Sensation and perception essay

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PS111 Reg No: 0842887

University of Essex

Department of Psychology

Discovering Psychology: The Science Behind Human Behaviour

Describe selective attention and discuss its functions, how it can be controlled and ways of investigating it.

Date: 20-2-09

Word Count: 1000

Describe selective attention and discuss its functions, how it can be controlled and ways of investigating it.        

Selective attention is very important in our daily lives, but we are often unaware of how it really works. Therefore, it is worthy to explore its characteristics and functions, ways to control it and investigation methods. 

Selective attention, also known as focused attention, mainly controls our awareness of particular categories or entities in our environment. When it is involved, we focus entirely on one stimulus and ignore others. (Elizabeth, 2006) For instance, when we are working hard on an essay, even if external noises are present, we would not be aware of them. Selective attention can be explained by some components of the brain’s sensory system being more sensitive to detect particular categories of stimuli. For example, if a person is looking for changes in shapes, colours or movements of objects, there is increased activity in the portions of his visual cortex devoted to the analysis of shapes, colours or movements. (Martin, et al., 2007) Different mechanisms serve to filter out irrelevant information and make us more responsive to particular stimuli. Ultimately, selective attention would sort out the information that should reach Short Term Memory and finally manipulate what is stored in Long-Term Memory. (Elizabeth, 2005)

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We can control selective attention automatically while hearing a loud noise, through instructions when we look in a specific direction or demands of a particular task like driving – we are especially aware of other road users, pedestrians and road signs. (Martin, et al., 2007)

        One main reason selective attention is useful is that it acts as a gatekeeper that helps control the flow of information to brain mechanisms responsible for conscious processing of information, which have limited capacity. (Broadbent, 1958; Martin, et al., 2007)

        

        Among the various ways to investigate selective attention, audition and vision are the ...

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