Attention: Focusing the Cognitive Spotlight

• Selective Attention - The ability to focus on specific stimuli while ignoring others. Influenced by factors like novelty, relevance, and individual goals.
• Divided Attention - Multitasking involves dividing attention among multiple tasks. Effective multitasking depends on the complexity and similarity of tasks.
• Sustained Attention - The ability to maintain focus over an extended period. Fatigue, boredom, and task difficulty can impact sustained attention.
• Cognitive Load - The mental effort required to process information. High cognitive load can reduce attention and hinder performance.
• Inattentional Blindness and Change Blindness - Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice unexpected stimuli in plain sight. Change blindness is the difficulty in detecting changes in a visual scene.