Cognitive psychology
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Visual perception Object recognition Face recognition Pattern recognition
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Attention span

Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things. Attention has also been referred to as the allocation of processing resources.^[1]

Examples include listening carefully to what someone is saying while ignoring other conversations in a room (the cocktail party effect) or listening to a cell phone conversation while driving a car.^[2] Attention is one of the most intensely studied topics within psychology and cognitive neuroscience.

In 1890, William James, in his textbook Principles of Psychology, remarked:

Attention remains a major area of investigation within education, psychology and neuroscience. Areas of active investigation involve determining the source of the signals that generate attention, the effects of these signals on the tuning properties of sensory neurons, and the relationship between attention and other cognitive processes like working memory and vigilance. A relatively new body of research is investigating the phenomenon of traumatic brain injuries and their effects on attention.

History of the study of attention[link]

1850s to 1900s[link]

In William James' time, the method more commonly used to study attention was introspection. However, as early as 1858, Franciscus Donders used mental chronometry to study attention and it was considered a major field of intellectual inquiry by authors such as Sigmund Freud. One major debate in this period was whether it was possible to attend to two things at once (split attention). Walter Benjamin described this experience as "reception in a state of distraction." This disagreement could only be resolved through experimentation.

1950s to present[link]

In the 1950s, research psychologists renewed their interest in attention when the dominant epistemology shifted from positivism (i.e., behaviorism) to realism during what has come to be known as the "cognitive revolution".^[4] The cognitive revolution admitted unobservable cognitive processes like attention as legitimate objects of scientific study.

Modern research on attention began with the analysis of the "cocktail party problem" by Colin Cherry in 1953. At a cocktail party how do people select the conversation that they are listening to and ignore the rest? This problem is at times called "focused attention", as opposed to "divided attention". Cherry performed a number of experiments which became known as dichotic listening and were extended by Donald Broadbent and others.^[5] In a typical experiment, subjects would use a set of headphones to listen to two streams of words in different ears and selectively attend to one stream. After the task, the experimenter would question the subjects about the content of the unattended stream. Experiments by Gray and Wedderburn and later Anne Treisman pointed out various problems in Broadbent's early model and eventually led to the Deutsch-Norman model in 1968. In this model, no signal is filtered out, but all are processed to the point of activating their stored representations in memory. The point at which attention becomes "selective" is when one of the memory representations is selected for further processing. At any time, only one can be selected, resulting in the attentional bottleneck.^[6]

This debate became known as the early-selection vs late-selection models. In the early selection models (first proposed by Donald Broadbent and Anne Treisman), attention shuts down or attenuates processing in the unattended ear before the mind can analyze its semantic content. In the late selection models (first proposed by J. Anthony Deutsch and Diana Deutsch), the content in both ears is analyzed semantically, but the words in the unattended ear cannot access consciousness.^[7] This debate has still not been resolved.

Anne Treisman developed the highly influential feature integration theory.^[8] According to this model, attention binds different features of an object (e.g., color and shape) into consciously experienced wholes. Although this model has received much criticism, it is still widely cited and spawned similar theories with modification, such as Jeremy Wolfe's Guided Search Theory.^[9]

In the 1960s, Robert Wurtz at the National Institutes of Health began recording electrical signals from the brains of macaques who were trained to perform attentional tasks. These experiments showed for the first time that there was a direct neural correlate of a mental process (namely, enhanced firing in the superior colliculus).^{[10][not specific enough to verify]}

In the 1990s, psychologists began using PET and later fMRI to image the brain in attentive tasks. Because of the highly expensive equipment that was generally only available in hospitals, psychologists sought for cooperation with neurologists. Pioneers of brain imaging studies of selective attention are psychologist Michael I. Posner (then already renowned for his seminal work on visual selective attention) and neurologist Marcus Raichle.^{[citation needed]} Their results soon sparked interest from the entire neuroscience community in these psychological studies, which had until then focused on monkey brains. With the development of these technological innovations neuroscientists became interested in this type of research that combines sophisticated experimental paradigms from cognitive psychology with these new brain imaging techniques. Although the older technique of EEG had long been used to study the brain activity underlying selective attention by cognitive psychophysiologists, the ability of the newer techniques to actually measure precisely localized activity inside the brain generated renewed interest by a wider community of researchers. The results of these experiments have shown a broad agreement with the psychological, psychophysiological and the experiments performed on monkeys.^{[citation needed]}

Selective Attention[link]

In cognitive psychology there are at least two models which describe how visual attention operates. These models may be considered loosely as metaphors which are used to describe internal processes and to generate hypotheses that are falsifiable. Generally speaking, visual attention is thought to operate as a two-stage process.^[11] In the first stage, attention is distributed uniformly over the external visual scene and processing of information is performed in parallel. In the second stage, attention is concentrated to a specific area of the visual scene (i.e. it is focused), and processing is performed in a serial fashion.

The first of these models to appear in the literature is the spotlight model. The term "spotlight" was inspired by the work of William James who described attention as having a focus, a margin, and a fringe.^[12] The focus is an area that extracts information from the visual scene with a high-resolution, the geometric center of which being where visual attention is directed. Surrounding the focus is the fringe of attention which extracts information in a much more crude fashion (i.e. low-resolution). This fringe extends out to a specified area and this cut-off is called the margin.

The second model is called the zoom-lens model, and was first introduced in 1983.^[13] This model inherits all properties of the spotlight model (i.e. the focus, the fringe, and the margin) but has the added property of changing in size. This size-change mechanism was inspired by the zoom lens you might find on a camera, and any change in size can be described by a trade-off in the efficiency of processing.^[14] The zoom-lens of attention can be described in terms of an inverse trade-off between the size of focus and the efficiency of processing: because attentional resources are assumed to be fixed, then it follows that the larger the focus is, the slower processing will be of that region of the visual scene since this fixed resource will be distributed over a larger area. It is thought that the focus of attention can subtend a minimum of 1° of visual angle,^[12][15] however the maximum size has not yet been determined.

Bottom-Up vs Top-Down[link]

Researchers have described two different aspects of how our minds come to attend to items present in the environment.

The first aspect is called bottom-up processing, also known as stimulus-driven attention or exogenous attention. These describe attentional processing which is driven by the properties of the objects themselves. Some processes, such as motion or a sudden loud noise, can attract our attention in a pre-conscious, or non-volitional way. We attend to them whether we want to or not.^[16] These aspects of attention are thought to involve parietal and temporal cortices, as well as the brainstem^[17].

The second aspect is called top-down processing, also known as goal-driven, endogenous attention, attentional control or executive attention. This aspect of our attentional orienting is under the control of the person who is attending. It is mediated primarily by the frontal cortex and basal ganglia^[17][18]as one of the executive functions^[19][17]. Research has shown that it is related to other aspects of the executive functions, such as working memory^[20] and conflict resolution and inhibition.^[21]

Overt and covert attention[link]

Attention may be differentiated according to its status as "overt" versus "covert".^[22] Overt attention is the act of directing sense organs towards a stimulus source. Covert attention is the act of mentally focusing on one of several possible sensory stimuli. Covert attention is thought to be a neural process that enhances the signal from a particular part of the sensory panorama. (e.g. While reading, shifting overt attention would amount to movement of eyes to read different words, but covert attention shift would occur when you shift your focus from semantic processing of a word to the font or color of the word you are reading.)

There are studies that suggest the mechanisms of overt and covert attention may not be as separate as previously believed. Though humans and primates can look in one direction but attend in another, there may be an underlying neural circuitry that links shifts in covert attention to plans to shift gaze. For example, if individuals attend to the right hand corner field of view, movement of the eyes in that direction may have to be actively suppressed.

The current view is that visual covert attention is a mechanism for quickly scanning the field of view for interesting locations. This shift in covert attention is linked to eye movement circuitry that sets up a slower saccade to that location.

Influence of Processing Load[link]

One theory regarding selective attention is the load theory, which states that there are two mechanisms that affect attention: cognitive and perceptual. The perceptual considers the subject’s ability to perceive or ignore stimuli, both task-related and non task-related. Studies show that if there are many stimuli present (especially if they are task-related), it is much easier to ignore the non-task related stimuli, but if there are few stimuli the mind will perceive the irrelevant stimuli as well as the relevant. The cognitive refers to the actual processing of the stimuli, studies regarding this showed that the ability to process stimuli decreased with age, meaning that younger people were able to perceive more stimuli and fully process them, but were likely to process both relevant and irrelevant information, while older people could process fewer stimuli, but usually processed only relevant information.^[23]

Some people can process multiple stimuli, e.g. trained morse code operators have been able to copy 100% of a message while carrying on a meaningful conversation. This relies on the reflexive response due to "overlearning" the skill of morse code reception/detection/transcription so that it is an autonomous function requiring no specific attention to perform.

Neural correlates of attention[link]

Most experiments show that one neural correlate of attention is enhanced firing. If a neuron has a certain response to a stimulus when the animal is not attending to the stimulus, then when the animal does attend to the stimulus, the neuron's response will be enhanced even if the physical characteristics of the stimulus remain the same.

In a recent review, Knudsen^[24] describes a more general model which identifies four core processes of attention, with working memory at the center:

• Working memory temporarily stores information for detailed analysis.
• Competitive selection is the process that determines which information gains access to working memory.
• Through top-down sensitivity control, higher cognitive processes can regulate signal intensity in information channels that compete for access to working memory, and thus give them an advantage in the process of competitive selection. Through top-down sensitivity control, the momentary content of working memory can influence the selection of new information, and thus mediate voluntary control of attention in a recurrent loop (endogenous attention).^[25]
• Bottom-up saliency filters automatically enhance the response to infrequent stimuli, or stimuli of instinctive or learned biological relevance (exogenous attention).^[25]

Neurally, at different hierarchical levels spatial maps can enhance or inhibit activity in sensory areas, and induce orienting behaviors like eye movement.

• At the top of the hierarchy, the frontal eye fields (FEF) on the dorsolateral frontal cortex contain a retinocentric spatial map. Microstimulation in the FEF induces monkeys to make a saccade to the relevant location. Stimulation at levels too low to induce a saccade will nonetheless enhance cortical responses to stimuli located in the relevant area.
• At the next lower level, a variety of spatial maps are found in the parietal cortex. In particular, the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) contains a saliency map and is interconnected both with the FEF and with sensory areas.
• Certain automatic responses that influence attention, like orienting to a highly salient stimulus, are mediated subcortically by the superior colliculi.
• At the neural network level, it is thought that processes like lateral inhibition mediate the process of competitive selection.

In many cases attention produces changes in the EEG. Many animals, including humans, produce gamma waves (40–60 Hz) when focusing attention on a particular object or activity.^[26]

See also[link]

References[link]

Drake Bell
Drake Bell performing in 2007
Background information
Birth name	Jared Drake Bell
Born	(1986-06-27) June 27, 1986 (age 25)
Origin	Santa Ana, California, U.S.
Genres	Pop rock, alternative rock
Occupations	Actor, comedian, producer, musician, singer-songwriter, director, voice artist
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, bass, drums, ukulele
Years active	1994–present
Labels	Nine Yards, Universal Motown[1]
Associated acts	Hawk Nelson
Website	www.drakebell.com

Jared Drake Bell^[2] (born June 27, 1986), better known as Drake Bell, is an American actor, comedian, musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional television director. After beginning his career as a child star in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he appeared on The Amanda Show and became well-known among young audiences for his role on the series Drake & Josh while playing Drake Parker. As of 2010, Drake Bell remains one of Nickelodeon's most popular stars ever and has won nine Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. His latest film role is the live-action Timmy Turner in the TV film A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! shown on July 9, 2011, on Nickelodeon; he is also the voice of Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man on Disney XD. Bell is commonly associated with his real-life friend Josh Peck, who co-starred with him in The Amanda Show and Drake & Josh.

In addition to acting, Bell has a growing career as a musician, and co-wrote and performed the theme song to Drake & Josh, entitled "I Found a Way". In 2005 he independently released his debut album, Telegraph. His second album, It's Only Time, was released in 2006 after signing with Universal Motown Records.

Early life[link]

Bell was born and raised in Santa Ana, California, the son of Robin Dodson, a professional billiards player, and Joe Bell. He has three older brothers, Joey, Robert and Travis, and one older sister, Kellie.^[2][3] His cousin is Miami Marlins closer Heath Bell.^[4]

Career[link]

Acting[link]

Bell first appeared on television in a 1994 episode of Home Improvement. He appeared in the film Jerry Maguire (1996), and had a small role in the Seinfeld episode "The Frogger" in 1998. In 1999, he acted in a commercial for Pokémon Red and Blue and in the movie Dragon World: The Legend Continues. In 2000, he was nominated for the Young role as Cage Redding in the made-for-television film The Jack Bull. During the early 2000s, Bell was a featured performer on The Amanda Show and made a guest appearance on the series The Nightmare Room, before being cast as teenage heartthrob Drake Parker alongside real life best friend and former Amanda Show costar Josh Peck on the Nickelodeon series Drake & Josh, which began airing in 2004. During this time period, he made a guest appearance as himself on Nickelodeon's Zoey 101 and won the first of three consecutive "Blimp Awards" at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in the "Favorite TV Actor" category. In 2005, Bell co-starred alongside fellow Drake & Josh actress Miranda Cosgrove with Dennis Quaid in Yours, Mine and Ours. In the spring of 2008, Bell had a starring role in the comedy spoof film Superhero Movie. In August 2008, he co-starred in the comedy College, which was shot on location in New Orleans. Bell recently starred in Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh alongside Josh Peck, which began production in July 2008, and premiered on December 5, 2008. In 2010, he made a cameo appearance as Drake Parker in an iCarly episode entitled "iBloop". He starred as Timmy Turner in the live-action TV-movie adaptation of its hit animated series The Fairly Odd Parents, A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!, released in 2011.^[5] Bell also guest starred as himself on Victorious in 2012.

Music[link]

Beginnings[link]

In the film Chasing Destiny, he co-starred with The Who lead singer Roger Daltrey, who gave him his first guitar lessons. Bell performed on television for the first time in 2002 when he performed his first original song, "Lost A Lover", on The Amanda Show. He also performed part of this song on an episode of "The Nightmare Room", and "So Little Time".

Bell has described his music as being heavily influenced by The Beatles and The Beach Boys, with the Beatles being his main influence.^[6] He says that two of his other influences are Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly.^[7]

[edit] Telegraph (2004–2005)

His song, "I Found a Way", is featured as the theme song for Drake & Josh. The song is included on Drake & Josh soundtrack, along with two other songs he wrote and performed, and were also included on his debut album, Telegraph, which was released independently on September 27, 2005.

In 2005, Bell performed with Hawk Nelson in a video for the Hawk Nelson song called "Bring 'Em Out," which was featured in the movie Yours, Mine and Ours. Bell and then-band-mates Michael Corcoran (Backhouse Mike) and C.J. Abraham (The Super Chris), worked on music for Drake & Josh, Zoey 101, and iCarly.

[edit] It's Only Time and concert DVD (2006–2008)

In 2006, Bell signed with Universal Motown. He released his first single, "I Know", on October 17, 2006. The video for "I Know" was filmed in October 2006. Bell's second album, entitled It's Only Time, was released on December 5, 2006, reaching Number 81 on Billboard's Top 200.^[8] Bell performed live on MTV's TRL the day after it was released. In the summer of 2007, he went on a Nextfest tour in support of It's Only Time, opening up alongside Corbin Bleu for Aly & AJ.

On October 16, 2007, the Radio Disney single edit version of his song "Makes Me Happy", was released on iTunes. This was the second single for Bell's album It's Only Time. He also wrote with band-mates Michael Corcoran (Backhouse Mike), and C.J. Abraham (The Super Chris), and sang the theme song for the show iCarly, "Leave It All to Me," with Miranda Cosgrove. The music video for the song premiered on May 24, 2008. Bell has recorded a theme song featuring Sara Paxton for his movie Superhero Movie called "Superhero! Song". He performed some Christmas songs in the Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh movie.

A DVD entitled "Drake Bell In Concert" was released on December 16, 2008. The video was unable to crack the 2008 or 2009 Top 100.^[9] The DVD contains footage of him and his band live on stage while they toured in Mexico, in October 2008. It also features 2 new songs and 5 covers, all of which are exclusive to the DVD.^[10]

The Live In Concert DVD featured new music for the first time since 2006's It's Only Time; "Sea Song" and "All Alone at the Disco". He released a preview of a Spanglish edit of "All Alone at the Disco".

[edit] A Reminder and third album (2009–present)

In 2009, he released the songs "Unbelievable", "Modern Times" and "Shades of Grey" on his official MySpace.^[7]

In 2009, Bell uploaded a new track "Yesterday's Fool" to his SoundCloud page that he wrote/produced.

In 2010, Bell released a video showing him and Toby Gad working on a new song "Nevermind". A behind-the-scenes video of the making of the music video for a new song "Our Love" was uploaded on Bell's Official YouTube Channel in 2010. The official music video for "Our Love" appeared on YouTube soon after.

In March 2011, Bell released a 1:00 clip of the music video for a new song "Terrific", with a sneak preview of the studio version of the song.

On May 18, 2011, an official music video for the new song "You're Not Thinking" was released on YouTube, the video already airing heavily in Latin and South America (MTV Mexico Top 10).^[11]

A new single, "Terrific", was released on June 14, 2011, and was also included on an EP titled A Reminder, released on June 28, 2011, also featuring the songs "You’re Not Thinking", "Big Shot" and "Speak My Mind".^[12] The EP was produced by John Fields, who previously worked with Rooney, Jimmy Eat World, Selena Gomez, the Jonas Brothers, and Bleu. Bell said he decided to release A Reminder because he hasn't put out new music in a few years and "a full album will probably not happen until next year."^[12]

Personal life[link]

On December 29, 2005, Bell was involved in a car accident on Los Angeles's Pacific Coast Highway. He was driving with a friend when a truck ran a red light and caused a head-on collision. This resulted in a fractured neck, a jaw broken in three places, six missing teeth and several facial lacerations.^[13]

He has supported the non-profit organization, The Thirst Project, since 2009. The Thirst Project is an organization that addresses the issue of the clean water crisis by raising awareness through education. Bell's contributions include public appeals and concerts to raise funds. In 2010, the organization gave him the Pioneering Spirit Award, the highest honour that The Thirst Project has.^[14]

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Extended plays[link]

Singles[link]

Featured singles[link]

Music videos[link]

Video albums[link]

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Drake Bell

• Official website
• Drake Bell at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Drake Bell in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Drake Bell on Twitter

Mike Tyson
Tyson at SXSW 2011
Statistics
Real name	Michael Gerard Tyson
Nickname(s)	Kid Dynamite[1] Iron Mike The Baddest Man on the Planet
Rated at	Heavyweight
Height	5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Reach	71 in (180 cm)
Born	(1966-06-30) June 30, 1966 (age 45) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	58
Wins	50
Wins by KO	44
Losses	6
Draws	0
No contests	2

Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is a retired American professional boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old. Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, with 12 of them occurring in the first round. He won the WBC title in 1986 after defeating Trevor Berbick by a TKO in the second round. In 1987, Tyson added the WBA and IBF titles after defeating James Smith and Tony Tucker. He was the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, and the only heavyweight to individually unify them.

In 1988, Tyson became the lineal champion when he knocked out Michael Spinks in the first 91 seconds of the fight. Tyson successfully defended the world heavyweight championship nine times, including victories over Larry Holmes and Frank Bruno. Tyson lost his titles to 42-to-1 underdog James "Buster" Douglas on February 11, 1990, in Tokyo, Japan, by a knockout in round 10. Tyson continued in his quest to regain the titles, defeating Donovan Ruddock twice in 1991. Tyson was then scheduled to take on the undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield but pulled out due to injury.

In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping Desiree Washington, for which he was sentenced to six years in prison but was released after serving three years. After his release, he engaged in a series of comeback fights. In 1996, Tyson won the WBC and WBA titles after defeating Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon by knockout. After being stripped of the WBC title, Tyson lost his WBA crown to Evander Holyfield in November 1996 by an 11th round TKO. Their 1997 rematch ended when Tyson was disqualified for biting off part of Holyfield's ear.

In 2002, he fought for the world heavyweight title at the age of 35, losing by knockout to Lennox Lewis. Tyson retired from professional boxing in 2006 after he was knocked out in consecutive matches against Danny Williams and Kevin McBride. Tyson declared bankruptcy in 2003, despite having received over US$30 million for several of his fights and $300 million during his career.

Throughout his career, Tyson became well known for his ferocious and intimidating boxing style as well as his controversial behavior both inside and outside the ring. Tyson is considered to have been one of the best heavyweight boxers of all time.^[2] He was ranked No. 16 on The Ring's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.^[3] and No. 1 in the ESPN.com list of "The hardest hitters in heavyweight history".^[4] He has been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

Early years[link]

Tyson was born in Brooklyn, New York City. He has a brother, Rodney, who is five years older than he. His sister, Denise, died of a heart attack at age 25 in 1991.^[5] Tyson's father, Jimmy Kirkpatrick, abandoned his family when Tyson was 2, leaving his mother, Lorna Smith Tyson, to care for them on her own.^[6] The family lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant until their financial burdens necessitated a move to Brownsville when Tyson was 10 years old.^[7] Tyson's mother died six years later, leaving 16-year-old Tyson in the care of boxing manager and trainer Cus D'Amato, who would become his legal guardian. Tyson has been quoted saying, "I never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something: She only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for. I never got a chance to talk to her or know about her. Professionally, it has no effect, but it's crushing emotionally and personally."^[8]

Throughout his childhood, Tyson lived in and around high-crime neighborhoods. According to an interview in Details his first fight was with a bigger youth who had pulled the head off one of Tyson's pigeons.^[9] He was repeatedly caught committing petty crimes and fighting those who ridiculed his high-pitched voice and lisp. By the age of 13, he had been arrested 38 times.^[10] He ended up at the Tryon School for Boys in Johnstown, New York. It was at the school that Tyson's emerging boxing ability was discovered by Bobby Stewart, a juvenile detention center counselor and former boxer.^[6] Stewart considered Tyson to be an outstanding fighter and trained him for a few months before introducing him to Cus D'Amato.^[6]

Tyson was later removed from the reform school by Cus D'Amato.^[11] Kevin Rooney also trained Tyson, and he was occasionally assisted by Teddy Atlas, although he was dismissed by D'Amato when Tyson was 15. Rooney eventually took over all training duties for the young fighter.

Tyson's brother is a physician assistant in the trauma center of the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center.^[12] He has always been very supportive of his brother's career and was often seen at Tyson's boxing matches in Las Vegas, Nevada. When asked about their relationship, Mike has been quoted saying, "My brother and I see each other occasionally and we love each other," and "My brother was always something and I was nothing."^[13]

Education[link]

Although Mike Tyson dropped out of high school as a junior and never graduated, in 1989, along with Don King, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio by university President Arthur E. Thomas.^[14][15]

Career[link]

Amateur career[link]

Tyson competed at the 1981 and 1982 Junior Olympic Games, and won the gold medal twice: in 1981 against Joe Cortez and in 1982 against Kelton Brown, whose corner threw in the towel within the first round. He holds the Junior Olympic quickest knockout record with 8 seconds. In addition he won every bout at the Junior Olympic Games by knockout.

He fought Henry Tillman twice as an amateur losing both bouts by close decision. Tillman went on to win heavyweight Gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Rise to stardom[link]

Tyson made his professional debut as an 18-year-old on March 6, 1985, in Albany, New York. He defeated Hector Mercedes via a first round knockout.^[6] He had 15 bouts in his first year as a professional. Fighting frequently, Tyson won 26 of his first 28 fights by KO/TKO – 16 in the first round.^[16] The quality of his opponents gradually increased to journeyman fighters and borderline contenders,^[16] like James Tillis, David Jaco, Jesse Ferguson, Mitch Green and Marvis Frazier. His win streak attracted media attention, leading to his being billed as the next great heavyweight champion. D'Amato died in November 1985, relatively early into Tyson's professional career; some speculate that his death was the genesis of many of the troubles Tyson was to experience later as his life and career progressed.^[17]

Tyson's first nationally televised bout took place on February 16, 1986, at Houston Field House in Troy, New York against journeyman heavyweight Jesse Ferguson. Tyson knocked down Ferguson with an uppercut in the fifth round that broke Ferguson's nose.^[18] During the sixth round, Ferguson began to hold and clinch Tyson in an apparent attempt to avoid further punishment. After admonishing Ferguson several times to obey his commands to box, the referee finally stopped the fight near the middle of the sixth round. Initially ruled a win for Tyson by disqualification (DQ) of his opponent, the ruling was subsequently "adjusted" as a win by technical knockout (TKO) after Tyson's corner protested that a DQ win would end Tyson's string of knockout victories, and that a knockout would have been the inevitable result. The rationale offered for the revised outcome was that the fight was actually stopped because Ferguson could not (rather than would not) continue boxing.

On November 22, 1986, Tyson was given his first title fight against Trevor Berbick for the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight championship. Tyson won the title by second round TKO, and at the age of 20 years and 4 months became the youngest heavyweight champion in history.^[19] Tyson's dominant performance brought many accolades. Donald Saunders wrote: "The noble and manly art of boxing can at least cease worrying about its immediate future, now [that] it has discovered a heavyweight champion fit to stand alongside Dempsey, Tunney, Louis, Marciano and Ali."^[20]

Because of Tyson's strength, many fighters were intimidated by him.^[21] This was backed up by his outstanding hand speed, accuracy, coordination, power, and timing. Tyson was also noted for his defensive abilities.^[22] Holding his hands high in the Peek-a-Boo style taught by his mentor Cus D'Amato, he slipped and weaved out of the way of the opponent's punches while closing the distance to deliver his own punches.^[22] One of Tyson's trademark combinations was to throw a right hook to his opponent's body, then follow it up with a right uppercut to his opponent's chin; very few boxers would remain standing if caught by this combination. Boxers knocked down with this combination include Jesse Ferguson and Jose Ribalta.

Undisputed champion[link]

See also: Mike Tyson vs. Michael Spinks

Expectations for Tyson were extremely high, and he embarked on an ambitious campaign to fight all the top heavyweights in the world. Tyson defended his title against James Smith on March 7, 1987, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He won by unanimous decision and added Smith's World Boxing Association (WBA) title to his existing belt.^[23] 'Tyson mania' in the media was becoming rampant.^[24] He beat Pinklon Thomas in May with a knockout in the sixth round.^[25] On August 1 he took the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title from Tony Tucker in a twelve round unanimous decision.^[26] He became the first heavyweight to own all three major belts – WBA, WBC, and IBF – at the same time. Another fight, in October of that year, ended with a victory for Tyson over 1984 Olympics Super Heavyweight gold medalist Tyrell Biggs by knockout in the seventh round.^[27]

During this time, Tyson came to the attention of gaming company Nintendo: after witnessing one of Tyson's fights, Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa was impressed by the fighter's "power and skill", prompting him to suggest Tyson be included in the upcoming Nintendo Entertainment System port of the Punch Out!! arcade game. The idea was implemented, and in 1987 Nintendo released Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, which was well received and sold more than a million copies.^[28]

Tyson had three fights in 1988. He faced Larry Holmes on January 22, 1988, and defeated the legendary former champion by a fourth round KO.^[29] This was the only knockout loss Holmes suffered in 75 professional bouts. In March, Tyson then fought contender Tony Tubbs in Tokyo, Japan, fitting in an easy two-round victory amid promotional and marketing work.^[30]

On June 27, 1988, Tyson faced Michael Spinks. Spinks, who had taken the heavyweight championship from Larry Holmes via a 15-round decision in 1985, had not lost his title in the ring but was not recognized as champion by the major boxing organizations. Holmes had previously given up all but the IBF title, and that was eventually stripped from Spinks after he elected to fight Gerry Cooney (winning by a 5th-round TKO) rather than IBF Number 1 Contender Tony Tucker, as the Cooney fight provided him a larger purse. However, Spinks did become the lineal champion by beating Holmes and many (including Ring magazine) considered him to have a legitimate claim to being the true heavyweight champion. The bout was, at the time, the richest fight in history and expectations were very high. Boxing pundits were predicting a titanic battle of styles, with Tyson's aggressive infighting conflicting with Spinks' skillful outfighting and footwork. The fight ended after 91 seconds when Tyson knocked Spinks out in the first round; many consider this to be the pinnacle of Tyson's fame and boxing ability.^[31][32] Spinks, previously unbeaten, would never fight professionally again.

Controversy and upset[link]

During this period, Tyson's problems outside boxing were also starting to emerge. His marriage to Robin Givens was heading for divorce,^[33] and his future contract was being fought over by Don King and Bill Cayton.^[34] In late 1988, Tyson parted with manager Bill Cayton and fired longtime trainer Kevin Rooney, the man many credit for honing Tyson's craft after the death of D'Amato.^[22] Without Rooney, Tyson's personal discipline declined.^[35] In 1989, Tyson had only two fights amid personal turmoil. He faced the popular British boxer Frank Bruno in February in a fight where Bruno managed to stun Tyson at the end of the 1st round,^[36] although Tyson went on to knock out Bruno in the fifth round. Tyson then knocked out Carl "The Truth" Williams in one round in July.^[37]