PSYC 3260 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Chessboard, Automaticity, Parietal Lobe
4 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Sometimes attention comes from the external environment and sometimes from the internal environ. Main concept is selection of information for further processing. There are certain types of attention that occur without consciousness. Sustained attention: long-term goal or objective; if effective, guides focus over long periods of time. If there is damage; sustained attention is impaired. Woman sustained brain injury through motor accident. Divided attention: not uncommon to see people texting on phones while driving; dangerous behaviour. Texting requires attention therefore you"re focused on texting and not driving. Hands-free devices don"t solve the problem because attention is still involved. We have limited capacity to process information, some people say we have limited resources: concept is that we have more information than we can effectively process. Attention can be selective in space (attention in a particular location) and selective in time (some information processed a little early); can miss other information being presented at that time.
