When attention goes badly wrong it can play some nasty tricks on us.

    Imagine if every time you walked into a room with a neatly turned down bed, you automatically took off your clothes and got into it -- even though it wasn't bedtime, wasn't your bed, and wasn't even your home. This might sound fanciful but it's a documented behaviour of patients with attentional problems caused by brain damage （Lhermitte, 1983）.

    Many everyday occurrences can also be explained by attentional errors, like when we miss obvious changes in the environment, fail at sports or simply forget to put the milk back in the fridge. More seriously psychologists have found that attentional processes can play a role in psychological problems like anxiety, panic, insomnia, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

    Here are 18 ways attention can go wrong, some very common, some extremely unusual, a few downright weird; each giving us an insight into how our minds work.

    1. Utilisation behaviour

    Experienced by people who have suffered certain types of damage to the frontal lobes: patients find themselves unable to resist the routine actions suggested by objects around them. They will get into neatly turned down beds, even though it's not their bed; they will put on glasses, even though they don't wear glasses; and they will start eating when they see a plate and cutlery, even though the plate is empty and they're not hungry. These strange behaviours, reported by Lhermitte （1983） and others, are partly caused by an inability to inhibit automatic behaviours, it's like the old comedy standby of a distracted person continuing to spoon sugar into their coffee, except much more extreme.

    2. Spatial neglect

    Brain damage can produce weird shifts in behaviour and experience. People with damage to certain areas of the right hemisphere fail to pay full attention to things they see on their left （because of the way the brain is wired, the right hemisphere processes information about the left-visual-field）. They may only eat the food on the right-hand-side of their plate, or only shave half their face. They seem to see things to the left, but not to notice them.

    3. The rubber gloves illusion

    Competition for attention between the senses can create strange illusions. In one spooky study by Spence et al. （2000）, participants were made to 'feel' a touch on empty rubber gloves in front of them, despite their own hands being hidden from sight underneath the table, free from tactile sensation. This suggests information from the visual system can override attention to tactile sensation （or lack thereof） from the hands, to create an apparently impossible sensation.

    4. Pain

    Even more than sight, though, pain is the ultimate attention-grabber. Unsurprisingly people who experience chronic pain of one kind or another can find it difficult to concentrate （Ecclestone, 1995）. Pain pulls sufferers' attention away from task demands and forces them to continually re-focus to achieve their goal. One of the promising treatments for people suffering from chronic pain is 'attentional management': effectively helping people to direct less attention to their pain （Elomaa et al, 2009）.

    5. The cocktail party problem

    The 'cocktail party effect' is our impressive ability to tune our auditory attention to just one voice at a party. Unfortunately for those with hearing loss this can become the cocktail party problem, a difficulty in separating one voice from all the others. Hearing aids can be somewhat helpful, but often can't restore full function （Marrone et al., 2008）. This shows just how sensitive aural attention is to vocal characteristics: without precise information on spatial location, onset, offset, intensity and prosody, it's much more difficult to pluck one voice from a multitude.

    6. Alcohol myopia

    My favourite technical term for the insidious effect alcohol has on attention. After a couple of beers long-term consequences of actions are ignored in favour of short-term impulses. The intoxicated become attentionally short-sighted, even failing to spot clear environmental cues that things are going to end badly. Of course I wouldn't know anything about that: I just read it in a book. Ahem.

    7. Errors of automaticity

    When our attention is distracted we carry out highly practised behaviours automatically, occasionally at inappropriate times. Like putting the milk out and the cat in the fridge. In a classic diary study of everyday slips and lapses Reason （1979） got people to describe all sorts of cute out-of-context slips. One person reported unwrapping a sweet （candy to the rest of you）, throwing the sweet away and putting the wrapper in his mouth, another to putting shaving cream on his toothbrush and another to going upstairs to change for the evening, then finding himself wearing pyjamas. Although practice makes perfect, it can also make an unthinking robot.

    8. Inattentional & choice blindness

    It's absolutely incredible what changes people will miss when they're distracted. Participants in psychology studies fail to spot a gorilla in plain sight （Simons & Chabris, 1999）; don't notice their conversational partner has suddenly changed mid-conversation, albeit hidden by a conveniently passing door （Simons & Levin, 1998）; and frequently fail to recognise which of two people they originally chose as the most attractive （dubbed by the authors choice blindness）.

    9. Ironic processes of control

    In fact sometimes attention is a real bear. What about when you really want to get something right, like putt the ball, hit a beautiful serve right in the corner or reverse the car into a narrow space? Naturally you concentrate even harder than normal, really focus. Unfortunately that just seems to make things worse: you miss the putt by a mile, frame the ball 50ft in the air and ding the car. What gives? These are what Wegner et al. （1998） call 'ironic processes of control'. Sometimes too much attention is just as detrimental as too little.

    10. Insomnia

    It's all very well smirking at the irony of people unable to putt, serve or park, but anyone who has suffered insomnia knows it's no laughing matter. Attention gets a look in here as well. Recent research suggests that insomnia may be partly explained by an attentional bias towards 'sleep-related threat' （Harvey et al., 2005）. In other words insomniacs keep themselves awake by focusing too much on the bodily sensations associated with sleep and any environmental noises that might be keeping them awake. Unfortunately also somewhat ironic.

    11. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder （ADHD）

    Now the most well-known of attention disorders, it consists of three broad types: （1） mostly inattentive, （2） mostly impulsive and hyperactive and （3） all three （jackpot）. Those with the attention-deficit component find it difficult to concentrate, are easily distracted and likely to day-dream. The vast majority of those diagnosed with ADHD are children. ADHD is often partly treated with a stimulant （Ritalin）, along with behaviour therapy.

    12. Anxiety

    You may be surprised to learn that anxiety is a sort of attention disorder, but being overly self-focused seems to be involved in many different mental health problems. Amongst people with social phobia and social anxiety their self-focused attention tends to maintain the problem （Spurr & Stopa, 2002）. It makes perfect intuitive sense: a person continually thinking about themselves in social situations is bound to become more self-concious. Unfortunately it's another rather ironic process.

    13. Panic attacks

    Paying too much attention to bodily processes is a strong feature of those who experience panic attacks. Clearly we should all pay some attention to our bodily processes - otherwise we'd just ignore the toothache and our teeth would drop out. But people who experience panic attacks are hypervigilant to somatic sensations （Schmidt et al. （1997）. One person's heartburn is another's death-knell.

    14. Hypochondriasis

    And talking of paying too much attention to bodily sensations, you'll be unsurprised to learn that hypochondriacs tend to be hypersensitive to odd twinges （Barsky et al., 1988）.

    15. Eating disorders

    Again people with eating disorders like anorexia nervosa seem to have attentional biases around body image （Rieger et al., 1998）

    16. Obsessive-compulsivedisorder （OCD）

    People with OCD typically carry out particular tasks -- like hand-washing -- repeatedly in order to relieve anxiety about an obsession. Excessive attention towards anxiety-inducing thoughts, particularly those that are threat-related seems to be at least partly to blame （Lavy, 1994）.

    17. Posttraumatic stress disorder （PTSD）

    After experiencing a traumatic event, most people will recover given time, but to a significant minority relief is elusive. They experience flashbacks, nightmares and the feeling of losing control. Attention seems to be involved as PTSD sufferers are especially attracted to and vigilant for negative stimuli in the environment （Vythilingham, 2007）.

    18. Depression

    Like those with PTSD, people experiencing depression also show an enhanced processing for negative stimuli （Ingram et al., 1994）. One important maintaining process in depression is thought to be rumination. Individuals who are more prone to going over negative experiences again and again are more susceptible to developing clinical depression.

    Well balanced

    In many, perhaps all these examples of how attention can go wrong, it isn't just attentional processes that are causing grief; psychological problems are frequently caused by many different factors. What this list does demonstrate, though, is how disruptions to attentional processes can cause or are involved in all kinds of different problems.

    Something that psychologists are heard to say increasingly often is that the potential for many of these extreme experiences is within all of us. Anxiety, panic, insomnia and the rest are a part of the human condition - everyone can empathise to some extent.

    What strikes home is how delicately balanced attentional processes have to be in order to produce pleasant everday experience. Too little attention and it's difficult to achieve goals in life, too much attention and it's hard to break free from loops of negative thinking and feeling.

    當注意力嚴重出錯時，通常會給我們帶來一些令人不快的玩笑。

    試想，假如每次你走進一個床鋪得整整齊齊的房間，你無意識地脫下衣服就躺在床上--盡管不是就寢時間，不是自己的床，不是自己的家。這看起來可能不可思議，然而這確實是一個有證可依的因腦損傷而有注意力問題的病患人的行為（Lhermitte,1983）.

    許多日常事件也可以解釋為注意力缺陷所致，就像當我們未注意所在環境中的明顯變化，在運動中失敗或是簡單地忘了把牛奶放回冰箱里。更嚴重地是，心理學家已經發現注意的過程可以起作用于心理問題如焦慮、恐慌、失眠、抑郁和強迫癥。

    這里是十八種注意力出錯的的情況，一些很常見，一些極不尋常，少數非常離奇；每一種都讓我們對我們的思維是怎樣運作的作一個了解。

    1.效用行為

    那些大腦前葉遭受某些類型損傷的人的經歷表明：患者發現自己無法抗拒周圍物體引發的日常行為。他們將爬上鋪好了的整潔的床，盡管那不是他們的床；他們將戴上眼鏡，盡管他們本來不戴眼鏡的；當看見盤子和刀叉，他們也將吃起來，盡管盤子是空的而且他們并不餓。Lhermitte（1983）和其他人講述的這些奇怪的行為，除了更加極端的情況之外，部分程度上是由無法抑制自發行為的能力所致，這就像老喜劇備用的情節，一個分心的人一直不停地往咖啡里加糖。

    2.空間忽略

    腦損傷可以產生在行為上和感受上很奇怪的變化。那些右腦某些區域受傷的人不能全身心地注意他們左邊的事物（因為大腦工作方式是相互聯系的，右腦處理左視場方面的信息）.他們可能只是吃盤子右手邊的食物，或是剃一半的臉。他們似乎在看左側的事物，但卻沒有意識到他們。

    3.橡膠手套的幻想

    感官之間的注意力競爭可能產生奇怪的幻想。在一項由Spence等人（2000）組織的怪異研究中，參與者被要求觸摸到一個在他們面前的像是空的橡膠手套，盡管實際上他們自己的手是藏在視線之外的沒有觸摸過的桌子底下。這項研究表明，來自視覺系統的信息可以覆蓋通過手獲得的觸感（或是缺乏其他的）注意，結果造成一種顯然不可能的感覺。

    4.疼痛

    但是疼痛是最終的注意力焦點，甚至超過視覺。毫不驚訝地可以發現，那些經受這種或是那種長期的疼痛的人們很難集中注意力（Ecclestone, 1995）.疼痛將病患的注意力從任務要求中拉走，同時迫使他們不斷地重新集中注意力來實現其目標。一條有望用來治療患長期性疼痛癥的人的法子是"注意力管理":有效地幫助人們將較少的注意力放到疼痛上（Elomaa等人，2009）.

    5.雞尾酒會問題

    "雞尾酒會效應"講述的是我們印象深刻的能力，這項能力將我們的聽覺注意調整到關注的僅一種聲音。不幸地是，對于那些遭受聽力損失的人們，這就可能成為雞尾酒會問題，難以從一大堆聲音中區分出各種聲音。助聽器可能會有所幫助，但是往往不能恢復全部功能（Marrone等人，2008）.這表明聽覺的注意對于有聲的特性有多么地敏感：沒有對空間位置、發作、抵消、強度和韻律的精準信息，將一種聲音從一群聲音中挑出來是更加困難的一件事情。

    6.酒精近視

    酒精近視是我最喜歡的技術術語，關于酒精對注意力的潛在影響。幾杯啤酒下肚，由于短期的刺激作用，行為的長期性結果被忽視了。醉的人注意力上變得眼光短淺，甚至無法清楚地辨認出周圍環境的信號指示以致事情將拙劣地結束。當然我無法知道關于這點的一切：我只是從一本書中讀到的。（咳嗽聲。）

    7.自發性錯誤

    當我們的注意力錯亂之時，偶爾在不恰當的時機我們將自發地高度執行老練的行為。比如將牛奶拿出來把貓放進冰箱里。在一項典型的關于日常失誤和失誤原因的日記研究中，Reason（1979）讓人們描述各種各樣可愛的前后無關聯的小過失。一人寫道剝糖果（給你們的糖果）,結果把糖果給扔了，卻將糖衣紙放進他嘴里，另一次是將剃須膏擠到牙刷上，還有一次是爬上樓去換晚裝，然后發現自己穿得是睡衣。盡管孰能生巧，卻也會做出未經考慮的機器人行為。

    8.非注意視盲&選擇失明

    這是絕對不可思議的的事情，當人們分心的時候他們將會看不出什么樣的變化。在心理學研究中，參與者無法一目了然地辨認出一個大猩猩（Simons & Chabris,1999）;沒有注意到與他們談話的伙伴已經在交談過程中被突然地換掉了，盡管靠一個方便的可通過的門所隱藏著（Simons & Levin,1998）;經常性地錯認兩個人中誰是他們當初所選擇的最具吸引力的那個（這就是被作者們所稱的選擇失明）.

    9. 控制的諷刺過程

    事實上，有時候注意力就像是一個真實的熊。當你真正想要得到所要的東西時候，如輕擊高爾夫球，正好將球漂亮地發在角落里或是將車倒到一個狹小的場地，怎么樣？很自然地，你會比正常情況更難于集中注意力，這是焦點所在。不幸地是，這恰看起來使事情變得更糟：你的一擊差了一英里，發的球在空中飛了50英尺，倒車碰得叮叮當當。出了什么事？這些就是Wegner等人（1998）所稱的"控制的諷刺過程".有時候太多的關注和太少的關注一樣的不利。

    10.失眠

    嘲弄那些不會擊球、發球或是停車的人，好倒是好，倒也不壞，但是任何一個遭受失眠之苦的人都懂得這一點都不可笑。注意力在這里同樣可見一斑。最近的研究表明失眠的部分原因可能是注意力偏向于"與睡眠相關的威脅"（Harvey等人，2005）.換句話說，失眠患者使自己保持清醒，緣于過多地關注于與睡眠有關的身體感受以及任何可能使他們保持醒著狀態的環境噪音。不幸地是，這還多少有點諷刺意味。

    11.注意力不足過動癥（ADHD）

    現在最有名的注意障礙有三大類：（1）經常性疏忽；（2）經常性沖動和多動；（3）所有這三種情況的疊加。那些注意力不足的人發現很難去集中注意力，容易分心和想入非非。絕大多數患有注意力不足過動癥癥的人是兒童。注意力不足過動癥常常用興奮劑（利他林）來治療，同時伴以行為療法。

    12.焦慮

    你可能會驚訝地得知，焦慮是一種注意障礙，但是過于自我關注似乎包含在眾多不同的心理健康問題中。在具有社交恐怖癥和社交焦慮的人群中，他們的自我關注傾向于保持這一問題（Spurr & Stopa,2002）.它可以產生完美的直觀感覺：一個人不斷地思考在社會環境中的自己必將變得更加自我。不幸地是，這是另一個相當具有諷刺意味的過程。

    13.無端恐懼癥

    花太多的注意力在身體新陳代謝過程上是那些無端恐懼癥患者的一種強烈表現。顯然，我們都應該付出一些關心在我們的身體新陳代謝上--否則我們將不顧牙痛而我們牙將掉光。但是那些無端恐懼癥患者對肉體的感覺非常敏感（Schmidt等人，1997）.一個人的心痛是另一個人的死亡喪鐘。

    14.疑病癥

    談到花太多注意力到身體感覺上，你將不奇怪地得知到疑病癥患者往往對奇怪的陣痛過敏（Barsky等人，1988）.

    15.進食障礙

    此外，患有進食障礙的人，如神經性厭食患者似乎將注意力偏向于體形（Rieger等人，1998）.

    16.強迫癥（OCD）

    強迫癥患者通常會進行特別的工作--就像洗手--反反復復洗以減輕焦慮的困擾。過多的注意力轉向到焦慮誘導的想法上，特別是那些與威脅相關的想法上，這看起來是至少部分是這一病癥誘因（Lavy,1994）.

    17.創傷后應激障礙（PTSD）

    在經歷了創傷性事件后，大部分人在一定時間后會恢復，但是對于極少數人來說，傷痛難以緩解。他們的經歷會時不時閃現，常常做噩夢以及感到無法控制。注意力似乎應該納入誘因，因為創傷后應激障礙患者尤其受環境中消極刺激的吸引并對其敏感（Vythilingham,2007）.

    18.抑郁癥

    就像那些創傷后應激障礙患者一樣，抑郁癥患者也對負面刺激表現出一種放大處理（Ingram等人，1994）.處于抑郁時，有一個重要的維護過程被認為是反芻。那些更傾于一而再再而三擱置消極經歷的個體對發展中的臨床抑郁癥更敏感。

    均衡

    在許多可能是所有這些關于注意力會犯錯的例子中，不僅僅是注意的過程才導致傷痛；心理問題往往由眾多不同的因素造成。這一列表所表明的是，注意的過程中的如何引起或是涉及各種不同的問題。

    心理學家越來越多地聽到的事是我們都具有碰上許多這里提到的極端經歷情況的可能性。焦慮、恐慌、失眠及其他是人類狀態的一部分--每個人都在一定程度上會遇到。

    和諧的注意過程毫無疑問能夠獲得令人愉快的日常經歷，所能取得的顯著效果多么微妙。過少的關注難以實現生活中的目標，而過多的關注難以從消極的想法和感受循環中擺脫出來。