifcsák, G., Boayue, N. M., Aslaksen, P. M., et al. (2019). Commentary: Transcranial stimulation of the frontal lobes increases propensity of mind-wandering without changing meta-awareness. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 130.Google Scholar
Davidovitch, M., Koren, G., Fund, N., Shrem, M., & Porath, A. (2017). Challenges in defining the rates of ADHD diagnosis and treatment: Trends over the last decade. BMC Pediatrics, 17(1), 1–9.Google Scholar
Dayer, A., & Jennings, C. D. (2021). Attention in skilled behavior: An argument for pluralism. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 12(3), 615–638.Google Scholar
Deiber, M. P., Hasler, R., Colin, J., et al. (2020). Linking alpha oscillations, attention and inhibitory control in adult ADHD with EEG neurofeedback. NeuroImage: Clinical, 25, 102145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2019.102145.Google Scholar
Dekkers, T. J., van Rentergem, J. A. A., Koole, A., et al. (2017). Time-on-task effects in children with and without ADHD: Depletion of executive resources or depletion of motivation? European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 26(12), 1471–1481.Google Scholar
Delvenne, J. F., & Holt, J. L. (2012). Splitting attention across the two visual fields in visual short-term memory. Cognition, 122(2), 258–263.Google Scholar
Derrfuss, J., Brass, M., Neumann, J., & von Cramon, D. Y. (2005). Involvement of the inferior frontal junction in cognitive control: Meta‐analyses of switching and Stroop studies. Human Brain Mapping, 25(1), 22–34.Google Scholar
Diamond, A. (2007). Consequences of variations in genes that affect dopamine in prefrontal cortex. Cerebral cortex, 17(suppl 1), i161–i170.Google Scholar
Dias, B. G., & Ressler, K. J. (2014). Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations. Nature Neuroscience, 17(1), 89–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Domenech, P., Rheims, S., & Koechlin, E. (2020). Neural mechanisms resolving exploitation-exploration dilemmas in the medial prefrontal cortex. Science, 369(6507). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb0184.Google Scholar
Du, Y., Krakauer, J. W., & Haith, A. M. (2022). The relationship between habits and motor skills in humans. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(5), 371–387.Google Scholar
Duckworth, A. L., Tsukayama, E., & Kirby, T. A. (2013). Is it really self-control? Examining the predictive power of the delay of gratification task. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(7), 843–855.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisenreich, B. R., Akaishi, R., & Hayden, B. Y. (2017). Control without controllers: Toward a distributed neuroscience of executive control. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29(10), 1684–1698.Google Scholar
Elliot, A. J. (2006). The hierarchical model of approach-avoidance motivation. Motivation and Emotion, 30(2), 111–116.Google Scholar
Ellis, A. J., Kinzel, C., Salgari, G. C., & Loo, S. K. (2017). Frontal alpha asymmetry predicts inhibitory processing in youth with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Neuropsychologia, 102, 45–51.Google Scholar
Erskine, J. A., & Georgiou, G. J. (2010). Effects of thought suppression on eating behaviour in restrained and non-restrained eaters. Appetite, 54(3), 499–503.Google Scholar
Fiebelkorn, I. C., Pinsk, M. A., & Kastner, S. (2018). A dynamic interplay within the frontoparietal network underlies rhythmic spatial attention. Neuron, 99(4), 842–853.Google Scholar
Fiebich, A., & Michael, J. (2015). Mental actions and mental agency. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 6(4), 683–693.Google Scholar
Fleischmann, A., & Dabbah, S. (2019). Negev Bedouin teachers’ attitudes toward ADHD and its pharmacological treatment. Qualitative Health Research, 29(3), 418–430.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fox, K. C., Zakarauskas, P., Dixon, M., Ellamil, M., Thompson, E., & Christoff, K. (2012). Meditation experience predicts introspective accuracy. PLoS ONE, 7(9), e45370. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045370.Google Scholar
Frankfurt, H. G. (1988). Freedom of the will and the concept of a person. In Goodman, M. F. (Ed.), What Is a Person?, 127–144. Humana Press.Google Scholar
Fridland, E. (2014). They’ve lost control: Reflections on skill. Synthese, 191(12), 2729–2750.Google Scholar
Friedman-Hill, S. R., Wagman, M. R., Gex, S. E., Pine, D. S., Leibenluft, E., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2010). What does distractibility in ADHD reveal about mechanisms for top-down attentional control? Cognition, 115(1), 93–103.Google Scholar
Garrison, K. A., Scheinost, D., Worhunsky, P. D., et al. (2013). Real-time fMRI links subjective experience with brain activity during focused attention. NeuroImage, 81, 110–118.Google Scholar
Gillett, C. (2016). Reduction and Emergence in Science and Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Guntuku, S. C., Ramsay, J. R., Merchant, R. M., & Ungar, L. H. (2019). Language of ADHD in adults on social media. Journal of Attention Disorders, 23(12), 1475–1485.Google Scholar
Grubb, M. A., White, A. L., Heeger, D. J., & Carrasco, M. (2015). Interactions between voluntary and involuntary attention modulate the quality and temporal dynamics of visual processing. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22(2), 437–444.Google Scholar
Hagger, M. S., Wood, C., Stiff, C., & Chatzisarantis, N. L. (2010). Ego depletion and the strength model of self-control: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136(4), 495–525.Google Scholar
Harmon-Jones, E., Harmon-Jones, C., & Price, T. F. (2013). What is approach motivation? Emotion Review, 5(3), 291–295.Google Scholar
Harris, W. T. (1881). Analysis and commentary. Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 15(1), 52–62.Google Scholar
Herdova, M. (2017). Self-control and mechanisms of behavior: Why self-control is not a natural mental kind. Philosophical Psychology, 30(6), 731–762.Google Scholar
Hohwy, J. (2004). The experience of mental causation. Behavior and Philosophy, 32(2), 377–400.Google Scholar
Holton, R., & Shute, S. (2007). Self-control in the modern provocation defence. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 27(1), 49–73.Google Scholar
Hupfeld, K. E., Abagis, T. R., & Shah, P. (2019). Living “in the zone”: Hyperfocus in adult ADHD. ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders, 11(2), 191–208.Google Scholar
Irving, Z. C. (2016). Mind-wandering is unguided attention: Accounting for the “purposeful” wanderer. Philosophical Studies, 173(2), 547–571.Google Scholar
Irving, Z. C., & Glasser, A. (2020). Mind‐wandering: A philosophical guide. Philosophy Compass, 15(1), e12644. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12644.Google Scholar
James, W. (1890). The Principles of Psychology: In Two Volumes (Vol. 1). Macmillan and Company.Google Scholar
Jennings, C. D. (2020b). Practical realism about the self. In Oliveira, L. R. G. and Corcoran, K. (Eds.), Common Sense Metaphysics: Essays in Honor of Lynne Rudder Baker, 39–53. Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Jennings, C. D. and Tabatabaeian, S. (forthcoming). Attention, technology, and creativity. In D. G. Burnett & J. E. H. Smith (Eds.), Scenes of Attention: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry. Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Jiang, Y., Costello, P., Fang, F., Huang, M., & He, S. (2006). A gender- and sexual orientation-dependent spatial attentional effect of invisible images. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(45), 17048–17052.Google Scholar
Jonides, J. (1981). Voluntary versus automatic control over the mind’s eye’s movement. In Long, J. & Baddeley, A. D. (Eds.), Attention and Performance IX, 187–203. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Jordan, J. S., & Ghin, M. (2006). Consciousness as a contextually emergent property of self-sustaining systems. Mind and Matter, 4(1), 45–68.Google Scholar
Kahn, J. B., Ward, R. D., Kahn, L. W., et al. (2012). Medial prefrontal lesions in mice impair sustained attention but spare maintenance of information in working memory. Learning & Memory, 19(11), 513–517.Google Scholar
Kane, M. J., & McVay, J. C. (2012). What mind wandering reveals about executive-control abilities and failures. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(5), 348–354.Google Scholar
Kane, M. J., Poole, B. J., Tuholski, S. W., & Engle, R. W. (2006). Working memory capacity and the top-down control of visual search: Exploring the boundaries of “executive attention.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32(4), 749–777.Google Scholar
Kane, R. (1999). Responsibility, luck, and chance: Reflections on free will and indeterminism. Journal of Philosophy, 96(5), 217–240.Google Scholar
Kawahara, J., Yanase, K., & Kitazaki, M. (2012). Attentional capture by the onset and offset of motion signals outside the spatial focus of attention. Journal of Vision, 12(12), 10.Google Scholar
Kennett, J., & Wolfendale, J. (2019). Self control and moral security. In Shoemaker, D. (Ed.), Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility (Vol. 6), 33–63. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Keune, P. M., Wiedemann, E., Schneidt, A., & Schönenberg, M. (2015). Frontal brain asymmetry in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Extending the motivational dysfunction hypothesis. Clinical Neurophysiology, 126(4), 711–720.Google Scholar
Kidd, C., Palmeri, H., & Aslin, R. N. (2013). Rational snacking: Young children’s decision-making on the marshmallow task is moderated by beliefs about environmental reliability. Cognition, 126(1), 109–114.Google Scholar
Kooij, J. J. S., Bijlenga, D., Salerno, L., et al. (2019). Updated European consensus statement on diagnosis and treatment of adult ADHD. European Psychiatry, 56(1), 14–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lamm, B., Keller, H., Teiser, J., et al. (2018). Waiting for the second treat: Developing culture‐specific modes of self‐regulation. Child Development, 89(3), e261–e277.Google Scholar
Latham, N. (2016). Meditation and self-control. Philosophical Studies, 173(7), 1779–1798.Google Scholar
Laureiro‐Martínez, D., Brusoni, S., Canessa, N., & Zollo, M. (2015). Understanding the exploration-exploitation dilemma: An fMRI study of attention control and decision‐making performance. Strategic Management Journal, 36(3), 319–338.Google Scholar
Lega, C., Ferrante, O., Marini, F., Santandrea, E., Cattaneo, L., & Chelazzi, L. (2019). Probing the neural mechanisms for distractor filtering and their history-contingent modulation by means of TMS. Journal of Neuroscience, 39(38), 7591–7603.Google Scholar
Li, D., Sham, P. C., Owen, M. J., & He, L. (2006). Meta-analysis shows significant association between dopamine system genes and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Human Molecular Genetics, 15(14), 2276–2284.Google Scholar
Liddle, E. B., Hollis, C., Batty, M. J., et al. (2011). Task‐related default mode network modulation and inhibitory control in ADHD: Effects of motivation and methylphenidate. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52(7), 761–771.Google Scholar
Linkenkaer-Hansen, K., Nikouline, V. V., Palva, J. M., & Ilmoniemi, R. J. (2001). Long-range temporal correlations and scaling behavior in human brain oscillations. Journal of Neuroscience, 21(4), 1370–1377.Google Scholar
Lippelt, D. P., Hommel, B., & Colzato, L. S. (2014). Focused attention, open monitoring and loving kindness meditation: Effects on attention, conflict monitoring, and creativity – A review. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1083. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01083.Google Scholar
Logie, R. H. (2016). Retiring the central executive. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69(10), 2093–2109.Google Scholar
Loheswaran, G., Barr, M. S., Zomorrodi, R., et al. (2018). Alcohol impairs N100 response to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex stimulation. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 1–6.Google Scholar
Loo, S. K., & Smalley, S. L. (2008). Preliminary report of familial clustering of EEG measures in ADHD. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 147(1), 107–109.Google Scholar
Lutz, A., Greischar, L. L., Rawlings, N. B., Ricard, M., & Davidson, R. J. (2004). Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(46), 16369–16373.Google Scholar
Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Dunne, J. D., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(4), 163–169.Google Scholar
MacLeod, C. M., & MacDonald, P. A. (2000). Interdimensional interference in the Stroop effect: Uncovering the cognitive and neural anatomy of attention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(10), 383–391.Google Scholar
Majeed, W., Magnuson, M., Hasenkamp, W., et al. (2011). Spatiotemporal dynamics of low frequency BOLD fluctuations in rats and humans. NeuroImage, 54(2), 1140–1150.Google Scholar
Mangun, G. R. (1995). Neural mechanisms of visual selective attention. Psychophysiology, 32(1), 4–18.Google Scholar
Mann, T., & Ward, A. (2007). Attention, self-control, and health behaviors. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(5), 280–283.Google Scholar
Mariani, A. P. (1984). Bipolar cells in monkey retina selective for the cones likely to be blue-sensitive. Nature, 308(5955), 184–186.Google Scholar
Mascolo, M. F., & Kallio, E. (2019). Beyond free will: The embodied emergence of conscious agency. Philosophical Psychology, 32(4), 437–462.Google Scholar
McClelland, J. L., Botvinick, M. M., Noelle, D. C., et al. (2010). Letting structure emerge: Connectionist and dynamical systems approaches to cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14(8), 348–356.Google Scholar
McCormick, C., Rosenthal, C. R., Miller, T. D., & Maguire, E. A. (2018). Mind-wandering in people with hippocampal damage. Journal of Neuroscience, 38(11), 2745–2754.Google Scholar
McLaughlin, B. (2008). The rise and fall of British Emergentism. In Bedau, M. A. and Humphreys, P. (Eds.), Emergence: Contemporary Readings in Philosophy and Science, 20–59. MIT Press.Google Scholar
McLaughlin, B., & Bennett, K. (2021). Supervenience. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/supervenience/.Google Scholar
McVay, J. C., & Kane, M. J. (2010). Does mind wandering reflect executive function or executive failure? Comment on Smallwood and Schooler (2006) and Watkins (2008). Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 188–197.Google Scholar
McVay, J. C., Kane, M. J., & Kwapil, T. R. (2009). Tracking the train of thought from the laboratory into everyday life: An experience-sampling study of mind wandering across controlled and ecological contexts. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16(5), 857–863.Google Scholar
Mele, A. R. (2009). Effective Intentions: The Power of Conscious Will. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mele, A. R. (2018). Free will, moral responsibility, and scientific epiphenomenalism. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2536.Google Scholar
Metzinger, T. (2017). The problem of mental action. In Metzinger, T. & Wiese, W. (Eds.), Philosophy and Predictive Processing. MIND Group. https://doi.org/10.15502/9783958573208.Google Scholar
Michaelson, L. E., & Munakata, Y. (2020). Same data set, different conclusions: Preschool delay of gratification predicts later behavioral outcomes in a preregistered study. Psychological Science, 31(2), 193–201.Google Scholar
Miller, E. K., Lundqvist, M., & Bastos, A. M. (2018). Working memory 2.0. Neuron, 100(2), 463–475.Google Scholar
Miller, E. K., & Wallis, J. D. (2009). Executive function and higher-order cognition: Definition and neural substrates. Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, 4, 99–104.Google Scholar
Misener, V. L., Luca, P., Azeke, O., et al. (2004). Linkage of the dopamine receptor D1 gene to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Molecular Psychiatry, 9(5), 500–509.Google Scholar
Mole, C. (2011). Attention is Cognitive Unison: An Essay in Philosophical Psychology. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mole, C. (2017). Attention. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/attention/.Google Scholar
Monsell, S., & Driver, J. (2000). Banishing the control homunculus. Control of Cognitive Processes: Attention and Performance, 18, 3–32.Google Scholar
Monto, S., Palva, S., Voipio, J., & Palva, J. M. (2008). Very slow EEG fluctuations predict the dynamics of stimulus detection and oscillation amplitudes in humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(33), 8268–8272.Google Scholar
Moors, A., & Houwer, J. D. (2007). What is automaticity? An analysis of its component features and their interrelations. In Bargh, J. A. (Ed.), Social Psychology and the Unconscious: The Automaticity of Higher Mental Processes, 11–50. Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Mueller, A., Hong, D. S., Shepard, S., & Moore, T. (2017). Linking ADHD to the neural circuitry of attention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21(6), 474–488.Google Scholar
Mueller, A. K., Fuermaier, A. B., Koerts, J., & Tucha, L. (2012). Stigma in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders, 4(3), 101–114.Google Scholar
Muret, D., & Makin, T. R. (2021). The homeostatic homunculus: Rethinking deprivation-triggered reorganisation. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 67, 115–122.Google Scholar
Naccache, L., Dehaene, S., Cohen, L. J., et al. (2005). Effortless control: Executive attention and conscious feeling of mental effort are dissociable. Neuropsychologia, 43(9), 1318–1328.Google Scholar
Nahmias, E. (2002). When consciousness matters: A critical review of Daniel Wegner’s The Illusion of Conscious Will. Philosophical Psychology, 15(4), 527–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nejati, V., Majdi, R., Salehinejad, M. A., & Nitsche, M. A. (2021). The role of dorsolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in the processing of emotional dimensions. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1–12.Google Scholar
O’Connor, T. 2020. Emergent properties. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/properties-emergent/.Google Scholar
Özel Kizil, E. T., Öncü, B., Demirbaş, H., et al. (2016). Hyperfocusing as a dimension of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 59, 351–358.Google Scholar
Pacherie, E., & Mylopoulos, M. (2021). Beyond automaticity: The psychological complexity of skill. Topoi, 40(3), 649–662.Google Scholar
Papineau, D. (2015). Choking and the yips. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 14(2), 295–308.Google Scholar
Pappas, D. (2006). ADHD rating scale-IV: Checklists, norms, and clinical interpretation. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 24(2), 172–178.Google Scholar
Parkin, A. J. (1998). The central executive does not exist. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4(5), 518–522.Google Scholar
Pascucci, D., Hervais‐Adelman, A., & Plomp, G. (2018). Gating by induced Α–Γ asynchrony in selective attention. Human Brain Mapping, 39(10), 3854–3870.Google Scholar
Pinotsis, D. A., & Miller, E. K. (2022). Beyond dimension reduction: Stable electric fields emerge from and allow representational drift. NeuroImage, 253, 119058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119058.Google Scholar
Plebanek, D. J., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2017). Costs of selective attention: When children notice what adults miss. Psychological Science, 28(6), 723–732.Google Scholar
Polanczyk, G., De Lima, M. S., Horta, B. L., Biederman, J., & Rohde, L. A. (2007). The worldwide prevalence of ADHD: A systematic review and metaregression analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164(6), 942–948.Google Scholar
Posner, M. I. (1980). Orienting of attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32(1), 3–25.Google Scholar
Posner, M. I., & Cohen, Y. (1984). Components of visual orienting. Attention and Performance X: Control of Language Processes, 32, 531–556.Google Scholar
Posner, M. I., & Gilbert, C. D. (1999). Attention and primary visual cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96(6), 2585–2587.Google Scholar
Posner, M. I., & Rothbart, M. K. (1998). Attention, self-regulation and consciousness. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 353(1377), 1915–1927.Google Scholar
Posner, M. I., & Snyder, C. R. R. (2004). Attention and cognitive control. In Balota, D. A. & Marsh, E. J. (Eds.), Cognitive Psychology: Key Readings, 205–223. Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Prinz, J. (2011). Is attention necessary and sufficient for consciousness? In C. Mole, D. Smithies, & W. Wu, (Eds.), Attention: Philosophical and Psychological Essays, 174–203. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Prinzmetal, W., Zvinyatskovskiy, A., Gutierrez, P., & Dilem, L. (2009). Voluntary and involuntary attention have different consequences: The effect of perceptual difficulty. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62(2), 352–369.Google Scholar
Raichle, M. E. (2015). The brain’s default mode network. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 38, 433–447.Google Scholar
Reeve, W. V., & Schandler, S. L. (2001). Frontal lobe functioning in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Adolescence, 36(144), 749–765.Google Scholar
Reynolds, J. H., & Desimone, R. (2003). Interacting roles of attention and visual salience in V4. Neuron, 37(5), 853–863.Google Scholar
Robbins, T. W., & Rogers, R. D. (2000). Functioning of frontostriatal anatomical “loops” in mechanisms of cognitive control. Control of Cognitive Processes: Attention and Performance, 18, 3–32.Google Scholar
Robinson, H. (2020). Dualism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/dualism/.Google Scholar
Rokem, A., Landau, A. N., Garg, D., Prinzmetal, W., & Silver, M. A. (2010). Cholinergic enhancement increases the effects of voluntary attention but does not affect involuntary attention. Neuropsychopharmacology, 35(13), 2538–2544.Google Scholar
Rossi, A. F., Pessoa, L., Desimone, R., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2009). The prefrontal cortex and the executive control of attention. Experimental Brain Research, 192(3), 489–497.Google Scholar
Sara, S. J. (2009). The locus coeruleus and noradrenergic modulation of cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(3), 211–223.Google Scholar
Schack, T., & Frank, C. (2021). Mental representation and the cognitive architecture of skilled action. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 12(3), 527–546.Google Scholar
Schneider, D. (1993). Mental control: Lessons from our past. In Wegner, D. M. & Pennebaker, J. W. (Eds.), Handbook of Mental Control, 13–35. Prentice-Hall, Inc.Google Scholar
Schneider, W., Dumais, S. T., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1982). Automatic/Control Processing and Attention (No. HARL-ONR-8104). Illinois Univ. Champaign Human Attention Research Lab. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA115078.Google Scholar
Schofield, T. J., Donnellan, M. B., Merrick, M. T., Ports, K. A., Klevens, J., & Leeb, R. (2018). Intergenerational continuity in adverse childhood experiences and rural community environments. American Journal of Public Health, 108(9), 1148–1152.Google Scholar
Semple, R. J. (2010). Does mindfulness meditation enhance attention? A randomized controlled trial. Mindfulness, 1(2), 121–130.Google Scholar
Setyawan, J., Fridman, M., Grebla, R., Harpin, V., Korst, L. M., & Quintero, J. (2018). Variation in presentation, diagnosis, and management of children and adolescents with ADHD across European countries. Journal of Attention Disorders, 22(10), 911–923.Google Scholar
Shah, J. Y., Friedman, R. S., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2002). Forgetting all else: On the antecedents and consequences of goal shielding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1261–1280.Google Scholar
Shepherd, J. (2019). Why does the mind wander? Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2019(1), niz014. https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niz014.Google Scholar
Shoda, Y., Mischel, W., & Peake, P. K. (1990). Predicting adolescent cognitive and self-regulatory competencies from preschool delay of gratification: Identifying diagnostic conditions. Developmental Psychology, 26(6), 978–986.Google Scholar
Shomstein, S., Zhang, X., & Dubbelde, D. (2022). Attention and platypuses. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, e1600. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1600.Google Scholar
Sikka, P., Revonsuo, A., Noreika, V., & Valli, K. (2019). EEG frontal alpha asymmetry and dream affect: Alpha oscillations over the right frontal cortex during REM sleep and presleep wakefulness predict anger in REM sleep dreams. Journal of Neuroscience, 39(24), 4775–4784.Google Scholar
Skinner, B. F. (1984). Behaviorism at fifty. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7(4), 615–621.Google Scholar
Slobodin, O., Cassuto, H., & Berger, I. (2018). Age-related changes in distractibility: Developmental trajectory of sustained attention in ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders, 22(14), 1333–1343.Google Scholar
Smallwood, J., Beach, E., Schooler, J. W., & Handy, T. C. (2008). Going AWOL in the brain: Mind wandering reduces cortical analysis of external events. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(3), 458–469.Google Scholar
Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2006). The restless mind. Psychological Bulletin, 132(6), 946–958.Google Scholar
Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2015). The science of mind wandering: Empirically navigating the stream of consciousness. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 487–518.Google Scholar
Smith, E. E., Reznik, S. J., Stewart, J. L., & Allen, J. J. (2017). Assessing and conceptualizing frontal EEG asymmetry: An updated primer on recording, processing, analyzing, and interpreting frontal alpha asymmetry. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 111, 98–114.Google Scholar
Somsen, R. J. (2007). The development of attention regulation in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task. Developmental Science, 10(5), 664–680.Google Scholar
Soutschek, A., & Tobler, P. N. (2020). Causal role of lateral prefrontal cortex in mental effort and fatigue. Human Brain Mapping, 41(16), 4630–4640.Google Scholar
Sripada, C. S. (2018). An exploration/exploitation trade-off between mind wandering and goal-directed thinking. In Christoff, K. & Fox, K. C. R. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Spontaneous Thought: Mind-Wandering, Creativity, and Dreaming, 23–34. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stahl, S. M. (2017). Dazzled by the dominions of dopamine: Clinical roles of D3, D2, and D1 receptors. CNS Spectrums, 22(4), 305–311.Google Scholar
Stoljar, D. (2017). Physicalism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/physicalism/.Google Scholar
Stothart, C., Simons, D. J., Boot, W. R., & Wright, T. J. (2019). What to where: The right attention set for the wrong location. Perception, 48(7), 602–615.Google Scholar
Strömgren, L. S. (1977). The influence of depression on memory. Acta psychiatrica scandinavica, 56(2), 109–128.Google Scholar
Stubenberg, L. (2018). Neutral monism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/neutral-monism/.Google Scholar
Stuss, D. T., & Alexander, M. P. (2000). Executive functions and the frontal lobes: A conceptual view. Psychological Research, 63(3), 289–298.Google Scholar
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2016). DSM-5 Changes: Implications for Child Serious Emotional Disturbance, Table 7, DSM-IV to DSM-5 attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder comparison. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519712/table/ch3.t3/.Google Scholar
Szczepanski, S. M., Crone, N. E., Kuperman, R. A., Auguste, K. I., Parvizi, J., & Knight, R. T. (2014). Dynamic changes in phase-amplitude coupling facilitate spatial attention control in fronto-parietal cortex. PLoS Biology, 12(8), e1001936. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001936.Google Scholar
Szymanski, K., Sapanski, L., & Conway, F. (2011). Trauma and ADHD – Association or diagnostic confusion? A clinical perspective. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 10(1), 51–59.Google Scholar
Tang, Y.-Y., Hölzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(4), 213–225.Google Scholar
Tang, Y.-Y., Tang, R., Posner, M. I., & Gross, J. J. (2022). Effortless training of attention and self-control: Mechanisms and applications. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(7), 566–577. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661322000900.Google Scholar
Taylor, V. A., Daneault, V., Grant, J., et al. (2013). Impact of meditation training on the default mode network during a restful state. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 8(1), 4–14.Google Scholar
Tran, D. M. (2020). Commentary: probing the neural mechanisms for distractor filtering and their history-contingent modulation by means of TMS. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00365.Google Scholar
Uhl, L. L. (1890). Attention: A Historical Summary of the Discussion concerning the Subject. Johns Hopkins Press.Google Scholar
Upton, C. L., & Brent, M. (2019). Meditation and the scope of mental action. Philosophical Psychology, 32(1), 52–71.Google Scholar
Valentine, E. R., & Sweet, P. L. (1999). Meditation and attention: A comparison of the effects of concentrative and mindfulness meditation on sustained attention. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 2(1), 59–70.Google Scholar
Vallacher, R. R. (1993). Mental calibration: Forging a working relationship between mind and action. In Wegner, D. M. & Pennebaker, J. W. (Eds.), Handbook of Mental Control, 443–472. Prentice-Hall, Inc.Google Scholar
Van Dort, C. J. (2016). Locus coeruleus neural fatigue: A potential mechanism for cognitive impairment during sleep deprivation. Sleep, 39(1), 11–12.Google Scholar
Velmans, M. (2002). How could conscious experiences affect brains? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 9(11), 3–29.Google Scholar
Veniero, D., Gross, J., Morand, S., Duecker, F., Sack, A. T., & Thut, G. (2021). Top-down control of visual cortex by the frontal eye fields through oscillatory realignment. Nature Communications, 12(1), 1–13.Google Scholar
Volkow, N. D., Wang, G. J., Newcorn, J. H., et al. (2011). Motivation deficit in ADHD is associated with dysfunction of the dopamine reward pathway. Molecular Psychiatry, 16(11), 1147–1154.Google Scholar
Voytek, B., Canolty, R. T., Shestyuk, A., Crone, N., Parvizi, J., & Knight, R. T. (2010). Shifts in gamma phase–amplitude coupling frequency from theta to alpha over posterior cortex during visual tasks. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 4, 191. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2010.00191.Google Scholar
Wang, D., Hagger, M. S., & Chatzisarantis, N. L. (2020). Ironic effects of thought suppression: A meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(3), 778–793.Google Scholar
Watts, T. W., Duncan, G. J., & Quan, H. (2018). Revisiting the marshmallow test: A conceptual replication investigating links between early delay of gratification and later outcomes. Psychological Science, 29(7), 1159–1177.Google Scholar
Watzl, S. (2017). Structuring Mind: The Nature of Attention and How It Shapes Consciousness. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wegner, D. M. (1988). Stress and mental control. In S. Fisher & J. Reason (Eds.), Handbook of Life Stress, Cognition and Health, 683–697. John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Wegner, D. M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101(1), 34–52.Google Scholar
Wegner, D. M. (2004). Précis of The Illusion of Conscious Will. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27(5), 649–659.Google Scholar
Wegner, D. M., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1993). Changing our minds: An introduction to mental control. In Wegner, D. M. & Pennebaker, J. W. (Eds.), Handbook of Mental Control, 1–12. Prentice-Hall, Inc.Google Scholar
Wegner, D. M., & Schneider, D. J. (1989). Mental control: The war of the ghosts in the machine. In Uleman, J. S. & Bargh, J. A. (Eds.), Unintended Thought, 287–305. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Wegner, D. M., Schneider, D. J., Carter, S. R., & White, T. L. (1987). Paradoxical effects of thought suppression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(1), 5–13.Google Scholar
Wegner, D. M., & Wheatley, T. (1999). Apparent mental causation: Sources of the experience of will. American Psychologist, 54(7), 480–492.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. (2019). Between scientism and abstractionism in the metaphysics of emergence. In Gibb, S., Hendry, R., & Lancaster, T. (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Emergence, 157–176. Routledge.Google Scholar
Winning, J., & Bechtel, W. (2019). Being emergence vs. pattern emergence: complexity, control, and goal-directedness in biological systems. In Gibb, S., Hendry, R., & Lancaster, T. (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Emergence, 134–144. Routledge.Google Scholar
Wolraich, M. L., Chan, E., Froehlich, T., et al. (2019). ADHD diagnosis and treatment guidelines: A historical perspective. Pediatrics, 144(4). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-1682.Google Scholar
Woltering, S., Liu, Z., Rokeach, A., & Tannock, R. (2013). Neurophysiological differences in inhibitory control between adults with ADHD and their peers. Neuropsychologia, 51(10), 1888–1895.Google Scholar
Wu, W. (2011). What is conscious attention? Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 82(1), 93–120.Google Scholar
Wu, W. (2016). Experts and deviants: The story of agentive control. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 93(1), 101–126.Google Scholar
Yoshimi, J. (2012a). Supervenience, dynamical systems theory, and non-reductive physicalism. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 63(2), 373–398.Google Scholar
Yoshimi, J. (2012b). Active internalism and open dynamical systems. Philosophical Psychology, 25(1), 1–24.Google Scholar
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this element is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.