This paper examines attention as a scientific concept, and argues that it has a patchwork structure. On this view, the concept of attention takes on different meanings, depending on the scientific context. I argue that these different meanings vary systematically along four dimensions, as a result of the epistemic goals of the scientific programme in question and the constraints imposed by the scientific context. Based on this, I argue that attention is a general reasoning strategy concept: it provides general, non-specific guidance that aids scientific work. As well as shedding light on attention as a scientific concept, this theory has two wider consequences. First, it demonstrates that the patchwork approach is a fruitful way to think about psychological concepts. Second, it provides novel resources to resist eliminativism about attention.

本文将注意力作为一个科学概念进行研究，并认为它具有拼凑结构。根据这种观点，注意力的概念根据科学背景而具有不同的含义。我认为，由于相关科学计划的认知目标和科学背景所施加的限制，这些不同的含义在四个维度上系统地变化。基于此，我认为注意力是一个通用的推理策略概念：它提供了帮助科学工作的通用的、非特定的指导。除了阐明注意力作为一个科学概念之外，该理论还具有两个更广泛的影响。首先，它表明拼凑方法是思考心理学概念的一种富有成效的方式。其次，它提供了新颖的资源来抵制注意力的消除主义。