Sensory filter model

From MerrimackWiki

Definition

The sensory filter model was designed by Broadbent to make us begin to think about cognition. Our mind is an information processing device. The messages are sent to the sensory store, which stores all of the sensory experiences. These are then sent to the filter, which allows only the attended message to come in. All other messages are filtered out. Then, that message is sent to the detector, which processes all information that is sent to it, and finally determines what it is. Finally, that message is sent to the short-term memory. The model is encoded into a mental representation. .

Significance

.Broadbent wanted to see if people were attentive by overloading them with stimuli with too many signals and information to process. Broadbent was interested in how the information would be repeated back. This becomes an important task in measuring our memory. Broadbent's model was the first model to describe the mind as processing information in a sequence of stages. This model held that any information which wasn't selected, or was filtered out, would fade from sensory memory and be lost.