James developed several theoretical statements concerning human consciousness as a complex system. Summarizing them, it should be noted that constantly changing thought is part of consciousness and concerns some parts of objects independent of it. The initial preliminary summary of the notion is the uniqueness of consciousness as “It” is constantly more engaged in one aspect of its target than in a different and accepts and declines, or selects, as it considers. The concepts of focused attention and cognitive will are of necessity patent instances of this selecting behavior (James, 1890). However, as human consciousness actively ignores most things, it accomplishes many other things during this procedure, much more than emphasizing things, bringing some elements together, and keeping others apart.
The organ’s conclusion helps individuals identify the sources of the feelings they experience from a particular body part. Out of all the feelings produced, attention selects some to pay attention to and ignores the rest. A man’s practical cognition is based on his experiences, but what those experiences will be is largely influenced by his attentional routines. According to James, the mind logically connects an observable tandem of things to arrive at the choice of omnipotent (James, 1890). The capacity of the cognitive system to divide a phenomenon into its parts and select the specific one that will, in the given situation, lead to the right answer is the foundation of all reasoning. The choice is renowned as integral to the aesthetic and ethical realms.
Cognition comprises comparing facts with each other, choosing some of them, and obliterating the remainder by strengthening and suppressing agents of the mind. From the mass of information provided by the department below, which quantity was culled from an even larger quantity of yet simple data, the most significant and most complex mental products are selected. According to James, everyone uses the same terminology to allude only to two things in life: self and not self (James, 1890). Thus, an individual first decides whether or not to pay attention to external stimulation, such as a sound or a picture, when it is presented. Organs make this initial choice largely automatic and are affected by elements like the stimulus’s strength or novelty. However, even after a person has decided to pay attention to a stimulus, they must still determine how to perceive and react to it based on prior encounters.
Reference
James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology, Vol. 1. Henry Holt and Co. Web.