Year 12 General Psychology - Selective & Divided Attention investigation
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Course
Psychology
Institution
12th Grade
Investigation that determined whether external stimuli affects information processing when using attention selectively or dividedly. Apart of the Cognition topic in the Year 12 General Psychology course.
Investigation – Selective and divided attention
Abstract
The aim of this experiment was to investigate how external stimuli affects information processing when
using attention selectively or dividedly. Participant #1’s selective attention was tested by using only
their left ear, and Participant #2’s divided attention was tested by using both their left and right ears.
The experiment was conducted to see the correlation, if any, between selective and divided attention
and memory ability. It was hypothesised that participants undergoing selective attention would have a
higher memory ability than those who were undergoing divided attention; the results support the
hypothesis in that Participant #1, who was instructed to focus on their left, scored higher than
Participant #2, who was instructed to focus on their left and right.
Introduction
Attention is the process of concentrating on a specific piece of information to the exclusion of other
stimuli. It can be divided into two subcategories: selective and divided attention. Selective attention is
the ability to block out certain stimuli to focus on a particular task, allowing unimportant information to
be filtered out to focus on more important information. Humans are subject to constant stimulation
from all aspects of life, such as the sound of passing cars to the chattering of people around – the
brain must be able to filter out these external stimuli. Selective attention is an important process as
there is a limit to how much information can be processed at a given time. An example of selective
attention is playing a video game; the individual may be so focused on the video game that they may
not hear any other stimuli around them. Conversely, divided attention is the ability to focus attention
between two or more tasks. More commonly referred to as multitasking, divided attention allows us to
process different information sources and successfully carry out multiple tasks at a time. Divided
attention is crucial as it allows us to be more efficient in our everyday lives. An example of divided
attention is texting and driving; the individual is giving their attention to two things at once.
In 2010, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons conducted a study aiming to investigate the effects of
external stimuli on the concentration of an individual by testing selective attention capabilities. ‘The
Invisible Gorilla’, as it was named, had Chabris and Simons instructing the participant to give their full,
undivided attention to count how many times a ball was passed in one team. The experimenters were
moving around constantly, making the participant bring all their attention to them while simultaneously
making sure they do not lose track of the ball. While this was happening, a person in a gorilla costume
walked in between the participants passing the ball. The results showed that if the participant did not
see the gorilla, they most likely gave their full attention to counting how many times the ball was
passed. If they saw the gorilla, it was more likely that they did not give their full attention towards the
team that was passing the ball and instead got distracted by other stimuli.
Similarly, a professor at Rutgers University in 2018 used his psychology students in an experiment by
giving them free rein to use laptops, phones, and other technology for some lessons. He found that
the days the students were allowed the technology, it impaired their long-term retention of schoolwork
measurably. Students scored 80% of their questions correct when using technology, compared to the
days where they did not use technology, in which students scored 85%. This investigation is a great
representation of the effects of divided attention. Using selective attention when studying increases
the chances of remembering important information and getting higher test results.
The aim of this experiment is to investigate how certain external stimuli affect the processing of
information when utilising selective or divided attention.
It is hypothesised that the year 12 participant undergoing selective attention will have a higher
memory ability measured by a series of questions than the year 12 participant undergoing divided
attention.
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