The Role of Attention in 
Perception

In a now classic study initiated 
by E. Colin Cherry at the 
University of London and MIT, 
two verbal messages were 
simultaneously "fed" to a 
subject, each through a 
separate earphone. The analogy 
was to the situation in a 
cocktail party where we are 
confronted by several 
simultaneous streams of 
conversation but can only 
attend to one. In the 
experiment, the subject had to 
do so by repeating one message 
aloud as it was heard. The 
subject was then tested for 
recall of both messages. The 
message the subject repeated 
aloud was well recalled, but 
little of the unattended one was 
recalled. Subsequent research 
using this method established 
that very little of the 
unattended message is 
perceived. Based on this 
experimental paradigm the late 
Donald Broadbent at Oxford and 
Anne Treisman, now at 
Princeton University, 
developed theories of 
perception in relation to the 
role of attention that have not 
only been very influential, but 
have played a major role in the 
emergence of Cognitive 
Psychology, the contemporary 
approach now dominating the 
field.