Selective Attention In Research

521 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Selective attention theories

Selective attention, as described in chapter four of Essentials of Psychology, is when a person has their attention focused on one task which causes them to not being able to focus on any other stimuli. The text goes on to explain that selective attention is able to occur because the brain can set apart contrasting signals from each other. It can alter itself so when focused on a task, the brain can temporarily change how neurons react to sensory details. Thus, when selective attention does take place, it makes it extremely difficult to concentrate on more than one thing at the same time. I agree with the concept of selective attention because I have seen the characteristics of selective attention in myself, as well as in others. Selective attention does affect a lot of people because it is very easy to lose sight of things when you are focused on getting something done. In Essentials of Psychology, the author discusses …show more content…

My mom, for example, also has selective attention. If I am trying to speak to her while she is looking at something on her phone she will not respond to me. Instead, she will either ask me to repeat what I said or she will disregard it. She doesn’t ignore me intentionally, but if she is concentrate on one thing, she can only pay attention to that one stimuli. For me personally, my selective attention isn’t bad. Unlike my mom, I can still talk to people that I am with while I am still on my phone. I have noticed that I have selective attention when I am driving. If I am driving, I am so concentrated on driving that I don’t even notice that the radio is on in the car. One time I went to go turn off the radio in my mom’s car so I could focus better because I thought I focused better the last time I had went when I thought that the radio was turned off, only to discover that the radio was on the last time I had driven and I never noticed

Show More
Related

  • The New Brain By Richard Restk Summary

    727 Words  | 2 Pages

    When we are doing a certain task we may get a text or we have to check our social media because of our addiction to it. These things cause us to drift off from what we actually are focused on. Sometimes we may be doing something, like reading, and our mind will subconsciously drift off onto another topic, like what our plans are for tomorrow. Some people do believe though that if the two tasks you are doing use different sections of the brain that it is all right to multitask. The example Restak gave of this was “an example of the principle of cerebral geography: The brain works at it’s best with the activation of different, rather than identical, brain areas. That’s why doodling while talking on the telephone isn’t a problem for most people, since speaking and drawing use different brain areas. But writing a thank you note while on the phone results in mental strain because speaking and writing share some of the same brain circuitry” (Restak 422). While this may be true, we still are not dedicating all of our time to just one specific task we are working

    Read More

  • Different Theories of Inattentional Blindness

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    Processing capacity is a very broad and flexible category according to many researchers. In fact, the quote above mentioned suggests that we often fail to notice things that happen just in front of us (unexpected events that are often salient) either because we were completely absorbed by something else or because we had so many things to do at the same time that we couldn’t pay attention to it. We have all at least once failed to see a friend who was waving at us while eating in the cafeteria or walking in a crowded street. The primary question that we should ask ourselves is: how many things can we attend at the same time? The truth is that we didn’t perceive this friend because of a phenomenon called “inattentional blindness”. The problem is that the richness of our visual experience leads us to believe that our visual representation will include and preserve the same amount of detail (Levin et al 2000). In this paper we’ll see the different theories of inattentional blindness, and the classical theories demonstrating this paradigm.

    Read More

  • Selective Attention and Irrelevant Stimuli

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    Selective attention is when a person focuses on their conscious awareness on a particular stimulus. The person only attends to one or a few tasks at one time, this is necessary to keep the person from being overloaded with information. One of the main functions of attention is selective hearing, which attends to some stimuli and ignores others.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Inattentional Blindness

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    81 Exploring Psychology). Inattentional blindness just goes to show that humans are usually good at focusing, but only on one thing at a time. When you’re so focused on one thing, your mind is completely blind to other events that may be occurring. An example in the article of this is when you’re busy focusing on finding a seat in a movie theater, that you never notice your friends frantically waving their arms around trying to get your attention (Simons, Chabins). By not noticing your friends, you have fallen to the inattentional blindness focus of the experiment. Inattentional blindness is like a horse that has blinders on during a race, it is a sort of tunnel vision of an individual’s

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Multitasking Can Make You Lose-Um Focus

    1336 Words  | 3 Pages

    While reading through the article, I noticed that the loss of focus she spoke of was happening in my life. I agree that we as a society are trying to become more productive, but multitasking is not the way to go. Tugend mentions that the human brain cannot efficiently handle doing multiple things at once (716). I see this in my daily life when trying to carry two or more items while trying to talk on the phone, it usually ends in disaster. However, multitasking is productive in some ways such as listening to classical music while studying. Tugend does a great job at getting personal with the reader; she uses situations that everyone has been through. Throughout the article, Tugend kept me entertained by switching between a casual and informational

    Read More

  • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before all else, the most important part to understand, about this disorder, is the symptoms that the suffer has. One of the most common symptoms of this disorder is inattentiveness. Inattentiveness is when a person is being heedless and is not focusing of paying attention to a matter being put in fron...

    Read More

  • Cost Of Multitasking

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    Performing well in at certain tasks and retaining information both require a high level of attention. Multitasking requires that this attention be divided amongst different tasks. As a result, the some of the attention used for a certain task must now be used for other tasks, which affects the factors needed to complete it. Referring to an experiment that was discussed earlier, Wieth and Burns (2014) stated that even with the reward, the promise of incentive could not override the limits of people’s attention. Retaining information requires undivided attention. The key word is ‘undivided.’ According to this experiment, it is nearly impossible to have the same high level of focus while working on multiple tasks that a person would while working on one task. Once someone has reached the end of their attention span, their performance begins to falter. In a final experiment involving media multitasking and attention, Ralph, Thomson, Cheyne, and Smilek (2014) stated that multitasking can lead to mind wandering and lapses in attention, which distracts people from their tasks. These results show that once their attention is divided, it can lead to distractions and difficulty completing different tasks. It is difficult to complete one assignment while focusing on several others at the same time. Multitasking affects the attention needed for a task, which can affect everything

    Read More

  • Theories of Visual and Auditory Attention

    2408 Words  | 5 Pages

    Treisman, A. (1964). Monitoring and storage of irrelevant messages in selective attention. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 3(6): 449-459.

    Read More

  • The Effect Of Avoid Distraction By Christopher Columbus

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    Distraction may happen subtly in the class room when a colleague draws your attention from what is being taught. It may also happen in the exams hall – I’m sure you’re familiar with this. It may also happen when you’re learning or revising. No matter which form it takes, you have to be able to identify it and avoid it. Sometimes, you will need to be wise and/or strong willed to do this.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech On Texting And Driving

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    A. People are constantly fixated on their phones, checking Twitter, Facebook, and text messages. The use of a cell phones while driving is extremely distracting and dangerous to the person behind the wheel, and everyone else on the road as well.

    Read More

  • Cell Phone Use and Smoking while Driving Should be Banned

    451 Words  | 1 Pages

    I, as a driver, too, think that cell phone use while driving is a distraction. Even though I personally don’t own a phone, I have used one. I noticed that talking on the cellular phone and driving doesn’t make it hard to focus on the road. But it is difficult and a major distraction to dial-up a number without losing focus on the road. Dialing a number is the main distraction about cel...

    Read More

  • Reflection Paper On Infj

    1268 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Over-focusing” on some things causes the deficit of attention to other things: my clothes, people and environment around, other actions that are done automatically. Automatic actions are often made with ridiculous errors that affect my work and my self-esteem -> confidence. I can wear shoes of different pairs, or finding an elegant solution I can make stupid mistakes in the formatting of my program, and because of that nothing work. I need better manage such situations. Not sure how, however.

    Read More

  • Effects Of Reckless Driving

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    The main distraction of driving is cell phones. Most adults and teens will engage in texting and driving. Due to the major issue of texting and driving many campaigns have been launched, one being launched by AT&T “when it comes to texting and driving, it can wait.” This campaign has many drivers take the pledge to no longer use their phone when driving, there is an available app that will send out automatic messages to anybody that sends a while the individual is driving. When someone is driving at the rate of 55 miles per hour for only 4.6 seconds, it will equal the length of a football field, 100 yards. So, even stopping full vision from the road for a few seconds will still risk serious danger. Another cause of distracted driving is being exhausted or tired, doing so will cause a much slower reaction time. The slower reaction time causes many of the accidents that happen when people are tired. Another possibility is falling asleep behind the wheel even for a few seconds you could drift, or swerv into another lane and hit another car causing a major or fatal car accident. When taking driving classes, the students within the class will hear the saying “stay alert, stay alive.” The final major distraction of driving is eating and drinking. One of the problems of eating and drinking while driving is that it causes both a visual and manual distraction. When removing your eyes from the road many dangers will be

    Read More

  • Research Proposal: The Attention Span of Students During Class

    919 Words  | 2 Pages

    Attention refers to the state of applying the mind into specific information currently seen in our surroundings. W. James defines attention as the clasp possession of the mind which can do several coincidentally possible objects or train of thoughts. It also suggests recession from some things in order to handle with others effectively (Cherry, n.d.).

    Read More

  • Kahneman's Model of Divided Attention

    1774 Words  | 4 Pages

    The phenomenon of ‘Divided attention’ is the idea that an individual has the ability to divide their attention between two or more tasks (multi- tasking). Focused attention models such as Broadbent’s theory, Treisman’s theory and Deutsch and Deutsch model explains how all our inputs are focused on one task at a time, however it is clear from looking at everyday life that we are able to divide our attention, successfully being able to complete more than one task at the same time.

    Read More

More about Selective Attention In Research

Open Document