Attentional Zoom Reflections

Do you ever see something reflected over water that makes you zoom in and out between what’s underwater and what’s reflected? That’s attentional zoom. Watching the floating leaf vs. watching the crest of the wave; that’s also attentional zoom.

Attentional zoom is one mechanism for self-regulating our cognitive load. Cognitive load is the amount of information we are processing, it describes the interaction between the environmental demand on our attention and our mental resources. Just the right amount of cognitive load helps you get into a gentle, trance-like state. Your mind more easily wanders, led by your path of attention. Observing your eyes move aimlessly through shapes in your environment, feeling water flow between your toes before returning to the lake, these environmental rhythms unconsciously shape our thoughts because of their speed and collective demand on our mental resources.

We think fast or slow, depending on what’s needed. Human-made things often lead us to think fast. Nature-based things tend to make us think slow. Human-made things often demand more emotional resources, nature-based things tend to restore our emotions and attention.

The rhythms and pacing of our environments often shape how we think. I can maintain a good mood at work with familiar music played quietly in the background. I unconsciously track my work pacing by where I am in the song. Also, if I have a 5-minute break from work, I sometimes step outside to stretch my legs and restore my attention. Other times I’ll meditate. Perhaps most often, I scroll through headlines. I know why, I’m seeking positive distraction. Sometimes it works, sometimes it makes me feel worse. But what I’ve just done behaviorally is review headline-level information. I am looking for trends. My level of scrutiny diminishes greatly at this “speed” of thinking. I’d better mind my internal biases.

Interestingly, the cognitive load required to surf the web is greater than a visit to the outdoors, but I often choose surfing the web anyway. Why? Because I believe it will make me happier. Also, I may unconsciously want to maintain a similar “speed” of thinking during my break.

Although surfing headlines helps me to self-regulate my mental bandwidth, surfing the web usually doesn’t support my mood regulation as well as nature can. Just give nature your time and attention.

Maybe there’s a way for nature to help us maintain our mental bandwidth, similar to surfing the web. Try adjusting your attentional zoom!

JDF