Investigation reveals that attention influences decision making in freely behaving organisms, suggesting an evolutionary advantage.
Why have some organisms evolved processes of attention as distinct from perception in general? Investigation of freely behaving organisms (not in laboratory tasks) suggests that attention as distinct from perception is critical for goal-directed organisms’ value-based decision making. As such, the target of attention is not punctate stimuli, but whole situations (scenes) that are relevant to that decision.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Michael Tomasello (2025) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: