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Is it because we have different 'processors' for current events and remembered events? It reminds me of an almost philosophical question I ask myself sometimes - 'What is the present?'. It seems like it is a vanishingly small point of perception, that, like the speed of light, can only ever be approached but never quite reached. If we can never quite get a grasp of the present can we ever be truly conscious? We can only ever process information about stuff that has recently happened...Of course this means that when I refer to a processor for current events, I actually mean a processor for information which has just come in via the senses (and therefore, since it has already occured, is no longer current).
I would expect the advantage is that you can 'filter out' all the normal, non-important info your senses receive, and divert more resources to the thing you have become concious of. So in the flight or fight response, you become unconscious to most stimuli and can concentrate on the perceived threat.For example, you're at home listening to the radio alone and a bit hungry, and then you think you hear someone upstairs. Very quickly you will forget your hunger, not take on any of the content of the radio show you were listening to and become very concious of other element in your house - sounds, breezes, doors left open etc...