ABSTRACT
Sometimes it has been assumed that sensory and perceptual processes are automatic in the sense that, once established, they invariably proceed always in the same manner and cannot be modified in the course of the ongoing process. The intention of this paper is to show that such a view is basically wrong. Specifically, the claim is that already at relatively early levels of visual information processing, the organism is capable of actively controlling and, consequently, also structuring its input. The main function of this mechanism, called “attention,” is to reduce the flood of incoming information, for the purpose of adapting the organism optimally to a highly complex environment.
