New York Times and Attention

A recent article in the New York Times by Casey Schwartz discusses the challenges in paying attention. One fact mentioned there is that our terminology may be faulty and its usage impeding our progress. I therefore appreciate Ms. Schwartz giving some attention to my position published back in 2011 that we reify the term attention to our scientific detriment. At least one alternative approach, which might explain a lot but not all of "attention", is that we are sensitive to the statistical structure of our environment and tuned to experience, from which tuning emerges attentional effects. I look forward to reading more on this topic from Ms. Schwartz.