After reading this chapter, you should be able to

• Explain what somebody means when he or she tells you to “pay attention.” Explain how we define attention.
• Identify the descriptions of attention that have helped researchers study attention.
• Describe how researchers study what someone is and is not paying attention to.
• Identify the factors in the environment that have been found to influence our attention abilities.
• Indicate how our automatic processing affects what we pay attention to.