Information Processing - Attention

Information Processing & Attention

When we are selectively attending to one activity, we tend to ignore other stimulation, although our attention can be distracted by something else, like the telephone ringing or someone using our name.

Psychologists are interested in what makes us attend to one thing rather than another (selective attention); why we sometimes switch our attention to something that was previously unattended (e.g. Cocktail Party Syndrome), and how many things we can attend to at the same time (attentional capacity).

One way of conceptualizing attention is to think of humans as information processors who can only process a limited amount of information at a time without becoming overloaded. Broadbent and others in the 1950's adopted a model of the brain as a limited capacity information processing system, through which external input is transmitted.

The Information Processing System

Information processing models consist of a series of stages, or boxes, which represent stages of processing. Arrows indicate the flow of information from one stage to the next.

* Input processes are concerned with the analysis of the stimuli.

* Storage processes cover everything that happens to stimuli internally in the brain and can include coding and manipulation of the stimuli.

* Output processes are responsible for preparing an appropriate response to a stimulus.