1. Sensory Adaptation

2. Sensory Adaptation
Diminished sensitivity as a result of constant stimulation
If a stimulus is constant and unchanging, eventually a person may fail to respond to it
Move your watch up your wrist an inch or put your ring on a different finger. You will feel it at first but later you won’t notice it. Your senses have adapted to it.
This is why the lake water is cold at first but you “get used to it.”
Also why you don’t feel your glasses on your nose or your clothes on your body.
Remember the displacement goggles experiment from class. This showed motor adaptation to a change in vision.

3. Selective Attention

4. Selective Attention
Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimulus to the exclusion of others
The ability to focus on one stimulus at a time
Allows a person to function in a world filled with many stimuli
People with ADD have trouble doing this.

5. Read the following words to yourself
Did you notice that the word “the” was written twice?
If not, it shows how your brain was selectively paying attention to the meaning of what you were reading and not what was actually written.

6. Read the following words to yourself
Did you notice that the word “the” was written twice?
If not, it shows how your brain was selectively paying attention to the meaning of what you were reading and not what was actually written.

7. Selective Attention: An Example
View the Neisser’s Selective Attention Test basketball video clip below. Count the number of passes made. (click below to start)
Did you notice the lady walk across the room with the umbrella? No! You were too busy watching & counting the passes.