Attention is the innate, pattern-matching process of imposing a familiar meaning upon our current sensory experience. It is thus the means of learning, where we notice, select, recognize, interpret and give meaning to current sensory percepts. It manifests the transient, selective, sensory perception of information crucial to our existence. It is the familiar frame around the awareness of what we are just now noticing. Such frames not only determine what we will notice, they also determine what we will not notice.
Attention recalls the background of our current experiences.
If this frame is emotionally skewed or distorted, it warps what we notice, and thus tends to inhibit our behavior. However, without this selective perception, our experiences would appear chaotic. Attention permits the maintenance of familiar mental images over time. It results from curiosity, fear, guilt, desire, discipline and anxiety. It may lead us to awareness, insight and knowledge.