EXPECTATIONS OF FREQUENCY AFFECT ATTENTION

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security routinely tests the ability to pass security
screening with guns, bomb parts, and other forbidden items by sending them through with
undercover agents. The U.S. government won’t release the figures officially, yet, but the
estimate is that 70 percent of these tests fail. Why does this happen?
A MENTAL MODEL ABOUT FREQUENCY.
A security officer is working for hours at a time, watching people, and looking at the scanner screen. He develops expectations about how frequently certain errors occur.
People will build an unconscious mental model of how often an event occurs.

	Created by Victor Ramirez-Mirazo about 8 years ago

how people pay attention and focus?

CH. 5 HOW PEOPLE FOCUS THEIR ATTENTION