Attention has always been a prized commodity. The brain knows it and cognitive psychologists know it, but the average person has yet to fully grasp the concept. Articles on how to multi-task still flag the covers of popular magazines, and distracting cell phones and tablets accompany students to class on the forefront of their desks next their notes. It has been verified time and time again that the mind simply cannot attend to two things simultaneously; one can pay attention to one thing or another, but not to two things at once. People know that neutralizing distractions will yield invaluable minutes of clarity and focus, but for most, the application of such, is nearly impossible. With the internet access reaching farther into our lives from smart watches to televising pumps at gas stations, distractions are everywhere and increasingly difficult to ignore. …show more content…
Selective attention is focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus. (Meyers, 2013, p. 90) An example of selective attention is paying attention to a phone conversation while on a loud busy street. The brain is taking in thousands of stimuli about the surrounding smells, people, sounds, and environment, but allows for singular focus on the telephone conversation. This focus does not preclude a lack of inventory of the other stimuli, the brain has simply ruled them unimportant and tossed them