Attentional

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Pertaining to the ways in which mental focus is directed towards specific stimuli and the mechanisms involved in filtering out distractions
2. Relating to the cognitive processes that determine how attention is sustained on particular tasks while disregarding irrelevant information
3. Relating to the psychological processes that govern the management of focus on significant stimuli and the ability to exclude distractions from awareness

Etymology: "Attentional" is a plain formation: English "attention" plus the adjective suffix "-al", which came into English through Old French from Latin "-ālis". The suffix turns a noun into a relational adjective, so "attentional" means "of or relating to attention," which is how it is used today, as in "attentional resources" or "attentional control" in psychology. The noun it is built on has a Latin core. "Attention" traces back to Latin "attendere," meaning "to stretch toward," from "ad" ("to") and "tendere" ("to stretch"). The idea was physical: stretching one's mind or senses toward something. The noun "attentio" passed into Middle English as "attencioun" and later settled into the modern spelling.

Synonyms: focal, concentrated

Antonyms: distracted, unfocused