Ss - abbreviation for subjects in a study.
S - abbreviation for subject
RT - reaction time
p.391 The study of attention may be divided into three components. These
are alertness, selectivity, and processing capacity.
p.391 The term alertness is used here rather than arousal
p.391-392 there do appear to be three major topics under which studies of attention might be grouped.
First is the notion of alertness... A second sense of attention
is the ability to select information from one source or of one kind rather than another... A third sense
of attention relates to the idea of a limited central processing capacity... This paper
is an attempt to develop means for studying the separation and interrelationship of these components of attention at the behavioral
level.
p.394 Experiments were run on a PDP-9 computer. Displays were presented on a Tektronix
503 scope
p.401 One sense of attention involves competition between signals for some limited capacity system (James,
1890). The idea is that many tasks place demands on a central limited capacity system and thus tend to interfere.
p.405 Conclusions
The introduction outlined three component processes involved in the study of attention. These are
alertness, selectivity, and processing capacity.
p.407 These results suggest that attention in the sense of central processing capacity is related to mental
operations of which we are conscious... but is not related to the contact between the input and long-term memory that leads
to the letter name.
