What is attention? What are its types and channels? Why is attention sometimes difficult to sustain, while at other times it is difficult to divert? How does attention change the subject and the object of attention? These and other questions will be explored in the next edition of our Open University series. In a culture where multitasking and split attention have become the norm, and at the same time we are flooded with ads, messages and various items of information on various platforms and diverse media all seeking our attention, it seems not only useful but crucial for our mental and social well-being to understand who can compete for our attention and how. Lecturers coming from diverse backgrounds ranging from media studies, psychiatry, psychology, visual studies and literary criticism to economics will discuss how attention to various phenomena reveals not only the deep structures of attention’s workings, but also the crucial function in the way attention builds our experience of the world around as well as inside of us. Number of ECTS: 3

This is a series of lectures presented by invited speakers. Talks are normally 45 minutes long, with 15 minutes Q and A at the end, and are streamed through a closed channel on YouTube.

Confirmed speakers so far are the following:  

Lilla Kopár, Catholic University of America: Sensing the Bewcastle Cross: multisensory perception of early medieval stone sculpture

Izabella Füzi, Universtiy of Szeged: The Economy of Looking

Oguz Kelemen, University of Szeged: Attention in Psychology / Neuroscience

Rachel Irwin, Lund University: Paying attention to and in the body: self-tracking and self-monitoring devices

Mária Bakti, University of Szeged: Speech disfluencies – what do they reveal about attention and cognitive load?

György Fogarasi, University of Szeged: The Attention of the People: Mein Kampf and Thurber's Owl

Anita Kéri, University of Szeged: Do you only look but not see? Where is your attention really? Eye tracking experiments debunked

Number of ECTS: 3

Closed