Abstract
Some methodological problems in the study of selective attention. The term "selective attention" is used to mean the ability to operate in a flexible way, devoting psychological activity to what is relevant and not to what is irrelevant, according to momentarily specific goals. In the present communication three methodological problems traditionally found in this research area are discussed. First is the problem of how to study processing of what is not selected. Second is how to use failures to reject the null hypothesis, given that most often in this area the research hypothesis (the one that involves efficient selection) imply the absence of any effect. Third is the added difficulty of the interpretation of any absence of effects, that has often led researchers to commit the logical fallacy of affirming the consequent; in this case, it consists of inferring that no processing has occurred from the absence of effects.
