ABSTRACT
We all know in some instances we cannot ‘pay attention’ to two things at once. For example, if someone interrupts us while we are reading, we have to stop reading to talk to them. However, if we are watching a television programme we can talk about what is happening to a fellow viewer. Why is it that we can combine some tasks easily, but not others? Why is it we sometimes find we are not doing what we intended to do or go to do something to find we have already done it? In this chapter we will try to understand how attention can be divided between tasks, and how it is involved in controlling sequences of actions for coherent behaviour.
