Broadbent Filter Model of Selective Attention
Inputs from the environment first enter a sensory buffer, then one of these inputs is selected and filtered based on physical characteristics of the input (e.g. sensory modularity). This filter causes us not to become overloaded with information, then the selected material will go an be stored in short term memory.
Cocktail Party Effect
When information of personal importance from previously unattended channels catches our attention. An example of this is at a party when you are talking with a friend, and a conversation across the room is going on, and you hear the name of your friend being said when you were not really listening to their conversation.
Anne Treisman's Attenuation Model
She believes that rather than a sensory filter (Broadbent), the brain has the ability to "turn down" (attenuator) unintended sensory information.
Selective Priming
Helps explain the Cocktail part effect, and this concepts states that one can be selectively primed to observed something, either by encountering it frequently or by having the expectation. (one is more likely to notice something when it occurs)
Spotlight Model
Helps explain "Visual Attention" - In this model, the spotlight is a beam that can shine anywhere within ones visuals field. Moving our focus from on object to another (basically moving the spotlight)
Binding Problem
The binding problem is an issue with visual processing, being the problem of how all these different aspects are assembled together and related to a single object, rather than something else in the visual field. (e.g. When someone has trouble focusing between two objects, its due to issues with binding, such that the color from one object may be attributed to the color of the other.)
Divided Attention
Divided Attention concerns when and if we are able to perform multiple tasks at the same time. This depends of the characteristics of the activities one is trying to multitask.
The resource model of attention
The resource model of attention says that we have a limited pool of resources on which to draw when performing tasks, both modality-specific resources and general resources. The factors associations with being able to multi-task are: task similarity, task difficulty, and task practice.