Flemish Interest in an attention-based hybrid media system

Ó The Author(s) 2020 ''We are living in exponential times'' is a commonly used saying to express the dramatic changes due to digitalization. For sure, this saying also applies to research and research publications. For researchers in Business and Information Systems Engineering, the ''International Conference on Information Systems'' (ICIS) is certainly one of the largest and probably also as the most prestigious gathering of information systems academics and researchoriented practitioners in the world. ICIS 2019, which was held in Germany for the first time, was a stunning success. The community has to thank the Conference Chairs Jane Fedorowicz and Helmut Krcmar, their Program Co-Chairs Wai Fong Boh, Jan Marco Leimeister and Sunil Wattal, and many, many more for organizing an impressing and inspiring conference. ICIS 2019, in Munich, came with an ''all-time high everywhere: number of submissions, number of participants, conference innovations such as different formats, adjunct workshops, industry sponsoring etc.'' (Quote: Jan Marco Leimeister). To be more specific, ICIS 2019

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 2022

The term attention has been used to mean so many different things that some have despaired of it being useful at all. This paper is devoted to bringing a modicum of order to the chaos through the time-honored device of categorization. The chief purpose of this paper is to introduce a comprehensive descriptive taxonomy of the nuanced ways the term attention may be employed. It is presented in table form, followed by elucidations and illustrations of each of its items. But first, I offer reasons why a taxonomy of attention is needed and explore some of its possible benefits. After presenting the taxonomy, I sketch by way of example how it might be applied to two interesting questions: is the umbrella term attention still useful?; and, what is it that ties the subdefinitions of attention together yet distinguishes them from other kinds of cognition?

Communication in the Era of Attention Scarcity, 2019

Attention regulates our interaction with the world, both at the individual and social level. This chapter explores how researchers across different disciplines consider attention in turn as an individual or social phenomenon, as a cause or an effect, as stretching over a few milliseconds or several years, as being a process for selection or a scarce resource. In each case the objective is to gather a better understanding of some aspect of human endeavour: the way we perceive the world, we value products or information, we establish relationships, or gain power.

2012

This paper discusses and evaluates an agent model that is able to manipulate the visual attention of a human, in order to support naval crew. The agent model consists of four sub-models, including a model to reason about a subject's attention. The model was evaluated based on a practical case study which was formally analyzed and verified using automated checking tools. Results show how a human subject's attention is manipulated by adjusting luminance, based on assessment of the subject's attention. These first evaluations of the agent show a positive effect.

De Economist, 2004

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The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 2023

Culture Machine, 2012

2010

This dissertation investigates the nature, the phenomenal character and the philosophical significance of attention. According to its central thesis, attention is the ongoing mental activity of structuring the stream of consciousness or phenomenal field. The dissertation connects the scientific study of attention in psychology and the neurosciences with central discussions in the philosophy of mind. Once we get clear on the nature and the phenomenal character of attention, we can make progress toward understanding foundational issues concerning the nature and the structure of conscious mentality itself. We understand better how consciousness is connected to self-awareness and to agency, and we get a better grip on the nature of perceptual experience, the unity of consciousness, and its subjective character. The dissertation also aims at showing that the current empirical investigation of attention should be complemented with work at the level of generality that a philosophical analysis can provide; it shows how such an analysis is relevant for the scientific study of attention by providing a new conceptual framework and suggesting several new areas of research. i 1! The simplified scenario____________________________________________ 41! 2! Deflationary relationism ___________________________________________ 44! 3! Simple relationism _______________________________________________ 48! 3.1! Objects _____________________________________________________ 51! 3.2! Determinacy_________________________________________________ 54! 3.3! Foreground__________________________________________________ 57! 3.4! Prominence _________________________________________________ 59! 4! Impure relationism _______________________________________________ 63! 5! Reflexive relationism _____________________________________________ 68! 5.1! The view____________________________________________________ 68! ii 5.2! Characteristics _______________________________________________ 70! 5.3! Computational underpinnings ___________________________________ 74! 6! Summary and Outlook ____________________________________________ 77! 2 Attention as a Mental Activity ______________________________ 78! 1! A puzzle about perception _________________________________________ 80! 2! Activities and intentional actions ____________________________________ 84! 3! The temporal shape of activities _____________________________________ 89! 3.1! The linguistics of aspect________________________________________ 89! 3.2! From the linguistics of aspect to the metaphysics of temporal shape _____ 92! 3.3! Attending has the temporal shape of an activity _____________________ 97! 3.4! Activities in the weakest sense _________________________________ 102! 3.5! Activities in the weak sense____________________________________ 103! 4! The causal structure of activities____________________________________ 105! 4.1! Dretske on the causal structure of processes _______________________ 105! 4.2! Activities in the strong sense ___________________________________ 107! 5! Ways of attending _______________________________________________ 110! 5.1! The puzzle about perception solved (preliminarily) _________________ 110! 5.2! Ways of attending defined _____________________________________ 114! 6! Consequences __________________________________________________ 116! 6.1! Reflexive awareness is activity-awareness ________________________ 116! 6.2! Enacting perception: the better way______________________________ 119! 6.3! Explaining extramission beliefs_________________________________ 121! 7! Summary and Outlook ___________________________________________ 124! 3 Attention as Structuring of the Stream of Consciousness _______ 125! 1! The components of structuralism ___________________________________ 126! 1.1! The freedom component ______________________________________ 130! 1.2! The structure component ______________________________________ 133! 2! Precursors _____________________________________________________ 140! 3! Structuralism made precise ________________________________________ 144! iii 3.1! Basic ideas _________________________________________________ 144! 3.2! Attentional space (part 1)______________________________________ 148! 3.3! Attentional space (part 2)______________________________________ 152! 3.4! Neural underpinnings_________________________________________ 154! 3.5! Is attentional structure diaphanous?______________________________ 155! 3.6! Preview on the dynamics of attention ____________________________ 157! 4! Consequences __________________________________________________ 160! 4.1! A unified and holistic science of attention_________________________ 160! 4.2! Phenomenal entanglement _____________________________________ 161! 4.3! Structures of consciousness ____________________________________ 163! 4.4! Mental management__________________________________________ 164! 5! Summary and Outlook ___________________________________________ 165! 4 The Dynamics of Attention________________________________ 167! 1! The sub-personal account _________________________________________ 170! 2! The salience account _____________________________________________ 175! 2.1! The general idea_____________________________________________ 175! 2.2! Scientific evidence ___________________________________________ 177! 2.3! Encounters of salience: a preliminary analysis _____________________ 181! 2.4! The deflationary account of encounters of salience__________________ 184! 3! The experiential account of encounters of salience: salientishness _________ 186! 4! Constraints on salientishness ______________________________________ 190! 4.1! Salientishness comes in degrees ________________________________ 190! 4.2! Salientishness drives attention essentially _________________________ 190! 4.3! Salientishness implies no queer properties ________________________ 191! 4.4! Salientishness has no normative impact __________________________ 194! 4.5! Salientishness does not depend on any mind-to-world attitude_________ 196! 5! Salientishness as experiential potential_______________________________ 197! 5.1! The view___________________________________________________ 197! 5.2! Unifying voluntary and involuntary attention ______________________ 201! 5.3! Computational and neuronal underpinnings _______________________ 203! iv 6! Consequences __________________________________________________ 205! 6.1! The flux of attention__________________________________________ 205! 6.2! Intuitive reasoning ___________________________________________ 206! 6.3! Coordination problems________________________________________ 208! 6.4! Language and communication __________________________________ 210! 7! Summary and Outlook ___________________________________________ 211! 5 Attention and the Particularity of Consciousness _____________ 212! 1! Particularist relationism __________________________________________ 213! 2! Preliminaries ___________________________________________________ 218! 3! The attention argument ___________________________________________ 224! 4! In defense of attentional relationism_________________________________ 231! 4.1! Some intuitive considerations __________________________________ 231! 4.2! The argument from demonstrative reference_______________________ 233! 4.3! The explanation argument _____________________________________ 235! 4.4! Transition __________________________________________________ 238! 5! The hallucination argument against attentional relationism _______________ 239! 6! The smooth transition argument ____________________________________ 242! 6.1! The basic idea ______________________________________________ 242! 6.2! The argument _______________________________________________ 243! 6.3! Specific resistances at individual steps of the argument ______________ 248! 6.4! General resistances against the argument _________________________ 255! 7! An implementation and generalizations ______________________________ 259! 7.1! The natural implementation of particularist relationism ______________ 259! 7.2! Tentative generalizations to other forms of experience_______________ 264! 8! Summary and Outlook ___________________________________________ 266! 6 The Attentional Basis of Consciousness _____________________ 268! 1! Structuralism and the unity of consciousness __________________________ 268! 1.1! The phenomenal unity of consciousness __________________________ 268! 1.2! Sufficiency _________________________________________________ 272! v 1.3! Necessity __________________________________________________ 276! 1.4! Attention and split-brains______________________________________ 279! 1.5! The attention account of unity __________________________________ 288! 2! Is there consciousness outside attention? _____________________________ 289! 2.1! The possible centrality of all conscious events _____________________ 290! 2.2! The connectedness of all conscious events ________________________ 293! 2.3! The necessity of phenomenal unity ______________________________ 294! 2.4! Hemineglect ________________________________________________ 294! 2.5! Balint's syndrome ___________________________________________ 299! 2.6! Split-brains again ____________________________________________ 301! 3! Attention and the subjective character of consciousness _________________ 302! 3.1! Do all (possible) subjects always attend to something? ______________ 302! 3.2! Reflexive awareness and the subjective character of consciousness _____ 304! 4! Conclusion: the attentional basis of consciousness _____________________ 311! Appendix__________________________________________________ 315! Appendix 1: Experiments concerning attention without consciousness_________ 315! Appendix 2: Representationalism and spatial foreground ___________________ 323! Appendix 3: Alternative versions of particularist relationism ________________ 328! The Sensibilia View ______________________________________________ 329!...

What is the role of attention in the dialectics of memory and communication? How far is attention functioning as a medium? Which role does attention play in the information management practices? Attention is not only fundamental to human existence but also to the process of understanding. If understanding is mediated by memory (tradition) and communication (dialogue) then attention can be identified with the medium. So whenever you search to explain the role and mechanisms of memory in the information society, the question of attention is asked immediately. Furthermore, attention can be analyzed under the following topics: as cognitive process, as subjective, intersubjective and cultural phenomenon, and as resource and medium within an 'Attention Economy'. Whereas the first aspect has to be seen in the context of empirical studies in psychology and cognitive sciences, the phenomenological, cultural, and economic aspects seem to have common points and similar implications in their theoretical approaches. In the last twenty years, the notion of attention has been the central core of several discourses in German phenomenology (Bernhard Waldenfels, 2004), economy (Franck) and cultural studies (Assmann). Similar to Georg Franck's theory of mental capitalism, the idea of an attention economy also was followed up in the American discourse (e.g. Goldhaber; Lanham). This article is supposed to explore the role of attention and its function as a medium within communication, cultural memory and science.

2012