ren make
fun of his blunders, because, when he reads correctly, he feels the
glow of success and of applause, he does hold himself to the printed
page till he is able to read a little, after which his interest in
what he is reading is sufficient, without extraneous motives, to keep
his nose between the covers of the story book more, perhaps, than is
good for him. The little child, here, is the type of the successful
student.

Attention to a subject thus passes through three stages in its
development. First comes the instinctive exploratory sort of
attention, favored by the native factors of advantage. Next comes the
stage of forced attention, driven by {259} extraneous motives, such as
fear or self-assertion. Finally arrives the stage of objective
interest. In the first and last stages attention is spontaneous, in
the middle stage forced. The middle stage is often called that of
voluntary attention, since effort has to be exerted to sustain
attention, while the first and last stages, being free from effort,
may be called involuntary.

Distraction

Distraction is an important topic for consideration in connection with
sustained attention. A distraction is a stimulus that attracts
attention away from the thing to which we mean to attend. There are
always competing stimuli, and the various factors of advantage,
especially desire or interest, determine which stimulus shall get
attention at any moment.

In the excited insane condition known as "mania" or the "manic state",
the patient is excessively distractible. He commences to tell you
something, all interest in what he has to say, but, if you pull out
your watch while he is talking, he drops his story in the middle of a
sentence and shifts to some remark about the watch. He seems to have
no impulse persistent enough to hold his thoughts steady. There are
contrary insane conditions in which it is almost impossible to
distract the patient from his own inner broodings, so much is he
absorbed in his own troubles.

Distraction is a favorite topic for experiment in the laboratory. The
subject is put to work adding or typewriting, and works for a time in
quiet, after which disturbances are introduced. A bell rings, a
phonograph record is played, perhaps a perfect bedlam of noise is let
loose; with the curious result that the subject, only momentarily
distracted, accomplishes more work rather than less. The distraction
has acted as a stimulus to greater effort, and by t