Mental models/Attentional Bias
Perception & Visual Processing

Attentional Bias

The tendency to pay attention to some things while simultaneously ignoring others, based on emotional state, current goals, or prior experience.

In plain language

People notice things that are relevant to their current goals or emotional state. A hungry person notices food. A worried person notices risk signals.

In the wild

Implementations of this model aren’t wired to this view yet — they live in the implementations table.

Related modelsPerception & Visual Processing
Aesthetic-Usability Effect
Perception & Visual Processing
Anchoring
Perception & Visual Processing
Change Blindness
Perception & Visual Processing
Contrast Effect
Perception & Visual Processing