ATTENTION
Unit One: Introduction to Attention
• Attention allows you to navigate through a crowded world brimming with information
and distractions
• William James defined the topic of attention as the taking possession by the mind in clear
and vivid for, out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of
thought. Implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others and
is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused state
• Selection is the act of attending to an object to select it apart from the unattended objects
• Attention also refer to our conscious ability to attend to the info that is relevant to our
goals
• Irrelevant info in the environment acts as noise that can make it difficult to identify and
attend to important info
•Sometimes noise overwhelms the signal and you get distracted
Unit Two: Automatic and Controlled Attention
• Automatic and controlled processes influence attention in different ways
• Automatic processed are triggered involuntarily by external events and trigger the
capture of attention
• Automatic processes are assumed to operate in fast, efficient, and obligatory manner
• Controlled processes guide attention voluntarily and consciously to objects of interest
• Controlled processes operate more slowly because they are assumed to require more
cognitive effort
