environmental load theory

the theory that humans have a limited ability to handle environmental stimuli. The limit is determined by the amount of information inputs that can be processed by the central nervous system. When the environmental load exceeds the individual’s capacity for processing, the central nervous system reacts by ignoring some of the inputs. See also cognitive overload; information overload; sensory overload; stimulus overload.

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Psychology term of the day

July 27th 2024

distributional redundancy

in psychological aesthetics, the development of uncertainty in an artistic pattern by making some elements occur more frequently than others. Distributional redundancy is one of two kinds of internal restraint in pattern variation, the other being correlational redundancy, in which certain combinations of elements are made to occur more frequently than others.