Selective+Attention

=toc **Definition :**= The ability to focus cognitive activity on the important elements of a problem or situation. HGD Chapter 9 p. 218

= Examples: =

Suppose your psychology instructor, who usually copies tests on white paper, gives you a test printed on blue paper. You won't spend a lot of time thinking about why the test is blue instead of white: this is an irrelevant detail, Instead, your selective attention skills will prompt you to ignore the color of the paper and focus on the test questions. In contrast, younger elementary school children might be so distracted by the unusual color of the test paper that their test performance would be affected.

As the nerve connecting the reticular formation and the frontal lobes become more fully myelinated between x and twelve, children begin to function more like adults in the presence of such distractions. media type="youtube" key="vJG698U2Mvo" height="315" width="420"media type="youtube" key="oQd7rb0wkjY" height="315" width="420"

= Analogies: = Selective attention is like when a person decides to hear what they want when they want to hear it instead of actually listening.

= Mnemonics: = If you pay attention the first time, there will be no need to whine.

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