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selective attention

concentration on certain stimuli in the environment and not on others, enabling important stimuli to be distinguished from peripheral or incidental ones. Selective attention is typically measured by instructing participants to attend to some sources of information but to ignore others at the same time and then determining their effectiveness in doing this. Also called controlled attention; directed attention; executive attention. See also focal attention.

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Psychology term of the day

February 19th 2025

size-invariant neuron

size-invariant neuron

see location-invariant neuron.