Information is received into our sensory system by attention and its quality determines how well it will be processed, stored and retrieved afterward.

The same information may attract different forms and levels of attention from different people. We may all have experienced times when information has been photographically retained, or ignored. It may be vividly imbedded in detail, or discarded as we turn a blind eye. All information we receive in fact is filtered by our attention, and the way to select and distribute attention determines its quality.

Factors affecting our attention are personal interest, experience, ability, emotion, knowledge structure, environment and timing and so on, and the combination of these may lead to results which are sometimes vastly divergent.

A person's attention capacity as a "constant" is limited within a certain time-span. In dealing with certain issues, however, it can be organized as a "variable", concentrating on a targeted area by its comparative edge. Therefore, it is not surprising to observe that somebody with an average intelligence can have an outstanding performance in certain fields, supported presumably by a rational attention distribution, psychologically speaking.

Learning translation has long been regarded as learning a foreign language, which is not wrong but is not in itself adequate. Concerning the quality of attention, the package should include foreign language, mother tongue and the convertibility between the two languages. When it comes to oral interpretation, rational attention distribution plays an even more crucial role.

The good news is that biologically speaking, a person's attention can be shaped, trained and strengthened by effective exercises. With that in mind, we should constantly improve the quality of our attention.