# structuring the mind chapter 8 **Opening (not a real abstract):** The Phenomenal Contributions of Attention 1 The Phenomenal Contributions of Attention The first part of this book has provided an account of the nature of attention. Attention is the regulating of priority structures. The second part is going to be about the relationship between attention and consciousness. It is uncontroversial that attention affects conscious experience. As a reminder consider the following examples. Suppose that you are listening to a jazz band. You will have one kind of conscious experience when you focus attention on the sound of the saxophone and a different conscious experience when you focus it on the sound of the piano. You might focus on the subtleties of the melody or on the timbre of the saxophone’s notes; or you might focus on the rhythm of the piece, even if no specific instrument is keeping that **Authors:** [[Beyond Appearances]]