Cocktail party problem

From MerrimackWiki

Definition

. The cocktail party phenomenon, a type of selective attention in that it is the ability to pay attention to one message and ignore all other messages. Its name comes from the fact that often times at a party there are hundred of separate conversations (stimuli) going on around a person at the same time however, people tend to be able to tune out all other conversations and focus on there own. They are able to ignore all other messages and concentrate on one specific thing.

Another example: - When a person attends a music concert. There are often people walking, talking, singing, and moving all around however, the person seems to be able to tune all of the other stimuli out and focus specifically on the music that is being played.

Significance

The cocktail party problem is important to understand that attention is often selective, regardless of how many stimuli are being presented. The phenomenon shed light on to the fact that attention is not balanced or equally divided rather, we tend to put most of our attention on one message while vaguely concentrating on others.