Final answer:
Talking to your friend in a loud restaurant while filtering out other noises exemplifies selective attention, which allows a person to focus on one task amid distractions. Divided attention involves managing multiple tasks simultaneously, and inattentional blindness occurs when focusing on one task leads to missing other obvious events. The correct option is 1) Selective Attention
Step-by-step explanation:
Talking to your friend in a loud restaurant is an example of selective attention. This psychological term refers to the process by which an individual focuses on one particular object or task in the presence of multiple distracting stimuli.
In the scenario described, selective attention allows you to focus on the conversation with your friend despite the ambient noise from the restaurant environment such as other people talking, background music, or even the sound of kitchen activities.
Divided attention, on the other hand, would be trying to pay attention to multiple things at once, such as listening to your friend and simultaneously texting someone.
Focused attention is the sustained observation or interaction with a single source of information, and sustained attention involves maintaining a consistent behavioral response during continuous and repetitive activity.
The example also demonstrates how unexpected events, like the sound of breaking glass, can capture your attention away from the task at hand, which is known as attentional capture and is a bottom-up process in attention.
Additionally, the concept of inattentional blindness can occur when a person is so focused on a task that they completely miss other obvious events in their visual field, as demonstrated by the famous study by Simons and Chabris on selective attention with the basketball passing and the unnoticed gorilla costume.
The correct option is 1) Selective Attention