PSYCH 1X03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Visual Search, Inattentional Blindness, Stroop Effect
Document Summary
Attention allows you to navigate through your surroundings. The act of attending to an object to select it apart from the unattended objects. Some stimuli can trigger in an automatic fashion. Attention is an active process; actively selecting where to focus your attention. When irrelevant information overwhelms us, we get distracted. Automatic processes: involuntary capture by external events, fast, efficient. Controlled processes: conscious attention, slow, effortful. Our attentional resources are limited and must be controlled carefully. Some cues seem to be more noticeable and lead to stronger and quicker association when paired. Consciously effortful tasks can become automatic through practice. Conscious visual attention focuses like a spotlight: attentional spotlight focuses on only part of the environment at a time. Objects within your spotlight are more strongly attended to: you can respond to objects faster and with greater accuracy. Attention does not immediately rely on sight. Spotlights enhance the stimulus, whereas filters supress the noise.
