Final answer:
Brian's heightened attention to "help wanted" ads due to his need for a summer job is an example of perceptual vigilance, which occurs when perception is influenced by an individual's current goals or needs.
Step-by-step explanation:
Brian's increased awareness of "help wanted" ads that relate to his current needs is called perceptual vigilance. Perceptual vigilance is a concept which suggests that we are more attentive or alert to stimuli in the environment that have relevance to our current goals or needs. In the context of needing a job, Brian's need to earn money for tuition has heightened his sensitivity to noticing job advertisements as these are directly related to achieving his goal.
This phenomenon is part of how our cognition filters and prioritizes information based on its importance to our immediate objectives, thereby enabling us to present a full or complete picture of the world according to what we deem necessary for our survival and personal goals. It highlights the interplay between sensation, perception, and our emotional or motivational state, as described by signal detection theory as well as various cognitive biases such as the availability heuristic.