Applied Attention Theory

Eye witness testimony, training, driving, and display design: these are just a few of the real-world domains in which attention is manifested. Emphasizing the link between theory and application, Applied Attention Theoryprovides a deep understanding of how theories of attention, developed from laboratory-based psychological research, can inform our understanding of everyday human performance in a wide number of applications and environments. The basic theories discussed concern divided, focused, and selective attention, and areas of application include mental workload measurement, multi-tasking, distracted driving, complex display design, education, and the training of attentional skills. The authors describe two important historical concepts that underlie much of the discussion that follows. They focus on aspects of visual attention and address issues of multiple task performance, moving beyond the visual perceptual world, and create the foundations of a general model of how tasks compete with each other when people must divide attention between them. The text covers the role of innate ability, age, and training in and emphasizes the real-world implications of such differences in areas such as training, licensing, selection, and user-support. The coverage concludes with a discussion of the brain mechanisms underlying attention, but does so in a way that makes the practical applications of these mechanisms clear. The book highlights explicit links between theory and applications, such as single channel theory and measurement of mental workload, attention capture and the design of alarms, and object-based attention and the design of complex displays. The authors maintain this balance between theory and practice as they explore the application of the theory and the value of good science underlying attentional phenomena in the applied human factors areas of design and measurement.McCarley/Wickens is the author of 'Applied Attention Theory ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780805859829 and ISBN 0805859829.