Question

\while driving to work, john was so focused on his cell - phone conversation that he inadvertently drove through a red light and hit another vehicle. johns experience best illustrates the impact of\
a blindsight.
b the popout phenomenon.
c the cocktail party effect.
d selective attention.

Explanation:

• Blindsight: Refers to the ability of people who are cortically blind due to lesions in their striate cortex to respond to visual stimuli that they do not consciously see. John's situation is not related to this.
• The popout phenomenon: Occurs when a stimulus "pops out" of a visual array without requiring focused attention. This is not relevant to John's case.
• The cocktail party effect: Is the phenomenon of being able to focus one's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli. John's issue is about visual attention (missing the red - light) due to phone conversation, not auditory.
• Selective attention: Refers to the ability to focus on a particular stimulus or task while ignoring irrelevant information. John was focused on his cell - phone conversation (selectively attending to it) and ignored the red light (irrelevant information for his phone conversation but relevant for driving).

Answer:

D. selective attention.