However, when one experiences flow, they are completely immersed in a certain activity. This excludes basic distinctive feelings, such as hunger and pain. Generally, people have the ability to decide what they will give their full attention to. Just decoding speech takes about 40–60 bits of information per second, which is why when having a conversation, one cannot focus as much attention on other things. According to Csikszentmihályi's 2004 TED talk, that number is about "110 bits of information per second." That may seem like a lot of information, but simple daily tasks take quite a lot of information. Psychologists have found that one's mind can attend to only a certain amount of information at a time. In any given moment, there is a great deal of information made available to each individual. The cognitive science of flow has been studied under the rubric of effortless attention. Researchers interested in optimal experiences and emphasizing positive experiences, especially in places such as schools and the business world, also began studying the theory of flow at this time. Flow research became prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s, with Csikszentmihályi and his colleagues in Italy still at the forefront. The theory of flow came about when Csikszentmihályi tried to understand the phenomenon experienced by these artists. Artists, especially painters, got so immersed in their work that they would disregard their need for food, water and even sleep. Mihaly Csikszentmihályi and others began researching flow after Csikszentmihályi became fascinated by artists who would essentially get lost in their work. Just as with the conditions listed above, these conditions can be independent of one another.įlow is so named because, during Csíkszentmihályi's 1975 interviews, several people described their "flow" experiences using the metaphor of a water current carrying them along: "'It was like floating,' 'I was carried on by the flow.'" History
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