4. Varieties of Attention: Capacity, Theories and Selection Flashcards
attention
- process of selecting (voluntary/involuntary) a subset of possible information (external vs internal) for further processing
- related to: arousal, awareness, concentration, consciousness
- attention does not translate directly into identification, learning or understanding
goal of attention
actively or passively filter through information
what does the attentional process combine together
the top-down and bottom-up approach
T or F: it is easier to say something is not there than to say it is there.
False, it is harder to say something i not there than to say it is there. To confirm the absence, it takes longer to go through the entire stimulus set
Does attention and control reflect unitary systems?
No, they have multiple, distributed components
different kinds of attention
- detection
- orientation/switching
- executive
attention: detection
captures attention
attention: orientation
process one sitmuli, to a next, etc.
attention: executive
- where there is lots of stimulation and we need to identify which one is most relevant
- which we let through
functions of attention
- attentional capture/signla detection
- selective attention/attentional focus
- divided attention/split attention
if something has a fixed RT, usually indicates it’s automatic: the longer the search, the higher the RT (refer to powerpoint slide 11)
attentional capture
- detection of the appearance of a particular stimulus including vigilance and search
attentional capture: visual search paradigm
participants are asked to scan a display in search a particular target while trying to ignore distracted
- refer to line example on page 21 of notebook
selective attention: the cocktail party
scenario
- at a cocktail party and several people are talking together, how can one talker be separated from the others
general approach
- when participants are presented with 2+ stimuli; examine participants’ ability to process and response to one 1 stimuli
- how well do we filter stimuli?
- what happens to unattended stimuli?
TRYING TO DETECT STIMULI THROUGH NOISE (information theory)
dichotic listening paradigm
- a listener continuously repeats what is presented in an ear
- this ensures that the material is attended to
HOWEVER - dichotic presentation allows the researcher to present different auditory information to each ear
- typically uses earphones (cancels out the exterior noise)
dichotic listening paradigm - attention and speech recognition: does pitch play a role in what we understand
YES
- two female voices = harder to distinguish than 1 male and 1 female
- similar to visual task (lines)
early selection theory: Broadbent (1958)
refer to notebook page 22
IMPORTANT
attenuated select theory: Treisman
refer to notebook page 23
IMPORTANT
late selection theory: Deutsch-Norman
refer to notebook page 23
IMPORTANT
inattentional blindness
- gorilla study
- radiologist study
- refer to slide 39 of powerpoint
change blindness
- phenomenon where a person viewing a visual scene apparently fails to detect large changes in the scene
- does this phenomenon have external validity?
- refer to slide 41 of powerpoint for example
failures of selective attention: Stroop effect
- response conflict increase RT and lowers ACC when participants asked to name colour that a word is printed in neutral; congruent; incongruent
- interferences results from automatic processing of meaning of word
- also been found for emotional words, such that those with certain psychopathologies, show greater stroop for negative words
Flanker task
context:
- participants presented with centrally presented target which they must identify
results
- when target is surrounded by flankers from opposite response set, RTs were slower and ACC was lower than when flankers were associated with the same response
- relates to Gestalt principles
- we process both locally and globally
- flanker dependent on
1. spatial separation
2. orientation
3. asymmetry
Flanker task: spatial separation
when stimuli are presented more than 1 degree aware from the target, effect is reduced
Flanker task: orientation
effect is also observed when flanking words presented above and below target
Flanker task: asymmetry
flankers on left have more effect on performance than those on the right (in cultures where we read from left to right)
