The brain relies on three essential processes:
Attention: the ability to focus on relevant stimuli, and block out what is not relevant: "Pay attention!"
Inhibition: the ability to "not do" certain actions that could be distracting, irrelevant, or even destructive:
"Don‘t do that!"
Working Memory: the ability to retain and access relevant information for reasoning, decision making, and taking future actions: "Remember and build on relevant information."