3- How do we Select Attention?

Question 1

What are the three considerations when looking at how we select attention?

Answer 1

When to select?
To what extent?
Based on what?

Question 2

What is the early vs late selection debate?

Answer 2

Do we decide to keep/focus on early or late information?

Question 3

What is the main type of study to study auditory attention?

Answer 3

Dichotic listening

Question 4

Who proposed the dichotic listening study?

Answer 4

Cherry, 1953

Question 5

What happens in the dichotic listening task? (3 points)

Answer 5

1. Different information goes into each ear
2. Person is asked to focus on left or right input
3. Asked to verbally repeat the input so that the experimenter knows whether or not information is being attended to

Question 6

What is the cocktail party effect?

Answer 6

We are able to focus on certain aspects of a situation and ignore background information

Question 7

What does the cocktail party effect show?

Answer 7

That we can apply selective attention

Question 8

Who proposed the early filter model?

Answer 8

Broadbent, 1958

Question 9

What does the early filter model propose?

Answer 9

Only specific information is selected for processing

Question 10

What does the early filter model suggest happens to attended to information vs unattended information?

Answer 10

Attended to information can continue to higher-level processing and unattended information is lost

Question 11

What does the early filter model say selection is based on?

Answer 11

Physical properties

Question 12

Which information goes to the sensory store in the early filter model?

Answer 12

Both attended and unattended information

Question 13

What happens in the sensory store?

Answer 13

Sounds are registered and transformed into electrochemical energy

Question 14

What issues are there with the early filter model? (3)

Answer 14

1. Unattended yet highly familiar information can slip past the filter
2. Can’t always explain every situation
3. Attention might not be allocated in an all-or-none way

Question 15

Who proposed the attenuation model?

Answer 15

Treisman, 1964

Question 16

How is the attenuation model different from the early filter model?

Answer 16

Attention is not all-or-none- different pieces of information have varying rates of processing

Question 17

How is the attenuation model similar to the early filter model?

Answer 17

Selection is still based on physical properties

Question 18

What 2 other aspects does the attenuation model suggest selection is based on?

Answer 18

Familiarity or relevance

Question 19

What does the attenuation model suggest happens to the unattended message?

Answer 19

We don’t get the full message of an unattended message

Question 20

What information does the attenuation model say gets to be processed semantically?

Answer 20

Attended information

Question 21

What are the issues with early selection models? (2 points)

Answer 21

1. Even unattended messages can be processed to the level of meaning
2. Attended information can be affected by the unattended information that the models don’t account for

Question 22

Where do late selection models argue that selection happens?

Answer 22

At the level of memory

Question 23

When is information semantically processed according to late selection model?

Answer 23

Before attentive selection takes place

Question 24

Who proposed the Late Selection Model?

Answer 24

Deutsch and Deutsch, 1963

Question 25

What is the criticism of all information being processed deeply first?

Answer 25

Could be wasteful

Question 26

How do we select our response?

Answer 26

Based on the attended information

Question 27

What happens when we have multiple stimuli?

Answer 27

They can all be processed to a deep level

Question 28

What is the task used to study subliminal priming?

Answer 28

Cross judgement task

Question 29

Who proposed the cross judgement task?

Answer 29

Mack and Rock, 1998

Question 30

What happens in the cross judgement task?

Answer 30

• A word is presented in one of the quadrants very fast
• Participants were given a primary task to judge line lengths of quadrants

Question 31

Did participants detect the brief word in the cross judgement task?

Answer 31

Mostly not

Question 32

Why didn’t participants detect the word most of the time in the cross judgement task?

Answer 32

Because they are trying to pay attention to the primary task

Question 33

When were participants better able to find the word?

Answer 33

When given 5 alternatives better than chance

Question 34

Are we still processing peripheral information when there is a primary task?

Answer 34

Yes

Question 35

What are the 3 reasons that models of selective attention differ?

Answer 35

1. When selection occurs
2. Whether allocation is all-or-none
3. Whether unattended information is processed at the level or physical property or also meaning

Question 36

How may attention differ from all existing models?

Answer 36

Attention may be more flexible and depends on the situation