According to Treisman's attenuation theory,the cocktail party effect occurs because ______.

A) words like your own name have permanently lowered thresholds for recognition
B) your name is primed by the context of the conversation
C) perception of expected information is easier than perception of unexpected information
D) its physical characteristics make it "stand out" from surrounding conversation

Treisman's Attenuation Theory

Treisman's Attenuation Theory is a model of selective attention that proposes a weakened strength of unattended messages rather than a complete blockage, allowing for meaningful stimuli to be processed at a lower priority.

Cocktail Party Effect

The ability to focus one's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, as in a noisy environment.