Térfigyel

Térfigyel is a Hungarian verb meaning to observe or monitor a space or spatial environment, and to pay attention to the positional aspects of the surroundings. It conveys the act of directing attention to where things are located in a given area, rather than merely noticing objects in a general sense. The related noun form is térfigyelés, referring to the process or practice of maintaining spatial awareness.

Etymology and usage: the word is built from tér, meaning space or area, and figyel, meaning to watch or pay attention. It is used in everyday language to describe paying attention to one’s surroundings, as in driving, walking through a crowd, or supervising a worksite. In technical or professional contexts, térfigyelés can denote deliberate, continuous monitoring of spatial relationships, such as the arrangement of people or objects in a room or the surroundings in a security, surveillance, or robotics setting.

In cognitive science and psychology, térfigyelés corresponds to the concept of spatial attention: the ability to selectively process information from a particular location in space while ignoring other areas. Research on spatial attention explores how cues, distractions, and movement affect our capacity to detect or respond to stimuli at specific positions, and how this ability develops or degrades with age and in certain disorders.

See also: spatial attention, attention, surveillance, situational awareness.