What category does Selective Attention belong to?

Selective Attention belongs to the "Concepts" category in personal knowledge management and productivity.

What are the key topics related to Selective Attention?

Key topics related to Selective Attention include: attention, cognition, psychology, focus, perceptions.

Selective Attention

Q: What are alternative names for Selective Attention?

Selective Attention is also known as: Focused attention, Attentional filtering, Attention selection.

The cognitive process of focusing on specific stimuli while filtering out others.

Also known as: Focused attention, Attentional filtering, Attention selection

Category: Concepts

Tags: attention, cognition, psychology, focus, perceptions

Explanation

Selective attention is the cognitive ability to focus on particular stimuli while filtering out irrelevant information. It's how you can follow one conversation at a noisy party (the 'cocktail party effect') or read despite background noise. Selective attention involves: choosing what to focus on, maintaining that focus, and suppressing competing stimuli. It operates through both enhancement (boosting relevant signals) and suppression (dampening irrelevant ones). Selective attention is limited - divided attention degrades performance. Famous demonstrations include: the gorilla experiment (intense focus causes blindness to unexpected stimuli) and change blindness studies. Factors affecting selective attention include: salience (loud, moving things capture attention), relevance (what matters gets noticed), and cognitive load (less selectivity when tired). For knowledge workers, understanding selective attention helps: design environments that support focus, recognize attention limitations, and appreciate that what you're not attending to isn't being processed.

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