Attention Cognitive Psychology

Research carried out on attention has mainly been associated with the selective processing of incoming sensory information. It proposes, to some degree, our awareness of the world depends on what we choose to focus on and not simply the stimulation received by our senses. Attention is often linked to a filter that screens out most potential stimuli whilst allowing a select few to pass through into our conscious awareness, however, a great deal of debate has been devoted to where the filter is situated in the information processing chain (Martindale, 1991). Psychologists have made extensive contributions to this subject matter in the past century. Notable examples include Donald Broadbent's filter theory of attention (1958), which set the agenda for most subsequent work, and Anne Treisman's (1964) modifications of this description, the Attenuation Model (Driver J, 2001).
This paper will look at the theories of Broadbent, Deutsch and Deutsch and Treisman and will evaluate their attentional selection models and the theorists attempt to pinpoint the location of the attentional filter. Broadbent’s model advocated the early selection theory, whereas Treisman disagreed on the location of the attentional filter and favoured a more flexible approach. A further model, which was appropriately named late selection, differs from the early and flexible selection model and was instigated by theorists such as Deutsch and Deutsch (1963) and Norman (1968). The three theories have differing opinions mainly over whether the filtering takes place early or late in the information processing chain (Gross, 2005). Broadbent's, Treisman's and Deutsch and Deutsch Models of Attention are all bottleneck models, in that they predict we cannot intentionally attend to all of our sensory input at the same time. Each of these models endeavours to explain how the information that passes through the bottleneck is selected.
When an individual is presented with two or more simultaneous messages