I used to listen to music or watch TV when I studied.

I did not think it mattered or took

my attention away from my schoolwork. I still made good grades and did fine on papers and

tests. My parents kept telling me not to work with distractions playing, but I continued.

One day I was writing a paper for English. I thought I was doing well and was “in the

zone.” However, when I read back the last few lines I had written, they were the lyrics of the

song that was playing. Without realizing it, I had been letting the music filter through to my

writing.

I know now that is selective attention. My perception had switched over to my auditory

input instead of my visual. I thought I could multitask my writing and listening to music, but my

perception was really moving back and forth between the two and in that moment, the auditory

content spilled out onto the page (Schacter et al., 2020, p. 244).

Reference

Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., Nock, M., & Wegner, D. M. (2020). Chapter 4: Sensation and

Perception. In Psychology (5th ed., pp. 233–318). essay, Worth Publishers.