PSYC 3260 Chapter 4: Chapter 4 - attention
29 Aug 2014
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Document Summary
In the context of human information processing, attention is the process that, at a given moment, enhances some information and inhibits other information. The enhancement enables us to select some information for further processing, and the inhibition enables us to set some information aside. First, we are constantly confronted with much more information than we can pay attention to; Second, there are serious limitations in how much we can attend to any at one time; Third, we can respond to some information and perform some tasks with little if any attention; Fourth, with sufficient practice and knowledge, some tasks become less and less demanding of our attentional processes. Process of concentrating on specific features of the environment or on certain thoughts or activities. Selective: excluding of other features of the environment. Both overt and covert: we can consciously attend to information but some information grabs our attention.
