Attention
Attentional Blink
A second target in a rapid stream is often missed when it appears shortly after a first target that receives attention.
Scientific category · 11 concepts
Effects and models that explain what receives attention, what gets missed, and how goals compete with visual interruption.
Questions this category answers
Research context: Cognitive psychology and attention research
Reference set
Attention
A second target in a rapid stream is often missed when it appears shortly after a first target that receives attention.
Attention
A salient or abrupt event can draw attention away from the current goal, with capture shaped by stimulus properties and the observer’s attentional set.
Attention
People can ignore page regions that resemble advertising or other routinely irrelevant content, even when those regions contain useful information.
Attention
Substantial changes can go unnoticed when they occur during a visual interruption, across views, or outside focused attention.
Attention
People can follow one information stream amid competition, while personally relevant unattended material may sometimes capture awareness.
Attention
Flow is a deeply absorbed experience associated with clear goals, immediate feedback, concentrated attention, and a workable balance of challenge and skill.
Attention
People focused on a demanding task can fail to notice an unexpected, fully visible event outside their current attentional goal.
Attention
Some basic visual features can be detected rapidly across a display before focused inspection of each individual item.
Attention
Attention prioritizes some available information for deeper processing while other visible or audible information receives less processing.
Attention
Visual search performance depends on how a target is represented, how similar distractors are, and how attention is guided through the display.
Attention
An item that differs from otherwise similar surrounding items is often more likely to be noticed or remembered.