Selection for cognition: Cognitive constraints on visual spatial attention

This article presents an argument that a primary function of attention in h umans is to support cognition. Abundant evidence from cognitive science sug gests that human cognition depends on "propositional representations". Prop ositions consist of compositional representations called predicates, and tr uth values. A primary function of attention, from a cognitive perspective, is to create propositions by assigning truth values to predicates. The atte ntional processes necessary to support propositional representations are id entified and the implications for current and future theoretical and empiri cal approaches to attention are discussed.