Final answer:
Selective attention is the ability to focus on one voice and involves vigilance, monitoring, and managing divided attention, as demonstrated by Simons and Chabris's invisible gorilla experiment.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ability to focus on a single voice in a noisy environment is known as selective attention. This cognitive process involves the individual's capacity for vigilance and monitoring, recognizing specific signals amidst background noise, and allocating mental resources effectively. Often this necessitates divided attention when multiple stimuli are present and compete for one's attention. An example of selective attention at work is the famous invisible gorilla experiment by Simons and Chabris, where participants focused on counting basketball passes often missed noticing a person in a gorilla suit.