Lantern Attention

 
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EDITORIAL
Attending to the Skills of Attention

Eric Booth, Cofounder and Contributing Editor, The Ensemble; Cofounder, ITAC; Senior Faculty, AIM

06-03-2026

“Spotlight attention vs. lantern attention.” I first encountered this distinction in the work of the U.S. psychologist Allison Gopnick.

Spotlight attention means bringing full focus to a specific task. We develop this capacity over time, and we must!—it’s hard to succeed in life without the ability to focus well. Schooling is dedicated to developing this capacity: all those hours sitting at a desk and “paying attention” to information that rarely feels relevant; all those tests to measure spotlight skills.

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