Individual Differences in Attention: The Commentaries

Abstract

This chapter presents short commentaries on individual differences in attentional mechanisms by Eysenck, Matthews, Nęcka, and Chuderski, Schweizer and Szymura. Eysenck and Matthews offer general commentaries on the key issues and priorities for future research in the area of individual differences in attention in the light of the section's chapters, addressing, between the lines, the problems indicated by the questions. Nęcka and Chuderski, Schweizer and Szymura provide responses structured as follows. These commentators all, firstly, take up the problem of mapping the multiple dimensions of individual differences onto the multiple functions of attention. Then, they discuss the question of the relationship between attention and intelligence with regard to task difficulty and complexity. Next, they try to determine to what extent abnormality in attentional functioning explains individual differences in traits related to psychopathology. Then, they deal with the problem of the relation between negative emotionality traits and focus of attention. Finally, they try to decide the optimal attentional tasks for investigating individual differences in attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(introduction)