Selective attention
Selective attention refers to the cognitive process by which individuals focus on specific stimuli while ignoring others, based on personal relevance or interest. This phenomenon allows people to concentrate on tasks, such as reading or playing video games, while filtering out distractions from their environment, like background noise or other conversations. The ability to selectively attend is crucial for effectively processing sensory information, as the brain cannot manage all incoming stimuli simultaneously.
Children develop selective attention skills as they grow, demonstrated through experiments that challenge them to categorize objects based on certain features. Research also shows that selective attention can lead to noteworthy oversights; for instance, individuals may fail to notice unexpected events, such as a person in a gorilla suit, if their focus is directed elsewhere. Furthermore, selective attention is not limited to external stimuli; internal thoughts and worries can also capture an individual's focus, sometimes detracting from their ability to engage with their immediate surroundings.
In addition to its cognitive implications, selective attention plays a significant role in everyday experiences, influencing how individuals perceive advertisements and other forms of media. Understanding selective attention is valuable in various fields, including psychology, marketing, and education, as it highlights the complex interplay between focus, perception, and awareness in human behavior.
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Selective attention
Selective attention is the term used for the tendency of people to notice those things in which they have some interest. These things are generally something that has importance or relevance to the person because it meets a need or reflects something related to his or her personal beliefs, interests, or opinions. The term can refer to things that are seen or heard. Selective attention is at work when people become so engrossed in a task that they do not hear someone calling them, or when they suddenly start noticing a particular product after they begin to consider purchasing that item.
Background
Psychologists define attention as a condition of being focused on and aware of specific environmental stimuli. The human brain's ability to process sensory input, such as sights, sounds, smells, tastes, etc., is not unlimited. As a result, the brain has developed the ability to concentrate on the input that is most necessary or relevant, and to ignore or suppress those stimuli which are less important. For instance, early man would have been especially attuned to hear and react to the sound of footsteps from a large animal, while modern man is likely to hear and respond to a car horn over the sounds of traffic and a car radio. This is because each of these sounds signaled something the brain had learned was of vital importance and required attention.
There are different reasons why certain stimuli warrant attention. In some cases, the person chooses to focus attention in a purposeful manner. People intentionally concentrate on one thing when reading or having a conversation with a loved one, for instance. In other cases, people pay attention to things because past experience has taught them that they are important; the danger signals of an approaching animal or car are examples of this, as are crying infants, a speed limit sign, and the rotten egg smell added as an alert to leaks of propane and natural gas.
Sometimes, people's attention is caught by something that overrides all other input; the sound of music in an unexpected location, the smell of fresh bread or coffee, or the sight of a baby animal all have the ability to unintentionally direct a person's attention to an area of focus other than where it was. Anything that is new or unexpected, that prompts memories or triggers a physical response (such as fear of an animal attack or salivation at the smells from a bakery), that contrasts with the rest of the environment (such as a crying child in a movie theater), or that repeats (a car alarm that is set off multiple times) has the ability to attract interest and attention from the brain.
Selective attention incorporates aspects of these different forms of attentiveness. A person is exhibiting selective attention when concentrating on playing a video game or watching a television program; this person is likely to "tune out" or not respond to sounds such as outside traffic noise or someone calling his or her name from another room. Selective attention is also at work when a new parent awakens every time the baby makes the slightest sound, or when a person who learns how to play the piano suddenly notices the sound of piano music in television commercials and other places where it was never noticed before. The person's increased interest in and focus on these things results in selective attention to new stimuli, or to stimuli that was present but now elicits increased attention.
Selective attention can also pertain to internal stimuli, such as thoughts or worries. A person who is concerned about an upcoming event such as a performance or speech may be distracted by thoughts of these internal stimuli. These thoughts can be triggered easily and can claim a person's attention over something else, even if the person would prefer to focus on another thought or task.
Overview
Selective attention develops during childhood. Researchers have been able to test this with experiments that require children of varying preschool ages to sort cards according to different criteria. For instance, the children might be asked to place all cards with stars in one pile regardless of color, or all cards depicting objects of a particular color in one pile. These tasks require selective attention to one aspect of the image on the card, and studies have shown that children's ability to do this increases with age.
This process of selectively focusing on one type of stimuli over another can be very strong. Researchers have proven this with other studies. One study asked participants to watch a group of less than a dozen people throw a ball around a circle. Half of the ball-throwing group wore white shirts and the other half wore dark shirts, and study participants were instructed to count how many times people in white shirts caught the ball. During the game, a person in a dark gorilla suit walked directly through the circle. When the study participants were asked how many of them saw the gorilla, half of the participants did not remember seeing it. Their focus on white shirts was so intense that the gorilla went unnoticed.
From studies like this, researchers deduce that people pay the most attention to the things that are of the greatest importance to them. However, researchers are also keenly interested in why people sometimes fail to pay attention to things that are of great importance or interest to them. This failure of selective attention is noticeable in conditions such as attention deficit disorder (ADD) and is also a factor in autism and similar conditions in which people seem unable to selectively focus. People without a specific medical condition also sometimes seem to have a flawed sense of selective attention; for example, some people fail to notice signs of abuse by a partner or of illness or drug abuse in a loved one.
Advertisers are also interested in the effects of selective attention. This is one reason ads are placed in areas where there is a captive audience who might be more likely to pay attention to an ad, such as on buses or in doctors' offices. It is also the reason advertisers place ads in various ways, such as running ads for sunny vacation destinations when it is winter in cold areas and people are thinking about escaping to warmer climates.
Bibliography
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