Definition of Attention - Assignment Example

Attention al Affiliation Attention Attention refers to the cognitive process through which human beings selectively concentrate on one environmental aspect while failing to notice other aspects within the environment (Sternberg & Mio, 2009). Therefore, psychologists have considered attention as a technique of allocating processing resources. Attention has continued to be a significant arena of investigation within a variety of fields, including neuroscience, education, and psychology. Psychologists have conducted researches to investigate the effects of various phenomena, such as traumatic brain injuries on attention (Sternberg & Mio, 2009).

This discussion the main theories of attention, experimental support of the theories, and examples of attention that people experience in everyday life. The most common theories of attention include the Broadbent’s filter model, Treisman’s attenuation model, and Deutsch and Deutsch model (Sternberg & Mio, 2009). Broadbent’s filter model maintains that a person acquires information from different channels at a time. The person’s working memory cannot record information from different channels simultaneously.

Broadbent conducted the Dichotic Listening experiment to investigate the ability of people in focusing their attention (Sternberg & Mio, 2009). In this experiment, Broadbent sent a message to the right ear and a different message to the left ear of the same person. The participant processed the different messages at different times. Treisman’s attenuation model maintains that a person attends to different messages depending on their physical characteristics like intensity, pitch, and location (Sternberg & Mio, 2009).

However, people can attend to their names first irrespective of the pitch and give other messages the second priority. Treisman conducted a shadowing experiment and found that individuals were unaware of the unattended messages. Deutsch and Deutsch model maintains that people can recognize different channels of information, but forget them quickly unless channels hold personal significance (Sternberg & Mio, 2009). The Dichotic Listening experiment was applicable in Deutsch and Deutsch model. In real life situation, people attend to different messages and situations at different times.

For instance, a person can listen carefully to television news and ignore other conversations within the same room. New drivers may cause accidents when they listen to mobile phone conversation while driving. They attend to the mobile phone conversation and leave the traffic rules unattended. Students pay close attention to the information they previously acquired as compared to the new information, which they may ignore unless the teacher puts emphasis (Sternberg & Mio, 2009). ReferenceSternberg, R. J., & Mio, J. S. (2009).

Cognitive psychology (5th ed.). Australia: Cengage Learning/Wadsworth.