4: Attention Flashcards
What is attention?
The process enabling us to focus on a particular stimulus
What is change blindness?
When something in our environment changes after a small pause such as looking down at our phones, we’re less able to tell what’s changed
What is the link between attention and misdirection?
Someone playing close attention is more easily misdirected than someone who is not
What is the dichotic listening paradigm?
People are exposed to different sounds in different ears and they’re given a task such as repeating what was said in the left ear
What is Ponser’s spatial cueing task?
Participants were asked to press the button when the star appeared in the left box.
Before the star appeared, there was a cue (An arrow pointing to either the left or right box)
When the cue was valid (Pointed to where the star would be) reaction times were faster
It shows us that attention can be directed without needing eye movement
What are some attention models?
Cocktail party phenomenon (Cherry)
Filter model (Broadbent)
Attenuator model (Treisman)
Subliminal priming paradigm
Perceptual load model
What attention model did Cherry come up with?
Cocktail party phenomenon
Who came up with the cocktail party phenomenon?
Cherry
What is the cocktail party phenomenon?
Investigated how much of a message we process if we aren’t playing attention to
People didn’t notice if the unattended voice switched from English to German
More likely to notice a change of tone
Who came up with the filter model?
Broadbent
What model of attention did Broadbent come up with?
Filter model
What is the filter model of attention?
We filter out information we don’t need in acheiving our goals
What is one critisism of the filter model of attention?
Doesn’t explain real life situations such as why we randomally pick up on other people’s conversations or how we immediately direct attention when someone calls our name
What model of attention did Treisman come up with?
Attenuator model
Who came up with the attenuator model?
Treisman
What is the attenuator model?
This is the idea that information can be processed to different degrees instead of ‘all or nothing’
It’s influenced by previous experiances
What are the early selection models of attention?
Cocktail party phenomenon
Filter model
Attenuator model
What are the late selection models?
Subliminal priming paradigm
Perceptual load model
What is the subliminal priming paradigm?
This assumes that selection happens from memory
Some stimuli never reach our awareness but are still processed
What is the perceptual load model?
When given a difficult task, it takes up more of our mental recources. An easier task has a lower load so we’re more able to multi-task
What is the stroop effect?
When we say the word, the meaning automatically comes to our minds.
With colour and the stroop test, it’s so familiar that the process is automated.
What is the visual search paradigm?
Participants were asked to remember a memory set and then shown a new set
They were asked what figures appeared in both
What is the Norman and Shallice model?
How we inhibit automated behaviour
