Attention: Focusing Consciousness
We call the limited capacity to process information that is under conscious control attention. Selective attention is the ability to focus on specific features in the environment while ignoring others. Individuals who suffer from schizophrenia lack the ability to selectively filter out and attend to only the most relevant information causing their mind to go into overload. For any of us, this selective attention creates gaps in attention and perception because we focus so much on certain things that we are blind to other things. We commonly say we "tune out" information that we consider irrelevant to us at the time.
Multitasking
Sustained attention is compromised when we multitask. While we may pride ourselves on our ability to multitask, research shows that concurrent or parallel tasking rarely occurs. We are actually fast switching our attention from one task to another. Switching loses time and compromises memory for the tasks at hand. Multitasking also compromises learning. To explain the limitations of multitasking, Salvucci and Taatgen (2008) proposed the threaded cognition theory. According to this theory, a particular resource such as motor skills can only be used one task at a time. When tasks compete for access to consciousness, a bottleneck can occur.
Studies show there are few super-taskers – we just like to think we fit into that category.
