• Question: which objects do people pay the most attention to and why?

    Asked by to Nancy on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Nancy Carlisle

      Nancy Carlisle answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      OOooh, good question!!! The short answer is : it depends 🙂
      Here is the long answer: People attend to objects that are ‘salient’ meaning that they are different than the rest of the world. A salient object could be a single object that is moving against a still background (like a bird that is coming at your head!). A salient object could be one that is different from others (like some bloke in a oragne t-shirt among the England fans at the world cup). These kinds of differences are picked out by our brains almost automatically.
      BUT- what our current GOALS are also influence which objects we attend. When we are walking into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, we are more likely to attend to the kettle than when we are walking in to find some crisps.
      All together: our brain uses information both about an objects saliency AND whether an object is part of our current goals in determining where we attend.
      Hope that helps! 😉

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