Divided Attention

Divided attention refers to our ability to focus on multiple tasks or sources of information simultaneously. For example, when driving a car while talking to a passenger, we split our attention between the road and the conversation. While it's possible to manage both tasks, our performance may decline because each task requires mental resources. This concept is important in understanding how we multitask in everyday life and the limits of our cognitive capacities. Overloading our attention can lead to mistakes or decreased effectiveness in completing tasks.