attentional-control

Attentional-control is the cognitive mechanism that selects, sustains, and shifts focused mental resources toward relevant stimuli or goals while suppressing distraction. Parameters: (1) selection gate — filtering incoming information by relevance to current goals; (2) sustained maintenance — holding attention on a target over time; (3) executive shift — voluntarily disengaging from one focus and reorienting to another. The capacity operates through top-down goal-directed routing and bottom-up stimulus-driven capture, with executive control networks resolving conflicts between competing inputs. Persistence mechanism: deliberate cognitive training, behavioral practice in attention-demanding tasks, and institutionalized use in educational curricula and cognitive-behavioral therapies that teach sustained focus. [formal: attentional control | substrate: behavior | horizon: hours | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.91]