Any person knows that it is most difficult to maintain the utmost concentration of attention on a chosen subject during work. Success in school and career is achieved only by those who know how to focus on one thing and not spray on extraneous thoughts and unnecessary actions. Scientists and psychologists have long studied the issue of concentration of human attention . This is how Munsterberg’s selective attention technique appeared, which helps a person train his attention in order to achieve great heights in his career and studies in the future.
Hugo Munsterberg
Hugo Munsterberg is a German psychologist who lived in the late 19th - early 20th century. From his youth, he was fond of medicine and wanted to become a doctor. But once the lecture by the German psychologist Wundt heard changed his life, and he became interested in psychology, and in 1885 he even defended his thesis and received a doctorate in this specialty.
Unfortunately, in those years, psychology was a more theoretical science and had a very distant relation to practice. Hugo Munsterberg became one of the first psychologists who organized an experimental psychological laboratory and tried to give an applied character to science.
The energy of a young specialist could not but attract the first persons of a young and developing American science. MĂĽnsterberg was made a very advantageous offer, and he moved to the United States, having received a position at Harvard and taking under his leadership a new psychological laboratory. Soon, the first scientific works of Munsterberg began to appear in the publication.
A methodology that allows one to improve a person ’s concentration abilities was discovered by scientists in 1915. It was during these years that he seriously engaged in industrial psychology.
Münsterberg’s methodology: essence and practical significance
As mentioned above, MĂĽnsterberg was seriously involved in improving human productivity.
The scientist was one of the first to see a direct connection between how much a person is able to concentrate his attention and his successes in the professional sphere of activity. Finding an effective way to increase a person’s concentration abilities was Münsterberg’s goal.
The technique that he developed is so simple that it can be applied even to children, from an early age developing their ability to hold attention on one subject. Moreover, it is not only about concentration in ideal conditions, when nothing prevents a person from thinking about the task, but about the ability to keep attention on one subject in circumstances where there are many obstacles to this.
Munsterberg test
One of Munsterberg's tests is aimed not only at developing attention, but also at its diagnosis at the same time.
A person is given a piece of paper on which a large paragraph from a set of letters is printed. The letters, at first glance, are not interconnected. Each line looks something like this: »» »». But in this set of letters are hidden words that a person must find within the time allotted to him. As a rule, the task is given 2-3 minutes.
Then, the results of the Munsterberg test are evaluated. The methodology for processing the results is approximately as follows.
- The ratio of encrypted words to those that a person missed is calculated.
- If the number of words found is below the average result, the subject is given a recommendation according to which he needs to do more attention exercises and train this property of his psyche.
- If the number of words found matches the average result, then a person is given a recommendation according to which from time to time in the form of a game he should repeat such exercises.
- If the number of words found is equal to the number of encrypted ones, then the test participant can only be congratulated, because his skill of attention is remarkably refined.
How relevant is the problem of concentration?
The Munsterberg technique is used to study the professional suitability of a person in many fields of activity. True, it is used in different variations.
- Astronauts before flying into space undergo a special training, which includes exercises for concentration. For example, they are asked to watch the second hand for five minutes. At first glance, it seems that this is easy to do, but many fail the test and are forced to repeat it again and again.
- Motorists often get into accidents due to the fact that they do not have a high ability to concentrate and do not have time to respond to obstacles in time. Large and bright roadside signs are installed in order to attract the attention of a motorist and remind him of responsibility for his life and the life of others.
- The acting profession is completely built on the ability to concentrate. Large volumes of text, proposed circumstances, pictures of vision - all this an actor should keep in mind and think only about this at the time of the performance.
What do people who concentrate on goal get
People who have high concentration abilities are immediately noticeable. They do their job well, down to the smallest detail, because they know how to push everything superfluous beyond the scope of their attention and devote some time only to the business they are engaged in.
In business, the ability to concentrate is identical with the purposefulness of a person, as well as the ability to separate the main and the secondary. In training, the degree of concentration completely determines the amount of information that a person can absorb. In communication, negotiating, concentration completely determines a person’s ability not only to express his thoughts, but also to perceive the arguments of his interlocutor. A very interesting relationship exists between a person’s temperament and his ability to concentrate. For example, it was noticed that choleric people (due to their moving temperament) know how to focus on some business for a short time. They tend to jump from one topic to another, from one activity to another.
Actually, these questions were devoted to the study of Munsterberg. The technique for the development of attention can even in a sense open up genius in a person.
Concentration and genius
It is known that all brilliant people were distinguished by the ability to concentrate to a high degree. Even in a dream, they continued to solve assigned tasks (for example, Mendeleev). Münsterberg’s technique allows you to increase the degree of your concentration - which means, in a sense, contributes to the
professional growth of a person. It's no secret that everyone is talented in any field, but whether he succeeds depends entirely on his ability to focus on the goal.
Thus, it is difficult to overestimate the benefit that Munsterberg’s technique hides in itself . Exercises are extremely simple, but if you master them and perform them regularly, and then apply your ability to concentrate in work, then every person once runs the risk of waking up as a genius.