PSY 404 ATTENTION AND DISTRACTION

The human brain is constantly bombarded by information.  How do people focus on the information that is important for their goals, and block out distractions?  Students will discuss important findings on attention and distraction in the psychology and neuroscience literature, while also considering how research on attention and distraction might be applied to modern problems.  These problems range from how smartphones and social media disrupt our goals, to considering how radiologists screen medical images, to thinking about how people can minimize distraction in their everyday lives.