arousal is a hypothetical construct representing alertness, wakefulness, and activation, related to the activity of the central nervous system
attention is the allocation of cognitive resources among ongoing processes. 
attention is the cognitive link between the limited amount of information that is actually manipulated mentally and the enormous amount of information available through the senses, stored memories, and other cognitive processes
automatic process is a process that does not require attention to execute. 
automatic processes are cognitive manipulations that require no conscious decisions or intentional effort
automatization is the process by which an individual repeats a procedure so frequently (i.e., practices the procedure) that the procedure changes from being highly conscious and effortful to being relatively automatic and effortless
binaural presentation is the presentation of the same audible stimuli to both ears at the same time
cocktail party problem is the process of tracking one conversation with the distraction of other conversations, a problem often experienced at cocktail parties
conjunction search is a means of pursuing a quest for a target stimulus by seeking the joint appearance of multiple features that distinguish the target stimulus from distractors
consciousness is the complex phenomenon of evaluating the environment and then filtering that information through the mind, with awareness of doing so; may be viewed as the mental reality created in order to adapt to the world
controlled processes are the cognitive operations that require conscious control and effort, that are performed one step at a time, and that take longer to execute than mental operations governed by automatic proecesses
dichotic listening task is a task in which subjects are presented with two messages to two ears over headphones and are instructed to shadow one. 
dichotic presentation is simultaneous presentation of differing audible stimuli (such as verbal messages)to each ear
dishabituation is phenomenon in which a change (sometimes just a slight change) in a familiar stimulus prompts a perceiver to start noticing anew a stimulus to which the perceiver had previously become habituated
distractor is a feature, characteristic, object, or other stimulus that causes an individual difficulty in selectively attending to the stimuli of interest
divided attention is a process by which an individual allocates available attentional resources to coordinate the performance of more than one task at a time
feature-integration theory is a theory regarding the perception of forms and patterns (particularly when conducting visual searches), which explains the relative ease of conducting searches for single outstanding features (a task involving a single process of feature detection) and the relative difficulty of conducting searches for two or more conjoined features (a task involving two steps: feature detection and feature integration)
feature search is the visual persuit of a particular characteristic by means of scanning the environment for the characteristic
habituation is the tendency to become accustomed to a stimulus and gradually to notice it less and less
priming is an enhancement of the processing of a stimulus as a function of prior exposure. 
priming is the process by which particular initial stimuli activate mental pathways, thereby enhancing the ability to process subsequent stimuli related to the priming stimuli in some way; the activation of a node by a prime (activating node) to which the node is connected in a network
search is active scanning of the environment, in pursuit of particular stimuli or particular features
search is the process by which a problem solver finds a sequence of operators to solve a problem. 
selective attention is a process by which an individual attempts to track one stimulus or one type of stimulus and to ignore another
sensory adaptation is a temporary physiological response to a sensed change in the environment (e.g., adaptation to changes in light intensity), which is generally not subject to conscious manipulation or control, and which does not depend on previous experience with the given type of environmental change
signal detection is a process by which an individual must detect the appearance of a particular stimulus
signal is a stimulus to be detected; according to signaldetection theory, there are four possible stimulus-response pairs: a hit, a miss, a false alarm, or a cor rect rejection
signal-detection theory is a set of perceptual principles positing four possible stimulus-response pairs in detecting a perceptual signal: a hit, a miss, a false alarm, or a correct rejection
similarity theory is a theory regarding the perception of forms and patterns, which suggests that the key factor affecting the relative ease or difficulty of visual search is the degree to which targets and distractors are similar; factors that increase the ease of search are uniformity (high similarity) of the targets, uniformity of the distractors, and disparity (high dissimilarity) between the targets and the distractors; factors that make search more difficult are variety (dissimilarity) in targets or in distractors, as well as similarity between target stimuli and distractors
Stroop effect is the psychological difficulty in selective attention that occurs when a literate individual attempts to name the colors of ink in which are printed color words that identify a color other than the color of the ink (e.g., the word blue may be printed in red ink)
Stroop effect is the tendency to name a word will interfere with the ability to say the color in which the word is printed. 
tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is an experience involving the preconscious level of consciousness, in which a person tries to remember something that is known to be stored in memory but that the person cannot quite retrieve
vigilance is the ongoing alert watchfulness for the appearance of an unpredictable stimulus, which may be sensed through any of the sensory modalities