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Is attention a theory?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2025

Rachel N. Denison Open the ORCID record for Rachel N. Denison [Opens in a new window]
Rachel N. Denison*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA rdenison@bu.edu
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

Rosenholtz describes “attention theory” as a scientific paradigm in crisis, in the Kuhnian sense. But is attention a theory? Here, I question this premise. Although there can be theories of attentional phenomena, attention is not a theory. Rather, like memory and emotion, attention is a psychological concept that captures a broad class of phenomena, requiring multiple mechanistic explanations.

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Open Peer Commentary
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Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e136
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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