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In cognitive and clinical psychology hypervigilance refers to an enhanced state of sensory sensitivity and heightened attention to environmental threat detection and avoidance.

For example, a driver who has previously been involved in a car accident may devote so much attention to road conditions and other cars on the road, that he or she may not hear an accompanying passenger while driving (Due to selective attention) and drive erratically as they seek to avoid further collisions .

The degree of hypervigilance can be exacerbated by a vicious circle where one can come to see threats everywhere which leads to more intensive scanning and is a cognitive mechanism that is thought to underlie paranoia

It is manifested in victims of domestic violence and stalking. It is also seen as an aspect of the psychological condition of codependence, and as needing treatment in victims of torture.

Hypervigilance is often a symptom of a number of stress-related disorders. See for example :


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Attention
Aspects of attention
Absent-mindedness | Attentional control | Attention span | Attentional shift | Attention management | Attentional blink | Attentional bias | Attention economy | Attention and emotion | Attention optimization | Change blindness | Concentration |Dichotic listening | Directed attention fatigue | Distraction | Distractibility | Divided attention | Hyperfocus | Inattentional blindness | Mindfulness |Mind-wandering | Meditation | Salience | Selective attention | Selective inattention | Signal detection theory | Sustained attention | Vigilance | Visual search |
Developmental aspects of attention
centration | [[]] |
Neuroanatomy of attention
Attention versus memory in prefrontal cortex | Default mode network | Dorsal attention network | Medial geniculate nucleus | | Neural mechanisms | Ventral attention network | Intraparietal sulcus |
Neurochemistry of attention
Glutamatergic system  | [[]] |
Attention in clinical settings
ADHD | ADHD contoversy | ADD | AADD | Attention and aging | Attention restoration theory | Attention seeking | Attention training | Centering | Distractability | Hypervigilance | Hyperprosexia | Cognitive-shifting | Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy |
Attention in educational settings
Concentration |
Assessing attention
Benton | Continuous Performance Task | TOMM | Wechsler Memory Scale |
Treating attention problems
CBT | Psychotherapy |
Prominant workers in attention
Baddeley | Broadbent | [[]] | Treisman | Cave |
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