The conditions which insure the best attention of whatever type have to do with both physical and mental adjustments.  On the physical side there is need for the adaptation of the sense organ and the body to the situation.  For this adaptation to be effective the environmental conditions must be controlled by the laws of hygiene.  A certain amount of bodily freedom yields better results than rigidity because the latter draws energy from the task in hand for purposes of inhibition.  On the mental side there is need for preparation in terms of readiness of the nerve tracts to be used.  James calls this “ideational” preparation.  This simply means that one can attend better if he knows something of what he is to attend to.  Experimental evidence proves without doubt that if the subject knows that he is to see a color, instead of a word, his perception of it is much more rapid and accurate than if he does not have this preparation.  This same result is obtained in much more complex sensory situations, and it also holds when the situation is intellectual.  Contrary to expectation, great quietness is not the best condition for the maximum of attention; a certain amount of distraction is beneficial.

The problem of interest and of attention, from the point of view of teaching, is not simply to secure attention, but rather to have the attention fixed upon those activities which are most desirable from the standpoint of realizing the aim or purpose of education.  As has already been suggested, children are constantly attending to something.  They instinctively respond to the very great variety of stimuli with which they come in contact.  Our schools seek to provide experiences which are valuable.  In school work when we are successful children attend to those stimuli which promise most for the formation of habits, or the growth in understanding and appreciation which will fit them for participation in our social life.  We seek constantly in our work as teachers to secure either free or forced attention to the particular part of our courses of study or to the particular experiences which are allotted to the grade or class which we teach.  One of the very greatest difficulties in securing attention upon the part of a class is found in the variety of experiences which they have already enjoyed, and the differences in the strength of the appeal which the particular situation may make upon the several members of the group.  In class teaching we have constantly to vary our appeal and to differentiate our work to suit the individual differences represented in the class, if we would succeed in holding the attention of even the majority of the children.