Top Highlights

• However, just because we have evolved goal-setting abilities does not mean that these are now the only influence on the perception-action cycle. These internal, goal-directed, top-down influences occur at the same time as external, stimulus-driven, bottom-up influences to modulate our perceptions and actions. The bottom-up forces are the same as th...
• It is clear that our interruptive technologies are only going to become more effective in drawing our attention away from important aspects of life, so we urgently need to understand why we are so sensitive to interference and how we can find a “signal amidst the noise” in our high-tech world.
• explain why our brains struggle to keep up with demands of communication and information.
• We describe how the very essence of what has evolved furthest in our brains to make us human—our ability to set high-level goals for ourselves—collides headfirst with our brain’s fundamental limitations in cognitive control: attention, working memory, and goal management. This collision results in our extreme sensitivity to goal interference from b...
• We further discuss why we engage in high-interference-inducing behaviors from an evolutionary perspective, such that we are merely acting in an optimal manner to satisfy our innate drive as information-seeking creatures.