couldn't make herself paid attention to

在这个句子里不用 pay ,是因为 pay attention to （= 注意）是及物动词词组,to 后面最好要有宾语,这里没有,如果用 pay ,意思就不太明确.
注意比较：Mary couldn't make hersesf pay attention to what the teacher was saying because her classmates made so much noise.= Mary 不能使自己集中注意听老师讲,因为她的同学们太吵了.