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Attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment while ignoring others. The mind can focus on specific stimuli or thoughts, enabling us to process the most relevant information at a given moment. Attention is crucial in perception, memory, learning, and decision-making. According to Harold Pashler Attention is the mechanism that controls access to consciousness and thus to perception, memory, and action. TYPES
- Sustained Attention : The ability to maintain focus on a single task or activity for an extended period without getting distracted. This is often referred to as concentration or vigilance^1.
- Selective Attention : The ability to focus on one particular stimulus while ignoring others. For example, listening to a friend at a noisy party^1.
- Alternating Attention : The ability to switch focus between two tasks that require different cognitive demands. For instance, reading a recipe and then preparing a meal^1.
- Divided Attention : The ability to process multiple stimuli or perform multiple tasks simultaneously, often referred to as multitasking The Filter Theory of Attention explains how our brain decides what to focus on and what to ignore. Since we are surrounded by a lot of information (sounds, sights, etc.) all the time, our brain can’t process everything at once. The theory suggests that we use a mental "filter" to select the most important information and block out the rest. Here's a detailed but simple explanation:
1. Broadbent’s Filter Theory (Early Selection)
Imagine you're at a party, and many people are talking at the same time. You can’t pay attention to all the conversations. Broadbent , who first proposed this theory, believed that your brain focuses on one conversation based on basic physical characteristics —like who’s speaking the loudest or who’s closest to you. Sensory Buffer : All sounds and conversations enter your ears, but they first go into a short-term storage, kind of like a waiting room. Filter : The brain's filter decides which conversation is important based on things like loudness or tone, before you even understand what’s being said. Meaning : Only the chosen conversation passes through to be fully understood, while the rest of the information gets blocked out. In simple terms, Broadbent’s theory says that we filter information early, before we even know what the information means. We use the easiest-to-notice details to decide.
Example:
At the noisy party, you can hear lots of sounds, but you focus on the person talking directly to you. Your brain filters out all the other sounds based on their volume or direction.
2. Treisman’s Attenuation Theory (Modified Early Selection)
Anne Treisman improved on Broadbent’s theory. She agreed that we filter information early, but instead of blocking out everything else completely, she suggested that the brain turns down the volume on the other information. This is called attenuation. Attenuation : Think of the filter as a volume control. The information you’re focusing on is loud and clear, but the background conversations are still faintly there. If something important happens in those other conversations (like hearing your name), you can still notice it.
Example:
At the party, you’re talking to a friend, but someone across the room says your name. Even though you weren’t focusing on that conversation, you still hear your name because your brain was still paying a little bit of attention to the background.
3. Deutsch and Deutsch’s Late Selection Theory
This theory takes a very different approach. Deutsch and Deutsch argued that the brain processes all information —even the stuff you’re not paying attention to—but it only brings the most important information into your conscious awareness. Full Processing : Everything, including all conversations at the party, gets processed by your brain to understand what’s being said. Selection Later : Once all the information is processed, your brain selects which conversation to focus on based on its importance or relevance.
Example:
At the party, your brain processes every sound and word from all the conversations. However, you only pay attention to the most important conversation—likely the one directly affecting you.
Dichotic Listening Experiment
In this experiment, participants are asked to listen to two different audio streams, one in each ear, through headphones. They are instructed to pay attention to only one of the streams (the "attended" ear) and ignore the other (the "unattended" ear). Researchers then test how much information the participants remember from the unattended ear. Findings: People usually do not recall much from the unattended ear. They may notice basic things like a change in pitch or gender of the speaker, but not the content of what is said. However, in some cases, important information (e.g., hearing their name) in the unattended ear can break through their attention filter.
Evolutionary
1. Cognitive Abilities We Take for Granted
Some of the most amazing things our brain can do seem so normal that we don’t even think about them. Two examples are the ability to see the world in three dimensions and the ability to understand and speak a language. These skills might seem simple—after all, even a 3-year- old can do them. However, scientists who try to program computers to do these tasks find that it's actually really difficult to teach a machine even basic versions of these skills.
2. Why Can Humans Do These Tasks So Easily?
The question is, how can children and most people do these things without much effort, even if they’re not geniuses? Some psychologists think the answer can be found in evolutionary theory. This theory is based on natural selection , which is the idea that traits that help an organism survive are passed down to future generations. So, just like humans inherited strong physical traits, we also inherited cognitive skills that helped our ancestors survive.
3. Human Minds Evolved Like Other Animals
Humans, like other animals, have brains that evolved to help us survive. According to survival of the fittest , individuals with traits (like sharp thinking) that helped them adapt to the environment were more likely to survive and pass on those traits to their offspring. The environments humans evolved in weren’t just physical (like dealing with predators) but also social (like interacting with other humans). Our brains evolved not just to solve physical survival problems, but also to handle complex social situations.
4. Specialized Skills from Evolution
The idea is that humans developed special skills over time because of evolution and natural selection. Psychologists like Cosmides and Tooby argue that humans have evolved a set of specialized abilities designed to solve specific problems, such as learning language, finding a mate, or avoiding dangerous foods. These are called special-purpose mechanisms , meaning that different parts of the brain evolved to solve different types of problems.
5. Social Problems Faced by Our Ancestors
One of the biggest challenges our ancestors faced was dealing with other people. To survive, they needed to understand social agreements and avoid being cheated. Survival of the fittest applied here too, as individuals who were better at forming and maintaining social relationships were more likely to survive and reproduce. Evolutionary psychologists believe that humans developed strong reasoning skills in social situations, especially when it comes to figuring out when someone is cheating in an agreement.
6. Understanding Through Evolution
Evolutionary psychologists think that the best way to understand how the brain works is to look at the evolutionary pressures faced by our ancestors. These pressures shaped the brain, making it good at solving problems that were important for survival. Traits that were useful
for survival, like social reasoning, were passed down through natural selection , helping humans adapt and thrive in complex environments Natural selection Traits that help survival and reproduction are passed down. Over generations, beneficial traits become more common. It’s one of the key mechanisms of evolution. Key Points: "Fittest" means being best adapted to the environment. The most adapted organisms are more likely to survive and reproduce. This concept explains why certain traits or behaviors continue through generations
Cognitive Activities Shaped by Culture
The ecological approach to studying how people think (cognition) is closely related to the evolutionary approach and less so to other models like information-processing. The main idea is that thinking doesn’t happen in a vacuum—it’s influenced by the cultural and environmental context in which a person lives.
2. Jean Lave’s Work on Everyday Problem Solving
Jean Lave, a researcher in this field, studied how people solve problems in their daily lives. She conducted an experiment called the Adult Math Project , which looked at how people use basic math skills, like arithmetic, in real-life situations. For example, in one study, Lave and her team followed people while they shopped for groceries and observed how they calculated the best deals. They discovered that people’s methods for solving math problems changed depending on the situation, which was surprising because schools teach students to use a fixed method for solving math problems.
3. Real-Life Problem vs. School Problem
Lave compared two types of math problems: one from school and one from real life. A typical school problem might be, "Brandi had eight seashells. Nikki had five more. How many seashells do they have together?" There’s one clear answer: 13. But in real life, a shopper might think: "I have four kids and a few apples at home, so how many apples should I buy for the week?" There’s no single answer—5, 6, or even 9 apples might work, depending on the shopper’s needs and preferences. Real-life problems are often personal and practical, while school problems are more straightforward and disconnected from daily life.
4. Studying Cognition in Everyday Contexts
While the ecological approach has become more popular, it actually started earlier. Psychologist J. J. Gibson was one of its main supporters, especially in the field of
