Single mental move, or combo?

I sometimes have trouble focusing on something I wish to give greater attention.
From a particular experience, I found simplifying my terms of focus, made it more effective.
I then noticed that when I listened to sound, I either listened to one sound at a time (& moving quickly to the next) or I would listen to quite a few sounds at the same time, e.g. a bar of music rather than just the one note.
I tried using both, and noticed the single note was more effective in accuracy or perception, and aiding memory. Listening to say a whole bar, rather than just single notes took less effort, in terms of registering...
It's something you can also apply to the other senses.

Try this for yourself... and, ask questions if you don't fully understand.
I would love to hear how you go.

hmm but isn't this like studying your courses word by word and not focusing on the general understanding of the course? it's like being a parrot.
there's also the gestalt outlook on this ( the concept of wholeness) . The whole is more than the sum of its parts, for example you cannot reduce a dance to each single step making it.

Sometimes recognising the key words used is of great value, and looking at each, one by one, can help you remember the sentence.

I guess the method to me was to achieve each word first, then move on to the whole sentence.

When we are you we start with words, then move to sentences. Who is to say once we are older that we should start with sentences?

(Your thoughts?)

Dunno! understanding each word gives a more global and profound understanding of the sentence.
What happens to me sometimes is that when i dig deep into a word, the following comes intuitively or with as a sudden insight., as in one explaining the whole.