Someone sitting at another booth in a restaurant, to whom you have been paying no attention, quietly speaks your name, and suddenly you are attending to that conversation. This is an example of ________.
A) the Phi phenomenon
B) cue-controlled inhibition
C) Broadbent's filter theory
D) the cocktail-party phenomenon

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario describes the cocktail-party phenomenon, which is the ability to focus one's attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out other non-relevant stimuli in a noisy environment, much like listening to one conversation at a cocktail party while blocking out other background conversations.

Someone Sitting at Another Booth in a Restaurant, to Whom