Attention

Attention is the cognitive process wherein specific focus is given to particular stimuli (Raghubir & Valenzuela, 2006). There are many factors that impact our ability to attend to any of the multiple stimuli in our environment at any given time, such as the extent to which a stimulus is salient, the extent to which a stimulus is vivid, and the extent to which the information for a stimulus is mentally accessible. These three factors impact the likelihood of attention and encoding into social cognitive memory. For this Discussion, view the media Attention, Encoding, and Social Cognitive Memory in this week’s Learning Resources. Consider which elements in the media stood out for you and what was salient, vivid, and accessible.