Encoding: For information to be encoded, it has to be attended to. Attentional processes are very important. Competition for your attention by environmental stimuli is intense. Some selectivity in attention is necessary for memory to function. Using a variety of monaural and binaural listening tasks, messages separated at the stage of sensory reception are more easily selected for attention. This suggests “early” selection by attention. However, the “cocktail party phenomenon” (overhearing someone else mention your name) suggests “late” stage selection (early and late refer to the stage or level of information processing involved). Filtering seems possible at both pre- and post-meaning analysis stages of information processing. Late selection models assume all information is analyzed for meaning and only relevant information selected for memory storage. Early selection models that only relevant information is selected for later processing.

There seems to be a limit to the capacity of attention - i.e. we can only focus on a limited amount of input and output processes before we begin to lose track of things. What this suggests is that the more attentional capacity one has available (automatic parallel -processed visuo-spatial activities like driving do not use the same resources as linear processing tasks such as writing), then greater capacity for meaning (late selection) analysis is available. So, the more attentional capacity one has left to work with, the more one can shift processing to the meaning level, and the later the selection of input available.

Confused? Don’t be Summary:- when you are busy, you use more basic information processing than when you are less busy.