In class, we learned that selective attention is the ability to deal with some stimuli and not others. The world contains more information than our brains can handle, so we use selective attention to filter out what is most important to us. There are a few parts of attention that require specific efforts. The mental effort allows the individual to mentally filter other stimuli to focus on one specific stimuli. An example of this would be if you were in class and there were peers whispering behind you in class while trying to focus on the teacher lecturing a lesson. You have the ability to mentally block that conversation to focus on the lecture. The natural effort is a sensory adaptation, like when you put a bandage on our arm. Initially, you will feel the stickiness of the bandage stick to your arm hairs, but eventually, you will adapt to the feeling and forget it is even there and you can focus on other stimuli. Effortless attention is when we automatically select our attention without thinking about it. An example of this would be if you heard a loud noise, like a book drop on the floor. Our attention would immediately go towards where that sound came from.
An example of selective attention would be the “Monkey Business Illusion” shown in class. We were told to focus on the number of times a basketball was passed between people wearing white shirts, while changes were happening in the background (such as the gorilla being present, someone wearing a black shirt leaving the game, and how the curtain in the back changed from red to orange). We selected our attention towards the people wearing the white shirts passing the ball and were unaware of everything else happening in the background.
Relating selective attention to personal experience, just recently I went to the grocery store and saw a huge stand for a popular brand of pumpkin flavored coffee as soon as I walked through the doors. Not only that, pumpkin candles were being burned and fake, orange leaves, and scarecrows were decorated all around this Fall display. My attention was immediately drawn to this brand of coffee, even though I usually buy a different, cheaper brand in the back of the store. I ended up buying this brand of coffee because my attention was effortlessly drawn to it when I walked into the store. If it wasn’t for the huge stand, it was definitely the additions that triggered my senses (the sight of the decorations and smell of the candle) that attracted me to this display. This example of selective attention allowed me to process what was important to me, which was the name brand pumpkin coffee, and filter out other stimuli, in this case, the cheaper coffee in the back of the store.