What is diffuse attention?

This article defends a theory of diffuse attention and distinguishes it from focal attention. My view is motivated by evidence from psychology and neuroscience, which suggests that we can deploy visual selective attention in at least two ways: by focusing on a small number of items, or by diffusing attention over a group of items taken as a whole. I argue that diffuse attention is selective and can be object-based. It enables a subject to select an object to guide behavior, albeit in a different way than focusing does.

Automated summary

This article defends the theory of diffuse attention and highlights its differences from focal attention based on evidence from psychology and neuroscience. It argues that diffuse attention is selective and can be object-based, enabling individuals to guide their behavior by selecting an object in a different way than focusing does.