A Review of Recent Models of Attention.

The problem of inputting diverse signals at high speeds to a trainee remains one of the major bottlenecks in the training of pilots. Attention is the name of the human process--which selects from the signals presented those requiring immediate response, those which must be held in memory for later action, and those which must be integrated with each other and with prior information. How the signal is encoded, the nature of usable encodable signal units, short- and long-term memories, and the interaction of all of these with the arousal system are equally important. This report reviews the present status of concepts of attention and their postulated interactions with some of these other processes. As such it provides a background for research aimed at improving the training procedures employed in jet pilot training.