An architecture for managing alerts, notifications, and peripheral information is disclosed. In one embodiment, a computerized system includes three modules, an attentional status module, a peripheral information notification and alerts module, and an notifications decision-making module. The attentional-status module generates a probability distribution over the user's focus of attention. In one embodiment the module also provides a probability distribution over the period of time until the user will become available to review alerts zero or minimal cost, or will review them without prompting. In one embodiment, this module utilizes a decision-theoretic analysis to identify ideal actions about the timing and rendering of notifications or alerts. The peripheral information notification and alerts module receives alerts from different sources, including the operating system, standard applications, special plug-ins designed to work with the architecture, and, in particular embodiments, from special sensory apparatus including ambient acoustical information. The notification decision-making module is to alert the user of the alerts received by the peripheral information notification and alerts module, based on the probability generated by the attentional status module.