Whenever Hakim is at a party, he generally does not hear all of the conversations around him. However, if someone suddenly says
Hakim's name while talking with someone else, his attention shifts to that conversation. The ability to tune out background noise and pay attention to only certain stimuli refers to the fact that attention:
The fact that attention is selective means that we can focus on something in particular and turn off all the other things that we perceive in an environment. This is helpful when we want to focus on one thing, like listen to our professor, so we do not pay attention to what is going on in the room like mates talking, someone chewing, the noise outside, etc.
