Daniel Kahneman. Attention and Effort. Prentice-Hall, 1973.
The foundational capacity model of attention. Establishes that attention is a limited, general-purpose resource pool with flexible allocation. When total demand exceeds available capacity, lower-priority channels degrade — directly supporting the claim that reception fails under cognitive load.
Key contributions to the knowledge graph:
- Attention as finite resource — the scientific basis for the cognitive-bandwidth law
- Capacity allocation is flexible but competitive — doing more of one thing means less capacity for another
- Under overload, secondary tasks degrade before primary tasks — supports "reception degrades first" when planning consumes bandwidth
Extended by: Wickens' Multiple Resource Theory (1984, 2002) refines Kahneman's single-pool model into multiple partially-separate resource pools (visual, auditory, spatial, verbal). This explains why some task combinations (planning + listening) interfere more than others (moving + listening). The bandwidth atom hedges accordingly.
Also relevant: Clark & Brennan's grounding theory (1991) extends the capacity framework to dyadic interaction — communication requires ongoing mutual coordination, and the cost of grounding increases with message complexity. This is the theoretical basis for the "shared bandwidth" concept.