Selection for cognition: Cognitive constraints on visual spatial attention

This article presents an argument that a primary function of attention in humans is to support cognition. Abundant evidence from cognitive science suggests that human cognition depends on "propositional representations". Propositions consist of compositional representations called predicates, and truth values. A primary function of attention, from a cognitive perspective, is to create propositions by assigning truth values to predicates. The attentional processes necessary to support propositional representations are identified and the implications for current and future theoretical and empirical approaches to attention are discussed.