Demonstration in Selective Attention

Directions: Read the message below that is written in this `TEXT STYLE`starting with the word "`AMONG`".

AMONG Somewhere THE hidden MOST in SPECTACULAR the COGNITIVE Rocky ABILITIES Mountains IS near THE Central City ABILITY Colorado TO an SELECT old ONE miner MESSAGE hid FROM a ANOTHER box MESSAGE. of WEgold. DO Although THIS several BY hundred FOCUSING people OUR have ATTENTION looked ON for CERTAIN it, CUES they LIKE have COLOR not AND found TYPE it. STYLE.If WHEN you WE walk FOCUS 300 paces OUR due ATTENTION west ON and CERTAIN 600 paces STIMULI, northwest THE of MESSAGE the IN 'Glory Hole' OTHER Saloon STIMULI and ISdig NOT three CLEARLY feet IDENTIFIED; you HOWEVERwill SOME find INFORMATION enough FROM gold THE to UNATTENDED go SOURCE to MAY a BE concert. DETECTED.

What did you read? What can you tell about the message that appeared in this `TEXT STYLE`? If so, what caught your attention and why? Several cues helped keep you on the right track; these include the physical nature of the stimuli, the meaning of the sentences, and the syntactical order. However, some material from the other message may have distracted you. You may have been distracted by "emotional" or unusual words (e.g., 'gold' or 'Colorado') or by distinctive visual cues (e.g., 600 or 300).

Excerpt from Solso (1991, pg. 123).

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