# Attention and Intelligence **Domain:** Cognitive Science / Epistemology **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition Attention and intelligence names the dependence of reasoning on what a mind notices, admits, and sustains long enough to process. ## Mechanism Information that never receives attention cannot participate in judgment. Selective attention therefore governs the evidence available to memory, comparison, prediction, and choice. ## Significance Apparent failures of intelligence may begin earlier as failures of listening, observation, or attentional allocation. ## Relationships - [[wiki/Selective Attention|Selective Attention]] - [[wiki/Attention Economy|Attention Economy]] - [[wiki/Information-Processing Psychology|Information-Processing Psychology]] ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “Awareness is a step beyond knowledge. Information can only be gathered by someone paying attention, so many apparent intelligence problems are really attention problems. Listening fully opens the door to everything else.” > **— Bryant McGill**, *Breaking Automatic Patterns and Reclaiming Agency - Livestream (Sep 2016)* [[reminders/Cognitive Agency/Many Intelligence Problems Are Really Attention Problems by Bryant McGill|Many Intelligence Problems Are Really Attention Problems by Bryant McGill]]