Attention: Theory and Practice

'The book is well-organized and comprehensive in covering the essential material. The inclusion of human factors material is a strength that is not covered in other books. . . . The book is a balanced survey which will be of value to graduate students or anyone wanting to enter the field and needing a broad overview' - Steven Yantis, The Johns Hopkins University

'The chapters present the material at a level appropriate for a first course on attention. The focus on providing a comprehensive treatment of the highlights of a variety of different topics related to attention is a strength' - Art Kramer, University of Illinois

Attention is one of the fastest growing research areas in cognitive psychology. In light of the growing importance of this topic, there are surprisingly few texts that provide a coherent overview of the field of attention. Addie Johnson and Robert W Proctor have written Attention: Theory and Practice for students who wish to gain insight into this area in a comprehensible and consistent manner.

Attention: Theory and Practice provides a balance between a readable overview of attention and an emphasis on how theories and paradigms for the study of attention have developed. The book highlights the important issues and major findings while giving sufficient details of experimental studies, models, and theories so that results and conclusions are easy to follow and evaluate. Rather than brushing over tricky technical details, the authors explain them clearly, giving readers the benefit of understanding the motivation for and techniques of the experiments in order to allow readers to think through results, models, and theories for themselves.

Features and benefits of this text:

Balanced. The book gives equal coverage to theory, experimental paradigms and results, neuropsychology, and applications.

Adaptable. "Technical Boxes" isolate technical procedures and difficult models, which can be omitted without interrupting the flow of the chapters, allowing instructors to adjust the material to the level of their course.

Pedagogical. The book includes brief chapter previews, chapter summaries, highlighted key words, an end-of-book glossary, and an abundance of figures and tables that enhance student understanding.