Final answer:
The Selective Attention Test by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris is a task devised to demonstrate attention as a selection process, highlighting how focused attention can lead to inattentional blindness, where conspicuous stimuli are overlooked.
Step-by-step explanation:
The task that was devised to demonstrate attention as a "selection process" is famously known as the Selective Attention Test by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris. In this landmark study, participants were shown a video where they had to count the number of passes made by individuals dressed in white shirts. Notably, during this task, a person in a gorilla suit walks across the scene, which a significant number of viewers fail to notice. This phenomenon, termed inattentional blindness, showcases the human tendency to overlook visual stimuli outside the immediate focus of attention. The test illustrates that attention is a limited resource, and when it is highly focused on a particular task, other stimuli may be completely ignored, even if they are conspicuous. Another related experiment involves participants observing moving images on a computer screen and being asked to focus on objects of a certain color. A red cross passes across the screen as a test of inattentional blindness, highlighting that a substantial proportion of subjects would not notice the unexpected item due to their focused attention on the assigned task.
These experiments provide key insights into how attention is maintained, the role of task complexity in sustaining attention, and how cognitive processes can lead to oversight of unexpected events within our sensory environment.