Attention with effort:

"for to say that an object is interesting is only another way of saying that it excites attention. But in addition to the attention which any object already interesting or just becoming interesting claims — passive attention or spontaneous attention, we may call it — there is a more deliberate attention, — voluntary attention or attention with effort, as it is called, — which we can give to objects less interesting or uninteresting in themselves."

William James

[Also see: John Cleese on English Education]