12 states of attention: overview

i'll be doing a presentation on september 23 at the austin NLP meetup on the topic of the 12 states of attention. these were named, though not invented, by a man named nelson zink, who wrote a delightful book called "the structure of delight." he also has a website, www.navaching.com.

the 12 states come from the 3 major representation systems (i.e., senses), visual (V), auditory (A), and kinesthetic (K).

in addition, zink makes a couple of more refinements. each of these states can be either internal or external (I or E), and they can also be narrow or broad (N or B)--and anywhere in between--a sliding scale.

so we have these 12 states as ways we use our attention:

VEB--visual external broad, like watching a sunset, seeing a landscape, a starry sky

VEN--visual external narrow, foveal vision, focusing on one object--a ship on the horizon, a bird in the sky

AEB--auditory external broad, like walking into a party and hearing many conversations at once, hearing an orchestra tune up, a stadium full of people cheering

AEN--auditory external narrow, like picking up a single word in those many conversations, hearing just the trumpet, hearing one person's clapping

KEB--kinesthetic external broad, like feeling sweaty, feeling your clothing against your skin, feeling wet, feeling the wind on your skin

KEN--kinesthetic external narrow, feeling your butt on the seat of a chair, the soles of your feet in your shoes, a hair tickling your neck, a fly landing on your arm

VIB--visual internal broad, remember seeing a beautiful sunset, view from a mountaintop, remember looking at the ocean's horizon

VIN--visual internal narrow, imagine seeing a bird flying by, seeing a distant car, remember seeing a ship far away

AIB--auditory internal broad, imagine the sound of a stadium full of people applauding, the sound of a motor, remember the sound of rain on a tin roof

AIN--auditory internal narrow, remember the sound of a trumpet, imagine hearing a pin drop, remember a dripping sound

KIB--kinesthetic internal broad, feeling happy, feeling excited, feeling grief, feeling relaxed

KIN--kinesthetic internal narrow, feeling the pain of a paper cut, feeling a rock in your shoe, feeling the air moving in your nostrils


notes:

the internal auditory and visual states are either remembered or constructed. (some say memories are constructed.)

the external states are being present in the here and now.

internal kinesthetic states can be here and now, and remembered or constructed.

the skin is the boundary for internal and external.

zink claims that there are physiological differences between broad and narrow states.


things to notice:

notice the difference between internal and external. do you sense a boundary?

notice the difference between broad and narrow.

notice which states are hard and which are easy.

notice if you take detours. for instance, to imagine the sound of a stadium of people cheering, do you first need to imagine seeing it?