You are a good listener so your listening to your friend s story and casually filtering out the hustle and bustle of downtown like a good information-processing machine. But, at one point during this story, you notice a man in a green and white-stripped shirt crossing the street ahead of you. This combined with your friend s story clicks something in your mind. You suddenly recall reading a Dr. Seuss story to your son a few nights ago that contained a cat in a red and white-stripped tall hat riding a bike. You begin to tell this story to your friend and relate it to parenting so it fits in the right context.
Several mechanisms are at large.
Your hearing is processing a complex set of symbols spoken from your friend. You are visually processing information about the ever-changing scene around you. You are walking, controlling finite motor coordination. You are also processing all this information, and recalling information you previous coded in your memory. There were many cues in your environment.