Visualizing the Expertise of Attention: Politics and Difference from Early Psychophysics to Mindful Economics

• In Event: Attention! - II: Language, Expertise, and Labor

Abstract

Current research and media reports on attention and cognition mirrors similar concerns in the 19th century. By tracing visual and reaction time studies of attention in early psychophysics (for instance, the first experiments of C.S. Peirce and Joseph Jastrow) to 21st century neuroeconomics, this paper will explore the politics of attention as trait, skill, and deficit within an economy of scarcity. While all studies covered in this paper identify attention as a biological trait, most are dedicated to the idea of attention as also a skill that can be (depending on the person) more or less trained. The importance of studying attention, from past to present, has often connected to ideas of intelligence, self-control, and myopia, or the ability to plan for the future. In order to construct subjects that can plan for the future, current behavioral economics experiments test mindfulness practices as interventions. The popularity of such mindfulness interventions can be seen in the emergence of mindfulness and attention experts, from corporate meditation guides to YouTube motivational speakers. By drawing upon archival documents of scientific studies, as well as interviews with behavioral economists and popular media reports, I will show how research on attention is often grounded in essentialist differences and acts as support for the “cognitive elite.” I will conclude my discussion of attention by advancing innovative, and STS-informed, counterhegemonic approaches to attention and expertise.

Author

• Chad Valasek, University of California at San Diego