I went car shopping last weekend and bought a new car! It is a red Honda Accord. My old car was white. Ever since I got my new car, I am seeing a plethora of red cars and Accords! I live in the city and drive the same way to and from work every day and I did not remember there being so many red cars. It was as if I started filtering information differently. The phenomenon of seeing more of the same color and make of my new car is based on selective attention, bottleneck model, and cocktail party effect.
Selective attention is “the focusing of attention on one specific location, object, or message” (Goldstein, 2011). Since I was now driving a red Accord, it was much more present in my mind, therefore anything close to it would trigger my attention to shift and for me to focus on the red car or the make of mine.
The next step in my attention process for noticing more cars like mine is the bottleneck model. “The bottleneck model filter restricts information flow” (Goldstein, 2011). The bottleneck model takes in all the information and cuts down the flow to only physical features. In my case, the ‘look’ of the car will pass through drawing my attention to the red car.
Lastly, the cocktail party effect weighs in heavy. The cocktail party effect is when something immediately pertaining to you triggers your attention to shift and focus on the stimulant (Goldstein, 2011). For example, when you are at a party and you hear someone say your name or someone you know you will start to ease drop (wonder how it was awarded the name ‘cocktail party effect’). When I hear someone talking about a Honda Accord or a red car, I automatically tune into conversation and want to participate.
I never realized how many red cars or accords were out there until I started filtering the ‘new’ information. I do not remember having the same feeling with my first car, but it was also a hand-me-down from my parents, I was already in a predisposition to see similar cars around. Filtering has a crazy way to impact everything you pay attention to. Selective attention, paired with the bottleneck model, and cocktail effect, it is no wonder I am paying more attentive to them.
References:
Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Last April (2015) I bought my first Jeep! Of course, I was super excited to trade in my Mitsubishi Eclipse Spider for a brand new Jeep and since then, every time I see a Jeep I get super excited! You are very right! This is selective attention at its finest! Of course if I see a gorgeous old Cadi or a sweet Ferrari I’m going to look because you don’t see those types of cars around every day, but now that I have my Jeep, I notice them all over the road and want to do my Jeep wave! This is also a great example of bottleneck thinking. Jeeps have a distinct shape and look to them and I really only notice them in public aside from the 100s of other cars on the road. Great job!
We were just discussing this same phenomenon the other day. We also bought a different vehicle. I love old Jeeps and so does my husband. We decided to get a Grand Wagoneer, and while I know they were popular in the the 1980’s, I did not realize how many movies and shows I have seen them in and how many people near me also appreciate them. I am not sure if the environment/ society influence had more an effect on me wanting one or just the fact that they are pretty wonderful. But either way I can see how the different stages of filtering affected me on recognizing others around me. This also brought back my thoughts on an earlier lesson of why eye witnesses were not always reliable in their accounts of what happened. I think it would be easy to see how memory can also be affected by filtering and more so than suggestion or other errors. Great post.
Blog 2
Your blog post really got me thinking about how filtering effected my life. We go through life every day and don’t realize how much we filter and how much gets pulled to our attention and how much does not get pulled our attention every day. I know when I first got my red car and it was Toyota, I started seeing a lot of Red cars too, mostly Camrys but they’re quite similar to the corolla at first glance. Today I no longer have that car and I see a lot less Red cars, but to be honest I don’t know if I see red cars a lot less because I’m no longer paying attention or if because red cars a lot less common in Germany. Although I’m willing to put money on the fact that they are a lot less common, as is the brand Toyota, they aren’t impossible to find, but most cars are a brand I am unfamiliar with or Volkswagen, which I’ve noticed that since I’ve been in Germany. I often look for things that are familiar and Volkswagen is a brand I am familiar with and so my attention is often to drawn to it when it passes by. It’s like the cocktail party effect, I see a brand commonly sold in America and I have to tune in to see it pass by.
References:
Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology; Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience (Vol. 3). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.