Attention is one of the most thoroughly investigated psychological phenomena, yet skepticism about attention is widespread: we do not know what it is, it is too many things, there is no such thing. The deficiencies highlighted are not about experimental work but the adequacy of the scientific theory of attention. Combining common scientific claims about attention into a single theory leads to internal inconsistency. This paper demonstrates that a specific functional conception of attention is incorporated into the tasks used in standard experimental paradigms. In accepting these paradigms as valid probes of attention, we commit to this common conception. The conception unifies work at multiple levels of analysis into a coherent scientific explanation of attention. Thus, we all know what attention is.

中文翻译：

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我们知道什么是注意力！


注意力是研究最彻底的心理现象之一，但对注意力的怀疑却很普遍：我们不知道它是什么，它涉及太多的东西，根本不存在这样的东西。强调的缺陷不是实验工作的问题，而是注意力科学理论的充分性。将有关注意力的常见科学主张结合到单一理论中会导致内部不一致。本文证明了注意力的特定功能概念已纳入标准实验范式中使用的任务中。在接受这些范式作为有效的注意力探索时，我们致力于这一共同的概念。这一概念将多个分析层面的工作统一为对注意力的连贯的科学解释。因此，我们都知道什么是注意力。