Miller's Mind training for children Book 1 (of 3) / A practical training for successful living; Educational games that train the senses

by William Emer Miller

The Degree of Attention

This will depend upon the strength of the stimulus or force which excites it. The sense of sight is the strongest of all the senses and therefore can exert the strongest stimulus, and should be used in all possible cases. In the exercises with the square the changes are all visual and they continue the strongest stimulus.

Another strong stimulus can be induced by the feelings of either pleasure or displeasure. Happy, joyful anticipation or fear, horror, or disgust will arouse the attention.

Familiarity also aids the attention because of the feelings which it incites. Visual pictures which contain familiar scenes are better and all changes introduced should be of familiar ideas in order to take advantage of this fact.

The more you embrace in the attention the less penetrating it will be. Do not try to take in the whole picture or object all the time, but change from one detail to another, centering the attention on one at a time and thus building the perfect whole.