Attention

Attending to stimuli in our environment is like focusing our conscious awareness on certain specific stimuli. In Chapter 2 we pointed out that our sensory receptors are constantly bombarded with so many stimuli that we cannot possibly respond to all of them at once. Specific cells in our nervous system (inhibitory neurons) serve to filter out some of these incoming sensations, keeping them from our conscious awareness. One writer stated that, were it not for these inhibitory neurons, we would experience sensations similar to an epileptic seizure even-time we opened our eyes (Kern, 1971, p. 48). In spite of these neurological limitations, we still are not able to focus on a single event for more than just a few seconds at a time because of the other stimuli usually competing for our attention.

The phenomenon whereby we attend to certain stimuli while filtering out others is referred to as selective attention. In order to better understand this phenomenon, take out a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Then, in a moment, stop reading and listen to the sounds around you. Now make a list of these sounds. How many sounds did you write down? Were you aware of them while you were reading? Can you now focus on them or ignore them at will? Probably not, but perhaps you can better understand what we mean when we say that there are numerous stimuli competing for our attention most of the time. In fact, students who want to improve their study habits are often told to find a place that has the fewest distractions that could promote daydreaming (e.g., pictures of your girlfriend or boyfriend, windows, chairs facing doorways where people walk by, pinups). All of these stimuli are usually more pleasant to attend to than the study materials at hand. Based on this principle, how successful (from a learning standpoint) do you think a study date with a member of the opposite sex is likely to be?

A pan of this selective attention process that has been experimentally studied is called the "cocktail party problem" (Bostrom, 1988)—namely, how do you listen to one voice when more than one person is speaking at the same time? Perhaps you have already tried this, but next time you are in such a situation try to focus on one voice at a time. Numerous studies have shown that a person will normally do this, rather than flitting attention from one person's voice to another (Broad-bent, 1958). This is probably because we have a greater interest in a continuous message than in several interrupted messages. Another finding is that we are able to sort out a single voice much easier when it comes in only one ear while a competing message is coming in the other ear than if both messages are heard by the same ear. Research using headphones and tape-f ecordeS messages indicates that selective attention from "dichotic presentation (when one message is presented to one ear, another to the other) was markedly superior to monaural presentation (where both messages were presented to the same ear)" (Moray, 1969, p. 17). The author concludes by stating that "it is clear that a listener is able to exercise considerable voluntary control over what he will hear" (Moray, 1969, p. 88).

An issue related to attention is the concept of threshold. A threshold is defined as

the stimulus intensity at which the observer reports detecting a signal on 50 percent of the trials ... Threshold is determined by stimulus variables such as intensity, frequency (or wavelength), duration, size, and rate of presentation, as well as by subject variables such as adaptational state, training, age, motivation, and health; experimental procedures also affect thresholds. One of the most difficult problems is motivation and the subject's criterion for stating that he saw or heard something. (Moray, 1969, p. 18)

A threshold, then, is the minimum level of stimulus intensity that enables us to pay attention. The important thing to remember is that our attention thresholds vary depending on several things, including our own motivational state. Later in this chapter we will show how this fact relates to improving our listening behaviors. One final element that affects attention is a person's arousal level. Arousal level is directly related to the thresholds we have for listening. Obviously, we do not listen well when we are asleep. Nor do we listen well when we are drowsy. General alertness, then, is related to our ability to attend aural stimuli and subsequently to listen more effectively. Not only is general arousal important, but specific arousal also has a bearing on our listening behavior. A mother may sleep through a loud noise only to awake at the cry of small baby. A man in a noisy restaurant may "perk his ears up" when he hears his name paged, and a child alone in a house after watching a spooky movie on TV may hear many more creaks and sounds that she normally would. Our specific state of arousal, then, to some extent determines our threshold for paying attention to auditory stimuli. This concept will also be related to some advice later in this chapter on improving your listening.