Introduction
Selective attention is when a person only sees parts of something, but does not necessarily notice the other details of the same thing. It is, according to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/selective+attention "the process by which a person can selectively pick out one message from a mixture of messages occurring simultaneously." Watch the video below by Daniel Simons.
Did you spot the gorilla? The Monkey Buisness Illusion
Applications of 'selective attention'
So if we do not see the whole picture, but merely certain aspects of it, as was demonstrated in Simons's video above, how can this knowledge be applied to life the paranormal? Logically, selective attention would work in conjunction with cognitive dissonance - this would mean that we only see what we want to see and therefore we do NOT notice the other details because we focus our attention on a part of it and as a result we miss the other points or details that we didn't want to see. In other words, we see the bits that we want to see (which are in accord with our belief, e.g.) and we miss the bits that we didn't (the details that were not in accord with our belief, basically).
Clearly, this can work in the mediumship circle/demonstration context. If a person. for instance, believed that a medium was giving highly accurate information that was all correct during a one-to-one reading, they may selectively focus their attention more on the bits that confirm this belief and not on the bits (the statements) that did not confirm this belief. Because the person selectively focussed on the bits that confirmed their belief, these particular statements will be remembered and the statements that were incorrect are forgotten because the person did not notice them. This, of course, leads to their memories being selective - selective memory.
(To be continued...)
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