Attention

This text presents a comprehensive and accessible overview of the science of attention, conveying its central findings and applications to real-world issues, including its relationship with technology, learning, and memory.

The study of attention is a core area of psychology that is particularly relevant today, given the ever-increasing demands on our mental workload. This book conveys the essential issues in attention research, showing how theory and research coevolve. The authors use an interdisciplinary information-processing framework that draws from cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

Each chapter reviews a specific type of attention and related cognitive processes, including auditory and visual selective attention, attentional control and inhibition, divided attention and multitasking, sensory and working memory, and memory consolidation and information retrieval. Feature boxes help readers translate key research findings into real-world applications.

A special focus is the relationship between attention and modern technology, for example in processing multisensory input in virtual and online environments, and in situations such as air traffic control, piloting, and driving, where situation awareness is crucial. Various pathologies that affect attention are also reviewed, including ADHD, autism-spectrum disorders, dementia, and head injuries.

Preface

• Chapter 1: Historical Overview of Research on Attention
• Chapter 2: Information Processing and the Study of Attention
• Chapter 3: Selective Attention in Audition and Vision
• Chapter 4: Orienting and Inhibiting Attention
• Chapter 5: Attentional Control in Congruity and Negative Priming Tasks
• Chapter 6: Change Detection and Cross-Modal Attention
• Chapter 7: Divided Attention and Multiple-Task Performance
• Chapter 8: Memory and Attention
• Chapter 9: Mental Workload and Situation Awareness
• Chapter 10: Attention and Displays
• Chapter 11: Individual and Group Differences in Attention
• Chapter 12: Social Attention and Team Performance

Afterword

References

Index

About the Authors

Robert W. Proctor, PhD, is distinguished professor of psychological sciences at Purdue University and has published over 275 articles and numerous books and chapters. His coauthored books include Attention: Theory and Practice (2004), Human Factors in Simple and Complex Systems (3^rd ed., 2018), and Skill Acquisition and Training (2017).

He is fellow of APA, Association for Psychological Science, and Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. He received the 2013 Franklin V. Taylor Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Applied Experimental/Engineering Psychology and 2018 Paul M. Fitts Education Award for outstanding contributions to the education and training of human factors and ergonomics specialties.

Kim-Phuong L. Vu, PhD, is professor of psychology at California State University, Long Beach. Dr. Vu has over 100 publications relating to human performance, human factors, and human computer interaction.

She coedited the Handbook of Human Factors in Web Design (2011), and has served as associate editor for Behavior Research Methods and Human Factors.

Dr. Vu is a fellow of APA, Association for Psychological Science, and Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, and recipient of the 2021 Franklin V. Taylor Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Applied Experimental/Engineering Psychology.

She specializes in developing implications of basic research findings for applied design problems.

Attention mediates the way in which we experience the world around us. In this comprehensive and insightful text, the authors provide clear and concise explanations of the phenomenon, accessible to both the motivated student and the informed expert alike. If you want to understand the nature of reality, obtain this book to secure the insights that enable you to do so.
—Peter Hancock, PhD, Provost & Distinguished Research Professor, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Author, Hoax Springs Eternal: The Psychology of Cognitive Deception

With their broad experience and many contributions, Proctor and Vu have produced a lucid, comprehensible text that provides an excellent summary of attention writ large. This is a challenge because, from its simple, intuitive origins, attention has become an overarching concept reflecting the operation of several distinct mechanisms. This text succeeds by emphasizing their family resemblance and by detailing studies that illustrate how attention research is conducted and how the research methods and theory have coevolved.
—Charles E. (Ted) Wright, PhD, Professor of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States

Proctor and Vu bring their encyclopedic knowledge of attention to bear in this comprehensive review of the subject. Any student of attention must keep this book by their side at all times. The work is invaluable.
—David A. Rosenbaum, PhD, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, United States

The book provides an insightful comprehensive review and appraisal of the science of attention and its relationship to advanced IT technologies. It is a must-have book for all individuals interested in the subject matter of attention.
—Gavriel Salvendy, PhD, University Distinguished Professor, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States; Member, National Academy of Engineering (NAE); APA Fellow