【Attention】 , 【study】 , 【concentration】 , 【application】 can mean the direct focusing of the mind on something, especially on something to be learned, worked out, or dealt with.

【Attention】 is applicable to the faculty or power as well as to the act. Since the word carries no inherent implications about the power or the act or of the length of the latter′s duration, it usually requires qualifying words or phrases.

【Study】 stresses continuity and closeness of 【attention】 ; it usually also implies an aim such as the acquisition of knowledge, or the analysis of something that is complex or confusing, or the working out of a plan (as for action) or of a design (as for a book).

【Concentration】 emphasizes the centering of the 【attention】 on one thing to the exclusion of everything else.

【Application】 usually implies persistence in fixing one′s 【attention】 , and diligence and assiduity in the performance of all that is required; it suggests therefore a virtue won by effort and sheer force of will rather than (as with 【concentration】 ) a power that has its origin in one′s temperament or is the result of profound interest.