Driver_AttentionReview_2001_OCR.pdf

Brrttih Joz~rnal (~Prychology (2U01), 92, 53-78 Prrntrd rn Great Brraun 0 2001 The Br~t~ah Pqcholojgcal So~~ety A selective review of selective attention research from the past century Jon Driver* l l n w r r ~ z t y ( ollcgr Lonrlun, I I K Research on atrentton 1s cor~cerned w ~ t h select~ve processing ot Incomlng sensory ~nformat~on To some extent, our 'iwareness of the world depends on what we choose to attend, not merely on the \ t ~ m u l a t ~ o n e rerlng our sense\ H r ~ t ~ r h psychologists have made substantla1 cont r~hut~on$ to t h s t o p ~ c In the p s t ccnrury Celebrated examples include Lhnald Broadbent's hlter theory of attenclon, whlch wt rhe agend.1 tor rnr,$t subsequent work, and Anne Trelsman's r e v ~ s ~ o n ~ of thls account, and her lacer feature-~ritegrat~on theory More recent contrihur~ons Include Alan Allport's prescltnr ernphaus on the relevance of neurosclrnce datd, and John Dunl.an'\ mtegratlon of such data w ~ t h psycholog~cal theory An ~dlosyncrat~c but roughly chronolog~cnl rrvlcw of development\ IS prrsenred, some practical and clinical ~ r n p l ~ c ~ t ~ c r n \ are briefly bketched and future cl~rections wggrstrd One of the higgr\t c h a ~ ~ g e s In the field ha\ been the Increaqlng Interplay between puychologp ,ind nerlro\clrncr. which promiws much for the f i~ture A related ch.lnge has bren the realizatton that selection 'irtentlon is b r x thought oCa\ a broad top~c . encompassing 'I rmgr ofselrct~vt Iscurs. rather than as a slngle explanatory process What we see, hear, feel and remember depends not only on the ~nformation enterlng our senses, but also upon w h ~ c h aspects of t h ~ s we choose to attend W~ll lani James (189011950, p 402) emphas~zeci t h ~ s In asserting that 'my experlente IS what I agree to attend to' We must all have been In sltuatlons where we fiuled to notlce someth~ng In dally l ~ f e (be t h ~ s a vlsual object. or words spoken to us) becaure our ml