Critique 4 - Breaks in attention and memory failures (1/09/2011)

Breaks in attention

1. A driver is smoking as he drives down the road. A gust of wind blows in through the open window and knocks the lit cherry from the end of the cigarette onto the driver’s lap. The driver’s attention to the road is immediately broken as he begins attempting to brush the lit tobacco from his person. It is in this moment that the attention break occurs as the driver’s selective attention shifts.

   This break in attention was caused by the driver’s panic and his reaction which made the burning matter on his lap the top priority. This situation could have been avoided by not smoking in the car, having the window closed, or smoking an e-cigarette.

2. A girl is speaking to her mother about the daily chores she is required to do when she suddenly receives a text message. The girl feels the vibration of her phone and immediately reaches for her phone and reads the message. Attention begins to break here. She then begins to type up a reply, and it is at this point that attention is completely broken. The girl sends her reply text message and has to ask her mother to repeat the last segment of the conversation.

   The break in attention was caused by the girl’s desire to read the text message, which in turn shifted her attention away from the conversation with her mother. This break could have been prevented by finishing the conversation with her mother or at least waiting to send the reply.

Memory failures

1. A student is taking an exam that he/she has not studied for. The student struggles throughout the test and receives a bad grade as a result of not remembering the content.

   The failure was brought on by the student’s lack of studying. Though he/she has attended class and taken notes, the memory was not reinforced by studying. This could have been prevented by doing practice problems outside of class or studying.

2. A man has just committed a murder, which nobody witnessed, and flees the scene. However, the murderer does his best to act inconspicuous and nobody takes much notice of him. The man is soon picked up by police as a possible suspect and witnesses are called in to see if they recognize any of the men in the lineup from the day of the murder. The witnesses are able to narrow the suspects down by race and general height but cannot make a definite identification of the man they saw that day.

   This memory failure was caused by the man not drawing attention to himself. Witnesses carried on about their day without taking much notice to him and as a result cannot recall the man they saw. This failure would not have occurred if the man had fled the scene in a hurry (and therefore drawing attention to himself) or if the police gathered witnesses and suspects immediately after the crime (increasing the chance of success since the short term memory would be still fresh).