But when we delve deeper into the psychology of attention, a number of questions arise. These two examples show that the ability to focus on what is most important in any situation while ignoring distractions is vital for success in sport. Similarly, a soccer goalkeeper who is preparing to defend against a corner kick from the opposing team must pay attention to the flight of the incoming ball while disregarding the movements of the players in the penalty area. For example, in sport, making a conscious effort to listen carefully to a coach’s instructions before a match involves attention. This system is called attention-a term that denotes the process of exerting mental effort on specific features of the world around us or on our own thoughts and feelings. So, the mind has developed a system that helps us select some information for further processing while blocking out other information. How do we pick some information for further processing while ignoring almost everything else? This problem is not easy to solve given the brevity and fragility of our working memory (the mental system that regulates our conscious awareness) and the all but unlimited array of information available to us-not only from the external world but also from the internal domain of our own memory and imagination. Every waking moment we face an important selection problem.
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