Attention

Attention is the selective allocation of mental resources to information or tasks. It shapes what is processed, maintained, and acted on amid competing demands.

Selective attention: The prioritization of some stimuli or information while other available input receives less processing. It names the selection process at the heart of attention.
Perception: The organization and interpretation of sensory information into representations of objects and events. Attention modulates which sensory information receives deeper perceptual processing.
Multitasking: The attempt to perform multiple tasks within overlapping periods of time. Divided attention limits how efficiently concurrent tasks can be managed.
Consciousness: The state of having subjective experience or awareness. Attention can select information without being identical to subjective awareness.
William James: An American philosopher and psychologist whose work helped establish psychology as a discipline. His account of attention connected selection with the limits of conscious thought.
Executive attention: The control of attention and action when goals, conflict, or competing responses require regulation. It coordinates attention when distraction or conflicting demands must be managed.
Cognitive control: The processes that guide thought and action toward goals despite distraction or competing responses. It supplies goal-based regulation of attentional selection.
Driving: The operation of a vehicle through perception, decision-making, and motor control. Safe driving depends on allocating attention among traffic, signs, and vehicle control.
Arousal: A general level of physiological and neural activation that ranges from sleep to alertness. Arousal affects readiness, while attention selects particular information.
Donald Broadbent: A British psychologist who developed an influential early model of selective attention. His filter theory proposed that selection occurs early in information processing.

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