Automatic cliché-based attention switches to critical attention whenever expectations fail

Evidence

These clichés supply the elementary instruments which our ‘automatic’ attention uses to quickly identify the objects that surround us as either sources of pleasure or danger. This is a lit pipe and that is a petrol pump: pay attention to the risk of explosion! It is the practical rationality inherent in these clichés taken as a whole that, one way or another, assures our daily survival. Our attention makes use of these clichés almost automatically, so long as the recognition of objects we encounter is accompanied by predictable effects. As soon as a source that we expect to be pleasurable actually brings pain, another kind of attention – intentional, reflexive, critical, interpretive – intervenes to try to make the necessary corrections and adjustments so that a similar unpleasant surprise is not repeated. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 119

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives the crispest working definition of the two attention modes: automatic cliché-driven vs. reflexive-critical, activated by expectation failure.
• XREF: Hooks into the breach-of-expectations framework from humor studies and Peirce’s ‘surprise’ that breaks habits — already in the reader’s notes. — connects to: Attention theories have long split attention into automatic and intentional spheres — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 359

Broader Connections

• Attention theories have long split attention into automatic and intentional spheres #corroborates (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 359