Major+Objections

Major Objections in Attention Emotions Effect on Attention Research on how our emotions affect our information-processing and attention systems has only recently come into fruition. Researchers argue that emotions can affect what we perceive and how we perceive it. In 2011, Noga Cohen led a study presenting different emotional stimuli to participants and measured attention. It was found that when subjects needed to solve an attentional problem quickly emotional stimuli had less of an effect due to increased need of attention to solve the conflict. The data infers that our processing system has a component that is able to inhibit emotions due to perceived importance of a task. During tasks that did not require high attentional resources, emotions had an increased influence on attention. As research on the effect of emotions increases, it will help solve more of the variables of attention (Cohen, Henrik, & Mor, 2011). Objections in Selective Attention Selective attention theories began with Broadbent's filter theory (described in History and Key Findings sections), researchers classify this as "Early Selection". The problem with this theory is that it stated once the information cap was reached the brain would inhibit other processes. This was proved wrong shortly after in the 1950's, after studies confirmed that some unattended, or extraneous, stimuli were sometimes being deeply processed immediately. Treisman developed a new theory with this knowledge called the Attenuation theory, which would be described as "Late Selection". In response to unattended stimuli being processed, she proposed that some unattended stimuli would be processed but provide weaker input than attended stimuli. Underwood (1997) helped define the logistics of this theory by using selective shadowing. He found in his research that when attended stimuli are presented we process them as a whole and convert them into syntactic and semantic information (Driver, 2001).

As the debate continued between Early and Late Selection, Nilli Lavie (2000), proposed a theory that incorporated both ideas of selection. She agrees with late selection theories that processing perceptual information is automatic and that we will perceive however much we are capable of perceiving. From the early selection theories, she agrees that the amount of information we can process is finite. Lavie proposed that whether unattended stimuli would be processed or not depended on whether the task at hand requires the full capacity of a person's information-processing ability. The lower demand of the task ,resulting spare power, the more unattended stimuli processed (Driver, 2001) Prescribing Stimulants to Treat ADHD

Stimulants are considered to be the most effective drugs to combat the symptoms of ADHD and are prescribed as the first option of treatment. With ADHD affecting a large portion of the population, 5-10% in children and 3-4% in adults, the prescription and manufacturing of these drugs has increased greatly in the past years. With the rise of production of stimulants created to treat ADHD, availability of these stimulants has also increased. Due to the general conception that these stimulants increase the availability of dopamine and noradrenalin neurotransmitters, these drugs are likely to be misused (Kaye & Darke, 2012).

Studies have shown that up to 35% of university students are using stimulants without a prescription (Willens et al., 2008). Due to the academic setting these drugs are used to improve concentration and study habits. Studies also show that misuse increases when people are made aware of these social practices. Some researchers believe that keeping awareness of the drugs confined to only those with ADHD is crucial in preventing misuse With the potential side-effects of abuse and misuse of stimulants, it has become a controversial issue that has spurred much research (Kaye & Darke, 2012).