Although the human experience is truly a unique one, it’s comforting to know that we all share some experiences and emotions. For example, we were all excited the day we were handed our very first motor vehicle driver’s license. You know, the one with the awkward smile and terrible lighting. When we first received our […]
Selective Attention
There are some tasks that require cognitive processes that are habitual, automatic, and to some degree effortless, such as seeing a word and automatically reading it or seeing two numbers and automatically processing their magnitudes (e.g., seeing 5 and 3 and perceiving 5 to be greater). There are other tasks that require cognitive processes that […]
Imagine settling into the well-deserved holiday on the Ningaloo Reef. The Indian Ocean is warm and gentle and you go for your first exploratory snorkel. The corals are beginning to recover from their latest bleach and the number and coloring of the tropical fish is as enchanting as it is astounding. And then you take […]
William James famously said that the world is “one great blooming, buzzing confusion” to an infant whose sensory apparatus is “assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin, and entrails at once.” As adults, we continue to be assailed by stimuli, but out attentional apparatus permits us to deal with the blooming and buzzing confusion quite well. […]