Study resources on Kenyaplex

Get ready-made curriculum aligned revision materials

Exam papers, notes, holiday assignments and topical questions – all aligned to the Kenyan curriculum.

Or go directly to:

Class notes Holiday assignments Topical questions Other resources

Discuss Attention as capacity

Answers

According to capacity theory attention is limited and must be allocated according to the particular demands of a situation. Some tasks require more of attentional budget leaving less attention for the performance of others. For example, if you are working out a mathematical problem, you may need to pay more attention to the calculations than listen to the sweet story from your friend.
According to Kahnemann (1973), a cognitive mechanism involved in attention involves central processor which allocates our mental resources. The resources are allocated according to the demand put on cognition. However, under limited resources allocation policy to distribute resources is employed. This depends on three factors i.e.
· the capacity available in relation to the mental tasks under consideration
· enduring disposition such as personality habit or long term goals and momentary intentions that is immediate relevance of the stimuli
· our moods,
The three factors combine to determine what the central processor will notices

It is also important to not that it is easier pay attention from two different modalities than attending to two tasks from same sensory modality e.g. driving as you speak. Driving requires more of visual perception while speaking or listening to music is more auditory. Paying attention to different tasks in the same modality is difficult e.g. driving and reading where visual perception is required. Accordingly tasks interfere to a degree that makes it hard to tap into the same pool resources (mental image at hand). With different tasks using different sensory processing we could attend to both types of information. Another factor that determines whether we are able to attend to more than one task is how difficult the task is

Chatelaine answered the question on June 17, 2021 at 12:11

Answer Attachments

Next: Describe three theories of attention

Previous: State the characteristics of short term memory

View more Cognitive Psychology Questions and Answers | Return to Questions Index

Get ready-made curriculum aligned revision materials

Discuss Attention as capacity

Answers

Exams With Marking Schemes

Related Questions