Holds information about stimuli for a brief period time (a fraction of a second) and then transfers it to the filter.

Sensory memory in the filter model of attention

Identifies the message that should be focused on and passes on only that message (discarding irrelevant content) to the detector.

Filter in the filter model of attention

Processes the information received from the filter to only retain higher-level characteristics of the message (such as meaning). 

Detector in the filter model of attention

Detection replaces sensory memory to fill the role of detecting the existence of different stimuli. Recognition replaces detector to fill the role of recognizing the meaning of a stimuli.

UofM PSYCH 240 version of the filter model of attention diagram

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

There exists different models to map the process of attending to something. These include:
- The filter model of attention (early)
- Treisman's attenuation model (intermediate)
- Late selection models

Models of attention selection

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Filter Model of attention (bottleneck; early selection)

Treisman's attenuation model (intermediate selection)

Side-by-side comparison of the different models of attention (early, intermediate and late selection)

Posits that the selecting of where direct one's attention goes on after most of the meaning for a message has already been processed.

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