Final answer:
The psychological factor that involves awareness of cues or stimuli is known as consciousness, which is closely tied to the concept of attention. Motivation and various cognitive and personal factors also play a role in shaping our perception and attention towards different stimuli.
Step-by-step explanation:
The psychological factor that involves the awareness of cues or stimuli is known as consciousness. Consciousness describes our awareness of both internal stimuli, such as pain or hunger, and external stimuli, like the light from the sun or the voice of a friend. Another important element is attention, which determines our ability to focus on certain stimuli within an environment full of various sensory inputs. An example of this can be seen in a scenario where you might ignore background noise at a party while engaged in a conversation, rendering you unaware of the music playing in the background. Moreover, this cognitive process of focusing our attention is influenced by various factors, including our motivations, beliefs, and even physiological states, such as fatigue or hunger.
Motivation can directly affect our perception of stimuli, as demonstrated through signal detection theory. This theory explains why we might 'hear' a phone ring when expecting an important call — our motivation to detect the phone ringing enhances our perception of that specific stimulus over others. This concept has practical implications in fields that require high levels of sensory discrimination, like air traffic control.
Our attention and perception are influenced by other cognitive and personal factors such as our previous experiences, cultural backgrounds, and individual psychological constructs like self-efficacy, which describes our confidence in our own abilities and can influence which behaviors we choose to imitate and our success in performing those behaviors.