Final answer:
The main concern with novices and attention is their limited ability to process multiple stimuli, which can result in inattentional blindness and reliance on faulty heuristics. This can make learning and performing new tasks stressful and prone to mistakes. As novices become more adept, however, they can develop the proficiency needed to reach a flow state where attention and task performance are more balanced and enjoyable.
Step-by-step explanation:
The concern with novices and attention centers on the limited capacity of inexperienced individuals to process multiple stimuli, leading to challenges in task performance and the potential for inattentional blindness. Novices often struggle to filter out irrelevant information and to use shortcuts like heuristics effectively. An example of this is the phenomenon demonstrated in a study by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris where subjects failed to notice a person in a gorilla costume while counting basketball passes, illustrating how focused attention can lead to missing other obvious stimuli.
Unlike experts, novices do not have a refined set of mental short-cuts—heuristics—that have been tested and improved over time through experience, making them more prone to errors and biases. Additionally, because novices have not yet automated task-specific processes, they may find it stressful or frustrating to maintain sustained attention during complex activities, unlike those who have reached a flow state of proficiency where tasks become pleasurable.
For novices in any domain, it is advisable to be cautious of relying on intuition or automatic responses and instead focus on skill-building and increasing their awareness and proficiency, which is represented by the learning curve. This step-by-step skill acquisition enables gradual improvement in task performance and the management of attention.