Someone a short distance away, to whom you have been paying no attention, quietly speaks your name, and suddenly you attend to that person. This is an example of ________.
A) Broadbent's process of selective memory
B) the phi phenomenon
C) the cocktail party effect
D) cue-controlled inhibition

Question

Someone a short distance away, to whom you have been paying no attention, quietly speaks your name, and suddenly you attend to that person. This is an example of ________.
A) Broadbent's process of selective memory 
B) the phi phenomenon
C) the cocktail party effect 
D) cue-controlled inhibition

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The cocktail party effect is the ability to selectively attend to one voice or conversation in a noisy environment while filtering out other distractions. When someone speaks your name, it acts as a salient stimulus that causes you to shift your attention to that person, even if you have not been actively listening to them before. This is an example of the cocktail party effect. Broadbent's process of selective memory refers to the idea that attention acts as a filter that selects which sensory information is processed and encoded into memory. The phi phenomenon is a perceptual illusion where two adjacent flashing lights appear to merge and move smoothly across the space between them. Cue-controlled inhibition is a mechanism by which irrelevant information is suppressed, allowing a person to focus on relevant information.

Someone a Short Distance Away, to Whom You Have Been