selective attention

British  

noun

1. psychol the process by which a person can selectively pick out one message from a mixture of messages occurring simultaneously

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Example Sentences

Previous research had shown pigeons learned how to solve complex categorization tasks that human ways of thinking -- like selective attention and explicit rule use -- would not be useful in solving.

From Science Daily • Oct. 25, 2023

Reading reality TV requires selective attention — or inattention, more to the point.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2017

Such selective attention is common in high-stress situations.

From Slate • Mar. 3, 2017

This kind of selective attention to facts is wearily familiar to longtime observers of the U.N.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 14, 2016

The generic image has been constructed under the influence of a selective attention, bent upon aesthetic worth.

From The Sense of Beauty Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory by Santayana, George