Page 191 - PPL-engelsk 2025
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Human Performance
Everyone has experienced periods when they had difficulty concentrating on
tasks they needed to perform, letting their thoughts wander due to
daydreaming while something else was happening around them.
In aviation, this is referred to as losing situational awareness (SA).
But why does this happen? What exactly is meant by "attention" and
"concentration," and how do these mental abilities work? How can they be
improved?
2.7.2.5 Attention and concentration
The terms attention and concentration are used interchangeably but refer to
different things.
Attention and concentration are interdependent, but their underlying
processes are fundamentally different.
Attention depends on the brain’s sensory receptors, which are active when you
listen, see, touch, or taste something.
Attention corresponds to how consciousness processes an external event (e.g.,
a sound, an image, or a smell) or an internal state (e.g., a thought or a feeling)
and then maintains the event or state at a certain level of awareness.
For example, if you hear a song from your childhood on the radio, you become
attentive.
Concentration is a process that requires a particularly high degree of attention.
When you concentrate, you make an abstraction by ignoring all unnecessary
background noise from your surroundings.
Thus, concentration can reduce the attention span for a shorter or longer
period of time.
Flight Theory PPL(A)(UL)/LAPL Henning Andersen, Midtjysk Flyveskole© 2025 191
