-  Salience: How obvious is it?
-  Expectancy: Are you looking for it?
-  Value: How much do you care about it?
-  Effort: How much energy does it take?

Mechianisms of Selective Attention

Presenting audial stimuli to both ears at one time. Often used in experiments regarding attention

Dichotic Listening

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

People ignore distracting stimuli through two factors:
- Perceptual load
- Processing capacity

Load theory of attention

Inattentional blindness is a psychological phenomenon where an individual fails to perceive a fully visible, yet unexpected, stimulus because their attention is engaged on a different task or object. This occurs because attentional resources are limited, and focusing on a primary task can effectively prevent other prominent stimuli in the visual field from being consciously processed.

Inattentional Blindness

Selective attention is the psychological process of focusing on a specific subset of available sensory information while ignoring other distracting stimuli. Because it acts as a filter for incoming sensory data, selective attention helps explain why some environmental stimuli are consciously perceived and others are not.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

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- Selective attention
- Distractions
- Divided attention
- Attentional capacity
- Attentional capture
- Eye movement
- Stimulus salience
- Binding

Focuses of Research on Attention

The discrepancy between what sensory receptors detect (sensation) and what is consciously experienced (perception) can be explained by several psychological mechanisms. Concepts such as sensory adaptation, selective attention, and signal detection theory help explain why certain sensory stimuli are perceived while others are not.

Factors Explaining Gaps Between Sensation and Perception

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


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Attentional capacity

Selective Attention

A stimulus that interferes with the processing of another.

Distractions

Paying attention to more than one thing at a time. In a sense attention is being divided among different stimuli.

Divided attention

When the focus of someone's attention quickly changes, often due to some significant stimuli (i.e. loud noise, bright light, etc)

Attentional capture

- Overt and Covert attention
- Fixation
- Saccadic eye movement
- Visual scanning

Focuses of research on eye movement

The physical properties of the stimulus, such as color, contrast or movement, that influence attention.

Stimulus salience

How features (color, motion, shape, etc.)  come together through attention to form a perception of an object.

Binding

Sensory adaptation is the process by which conscious perception of a stimulus decreases over time due to constant exposure. By demonstrating that continuous sensory input does not always reach awareness, it serves as a key concept to help explain the difference between what is merely sensed and what is actually perceived.

Sensory Adaptation

Attention is a critical factor that influences perception by determining which sensory stimuli are consciously processed. It functions as a filter, enabling an individual to focus on specific information from the environment while disregarding other stimuli, thereby shaping what is ultimately perceived from what is merely sensed.

Role of Attention in Perception

Signal detection theory provides a framework for understanding how motivation, expectations, and other factors influence our ability to detect a meaningful stimulus against background noise. It is one of the primary theories used to explain why certain sensations lead to conscious perception while others do not.

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