1. the extent to which an individual is able to attend to and process a range of different items at the same time. A distinction is sometimes made between perceptual scope of attention, which is the capacity to process a range of sensory stimuli (see apprehension span), and conceptual scope of attention, which is the ability to deal simultaneously with a number of ideas or concepts.

2. the range of stimuli that an individual is actively focusing his or her attention upon at any particular time. The scope of attention will be more or less narrow depending on the demands of the task at hand and a range of subjective factors. See attentional narrowing; focal attention; selective attention.