Compare and contrast theories of visual and auditory attention. How well do they explain how we attend to objects?

[Name of the Institute]Compare and contrast theories of visual and auditory attention. How well do they explain how we attend to objects?

Introduction

It really perplexes and astounds a naïve mind to even acknowledge the perfection and the astuteness via which the nature has devised and developed the human body and its relative functions. Living our everyday lives, do not make us realise that our every action and our every experience entails a well devised and sound procedure. The minuteness and the delicacy that our body endures is nothing less than a marvel. Over the centuries, mankind has submitted its efforts and endeavours to determine and discover the proper functioning and working of the components of the human body and the marvels of the nature that they posses.

Auditory attention

The term attention itself denotes the concentration of human mind on a particular thing or event. Now the process of concentrating on something entails a distinct procedure and respective connotations to it. There are numerous kinds of attentions associated with the human body; amongst those is a pivotal one, known as the auditory attention. The researches have over time proven that undoubtedly, our auditory senses are exposed to countless sounds in the environment; however, our brain and our auditory senses pay heed to those sounds that are of our interest only. Then what happens to those sounds which still exist around us, and yet our brain and senses do not consciously acknowledge them.

The other factors, which are equally important in the auditory attention, are those of the timings and intensity of the sounds. The intensity of the sound received by the auditory senses, widely depend on the distance and the direction from which the sound is coming. The frequency of the sound will be lesser, if the sound is coming from a farther position, in comparison to the frequency of the sound that comes from a relative closer place or position (Scharf, 1998). Moreover, even the pos8ition in god the head and the distances or the differences of the positions of the left and the right ears from the origin of the sound, play a pivotal role in the differences of the frequency and the crest formed by the waves of the sound. A straight positioning of the head would equalise the frequency and the distribution of the wavelength to both the ears; a case that would be different if the head is positioned in a slightly tilted position. The nature itself has imbedded a phenomenon in the auditory senses, to be adept at gauging the direction from where the sounds of the differing wavelengths are coming from; wavelengths play a pivotal role in enabling the auditory sense to gauge the appropriate direction of the sound (Arthur et.al 1971).

Key theories and research of auditory attention

In order to stream line the auditory attention and the human mind's capability to pay heed to a specific ...