Some examples of types of attention in psychology are focused, selective, sustained, divided, and alternating attention. Several factors affecting attention in psychology research have been noted, such as concentration, the number of stimuli present or the presence of distractors.

Examples of focused attention are listening to a lecture, reading a book, watching a film or making something without distraction. This level of focus allows the brain to take in the whole task without it being littered with a number of other thoughts and processes.

Active attention is the where a person gives their full attention to a task or another person. An example of this is if you were engaging in a serious conversation with a significant other, a supervisor or the type of focus you would expect from a therapist.