Anne Treisman

Anne Treisman developed attenuation theory of attention and feature integration theory of vision.

Why attenuation over a hard filter?

A pure all-or-nothing filter can’t explain why you hear your own name in a conversation you weren’t listening to.

• Attenuation theory: fixes Broadbent’s filter, unattended channels are turned down, not blocked, so important signals (your name, “fire”) still get through
• Feature integration theory: basic features (color, orientation, motion) register in parallel, but binding them into objects requires focused attention