Question

Explain the nature of the division of attention on the basis of your personal experience.

Answer 1

We continuously sense many stimuli from our surroundings through our sense organs. However, we do not become aware of all of them at one particular time. We focus and become aware of only few stimuli from them. Therefore, attention is considered as the selective process.

According to Guildford, "attention is the process of focusing on one or few objects, persons or situations from among many from the field of awareness".

The nature of the division of attention is explained follows:

1. Our ability to attend to multiple stimuli and do various tasks at a time does have its limits. When you divide your attention, the efficiency with which you do these actions is decreased, and you will almost certainly perform poorly.
2. Interference is the term used to describe when a person has a hard time attending to two stimuli at a time. We see interference when the brain is only able to process a certain amount of information.
3. However, cognitive training can help improve divided attention, and as a consequence, the ability to do more than one activity at a time.
4. Divided attention may be altered in a number of different disorders, whether it be due to problems with divided attention itself, or problems with other attentional sub-processes.
5. For someone with poor divided attention, any interference may alter the task that they are doing simultaneously. If your divided attention is altered, you'll have a harder time pulling into an intersection and talking at the same time, and thus have a higher risk of having an accident.
6. If Arousal is altered (the level of activation or general alertness), and you are in a comatose state, you will also be unable to talk and drive at the same time.