This essay is about attention and the theories that have been proposed about it. Although there is no widely accepted definition of attention, many attempts have been made to explain it, for example, attention refers to selectively focusing on a stimulus and ignoring d other aspects of the environment, thus constituting a limited cognitive resource (in Smith and Kossyln, 2007). Theories implemented on the nature of attention are numerous and varied and mainly derive from theories of information processing. This essay will specifically examine focused attention approaches. These models are particularly interested in how we are able to selectively attend to information while rejecting other and irrelevant information (in Eysenck & Keane, 2005). Such theories of early selection will be discussed; Broadbent's filter model (1958 in Lachman & Buttersfield, 1979), which is of particular importance to psychologists, and Triesman's attenuation model, which has also been widely recognized (in Smith & Kossyln, 2007). However, before we examine this, it is important that we identify with one of the famous pioneers of focused auditory attention whose work has received immense popularity. Influential work on auditory attention derives from Cherry's cocktail phenomenon (1953 in Eysenck Keane, 2005). . This effect refers to the ability to selectively attend to a source of auditory information in a noisy context, hence the concept of “party” (in Eysenck & Keane, 2005). The search for the destination of excluded information is demonstrated in the large number of dichotic listening tasks adopted by psychologists. Dichotic listening tasks involve administering headphones with different auditory stimuli presented in subjects middle of paper ......h by others such as that of Broadbent and Triesman. The fundamental assertion of Broadbent's filter model was that there is a bottleneck through which only one input channel is allowed to pass, while Triesman's model allowed multiple channels to pass. Ultimately, both theories provide valuable insights into attentional phenomena, although they may be open to criticism. ReferencesSmith, EE and Kosslyn, SM (2007). Cognitive psychology: mind and brain. (1st ed.) New Jersey: Pearson Education. Esysenck, W. M. (1982). Attention and arousal: cognition and performance. GermanyEysenck, MW and Keane, MT (2005). Cognitive psychology: A student's handbook (5th ed.). Hove: Psychology Press. Lachman, R., Lachman, J.L., & Buttersfield, C.E. (1979). Cognitive psychology and information processing: an introduction. Hillsdale, New Jersey.