The fact that organisms do not respond to all environment characteristics has led many psychologists to assume the existence of some mechanism for selection of such stimuli - traditionally called 'attention'. This paper investigates how the concept of "paying attention" is treated in B. F. Skinner work. We argue that Skinner admits two possibilities of interpreting what we ordinarily call "paying attention": (a) as relations of stimuli control, and (b) as a class of precurrent responses that clarify, or enhance, a discriminative stimulus. In both cases, "paying attention" is understood as a behavioral process, making references to cognitive processes unnecessary.
paying attention; attending; behavior analysis; precurrent behavior; stimuli control