Question

Clay has played professional soccer for seven years and is easily able to tune out the sound of the crowd and all other irrelevant sensory information during the game. Bruce is a rookie and is often distracted by what his opponents are saying and the mood of the crowd. Clay and Bruce are showing differing levels of ______________.

A) absolute thresholds.B) parallel processingC) selective attentionD) top-down processing

Answer 1

Clay and Bruce are showing differing levels of C) selective attention.

Step-by-step explanation:

In psychology, selective attention is described as the ability to focus our attention on an object in the environment. We are bombarded with tons of information all the time; however, our attention is limited. Therefore, having the ability to select what to focus on is an important tool to make sure you take in what is really necessary, leaving out what is not.

As we can see in the passage, Clay has developed this ability over the course of seven years. He tunes out the sound of the crowd and all other irrelevant sensory information. He is more likely to do well in the matches he plays than Bruce, whose attention ends up being divided. Bruce is at a different level of selective attention; he hasn't mastered this ability yet, being often distracted by what his opponents are saying and the mood of the crowd.