Cognitive neuroscience officially defines attention as selection for a task

Evidence

So, what is the lie? It is a claim about the nature of attention. It is the lie that attention “is,” as the cognitive neuroscientists put it, “selection for a task.” That attention “is” this narrow, specific, measurable characteristic of mental “focus”—a stimulus-and-response feature of the human organism when it is being tested for its capacity to track, trigger, and “vigilate.” — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 167

Categorization

• DEFINE: Pins down the precise target of critique: the neuroscientific operational definition ‘selection for a task’ as the load-bearing definitional enemy.
• XREF: connects to: Laboratory psychology definitions shaped how everyone conceives attention today. — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!: A Manifesto of the…, 123