Explain Broadbent's filter model of attention.

Explain Broadbent's filter model of attention.

The Broadbent's filter model of attention was used to explain how selective attention is achieved. It proposed that information that we receive in our every day life, passes through certain stages:

Messages -> Sensory memory -> Filter -> Detector ---> To memory

Explenation:
1.Sensory memory holds all information for a very short time (fraction of a second).
2.Then the filter identifies the message based on its physical characteristics (tone of voice, accent etc), and allows only this message pass through to the next stage. All other messages are thrown/filtered out.
3.The role of a detector is to process the information to determine higher-level characteristics (meaning of the message etc). Since the filter allowed only the important information to pass thorugh it, the detector processes everything that reaches it.
4.Short-term memory unlike sensory memory holds information for a little bit longer (10-15 seconds), but also transfers it into long-term memory.

The model proposes that the large amount of information available to every one of us does not reach the detector stage, but rather only some of this information, based on its physical features. It's as if it helps us to choose and focus on the important information so that we can make use of it, rather than concentrating on every single piece information available without any particular purpose.

A small addition and not 100% sure.

All stimuli is processed based on it's physical properties by the filter. It is attention that then determines what is allowed to pass through and not the physical properties. For example, in the dichotic listening task, participants were able to identify the gender of the speaker to the unattended ear (physical properties) but no detail about what was being said (didn't pass the filter).