Donald Broadbent

Donald Broadbent was a British cognitive psychologist known for his work on attention and information processing. He proposed a model suggesting our brains filter incoming sensory information to focus on what’s most relevant, similar to a spotlight. This filter helps us manage the vast amount of data we receive daily, allowing us to concentrate on specific tasks while ignoring others. His research laid the groundwork for understanding how humans process information efficiently and has influenced fields like psychology, human factors, and user-interface design. Broadbent’s work is fundamental in explaining how attention functions in complex environments.