The interplay of attention and perception

(This article has been triggered by Dr. Tim Holmes’ presentation as part of our D’IVE series)

All of us have heard the statement, “Please pay attention.” It literally means that your attention is precious and you need to be judicial of its use. When we “pay” attention to one thing, we deplete our budget of mental resources so that we have less attention available to spend elsewhere.

While reading this article, there are various things which are vying for your attention — the chirping of birds, notifications on your phone, etc. On any given day, we are flooded with information but have very less time to process it.

Think of attention as a highlighter.

So, how do we define attention? Attention is a concept which is studied in psychology. It can be defined as a selective focus on some of the stimuli that we are currently perceiving while ignoring other stimuli from the environment — information trade-off. In a visually driven world, exploring the dependence and contribution of visual perception and attention on a user’s decision-making can open many experiential and strategic doors. Let’s understand this further by exploring “perception.”

Look at the below image. Can you decode the emotions behind the two notes?

Image source: Dr. Tim Holmes

To begin with, we see that there are two notes with the same message, but has different font-type. Decoding of emotions behind the two notes will depend on the perception you form based on the font-type used. So, how do we define perception? 

The dictionary defines it as the act or faculty of perceiving, or apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding. In simple terms, perception is the interaction between the viewer’s eyes and the viewer’s brain.

Vision science - the interplay of attention and perception

As Daniel Kahneman’s “Thinking, fast and slow” describes the difference between the automatic, unconscious decision making that dominates our lives, and the much slower, rational, conscious thoughts that we mistakenly think are responsible for most of our behaviour. These are defined as “System 1” and “System 2” respectively.  

As you saw with the two notes, the decision felt automatic and super quick. Your mind didn’t really spend time to evaluate all the possible outcomes. Your mind is programmed with enough TV shows and movies to know the second note is signalling the bad intent. 

When it comes to decision making, a user’s perception plays a pivotal role. However good your product/app/website has been designed; If the perception is not managed correctly, the entire effort is an absolute waste. In essence, you are ceding control of the narrative in the hands of your user. Let’s not forget, we are talking about the “System 1” at play, which means your users are not even aware of what they have not seen or misinterpreted. This is where the traditional self-reporting methods hit a wall. 

At Turian Labs, as part of our design thinking led user research, this is a constant area of exploration. Be it a research study to understand how premium consumers will interact with the consumer appliances of the future or how the efficacy of digital learning be improved for students dealing with ‘digital fatigue’ or how the information displayed on life-saving equipment in a hospital can be prioritised. The struggle is constant and real between users see and what they perceive. 

And this is why behavioural research and neuroscience methods like eye-tracking, arousal measures like galvanic skin response and brain activity measures from EEG or MRI offer the potential to understand the real route of a visual design problem.

“Seeing fast and slow”, an interaction with Dr. Tim Holmes 

This was the premise of our recent D’IVE* session, where we had Dr. Tim Holmes, a neuroscientist extraordinaire, who took us on a journey through the world of visual perception and attention, and explain how they contribute to decision making below the threshold of a user’s awareness. 

Using live demonstrations, evidence from research and state-of-the-art methodologies like eye-tracking that are widely applied in usability and UX realm, Dr. Holmes illustrated how the slightest change in visual design can become the difference between whether elements are being seen, understood and selected or not. You can catch the replay of the session here. 

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* D'IVE (Design Thinking & Innovation Hive) is a recurring collaborative learning forum of global, cross-industry professionals, eager to explore and expand their awareness of Design Thinking, Futures Thinking and Innovation. Visit https://www.turianlabs.com/events to know more.