Abstract

Studies of attention, often conducted in artificial laboratory experiments, may have limited validity when performance in the natural world is considered. For instance, for over two decades, investigations of ‘reflexive’ and ‘volitional’ attention have tended to be grounded in methodologies that do not capture the demands of attention in everyday life. Recent studies suggest these laboratory investigations have lost touch with real-life contexts and accordingly may generate fundamental misunderstandings regarding the principles of human attention and behavior. This chapter identifies the basic assumptions of laboratory research that has led to this state of affairs, and suggests a new set of assumptions which lead to a new research approach called ‘cognitive ethology’. The implication is that if one is to understand human attention in everyday life, then research needs to be grounded in the natural world and not in experimental paradigms.

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