6. attention and mental image recognition Flashcards
Representation of visual information
what is change blindness
the inability to notice (salient) changes in a visual scene
Representation of visual information
when we perceive a visual scene, two types of representations seem to be formed…
what are they
representation fo the meaning of the scene
> meaning is well represented
Representation of the surface properties of the scene
- visual details, colour, etc
> surface properties is not
what is attention
a selection mechanism used to ensure our neural and cognitive resources are utilised effectively o select important pieces of information for further processing
we often receive more information than we can process simultaneously
when does attentional selection occur
there should be a point in the path from sensation to action at which people cannot process all the information in parallel (attentional bottle neck)
stimulus> sensation> perception> action
early selection on theory: the filter theory
what is it
only relevant information is selected and passed through the bottle neck,
all other information is completely ignored
early selection on theory: the filter theory
faults of this theory
Dichotic listening task
- some aspects of the ignored input is retained and remembered later
- non semantic aspects (male/female voice)
Cocktail party effect
- can still hear name mentioned in a crowed when talking to someone else
- some semantic information is still passed through bottle neck without attention
early selection theory: the attenuation theory
what is it
salience of unattended stimulus is reduced, but they aren’t filtered out entirely
late selection theory
what is it
the filter occurs after the perceptual stimulus has undergone analysis for its semantic content
late selection theory
fault
dichotic listening task
doesn’t support late selection
> implies that information is selected before being processed
define voluntary Vs. reflexive attention
voluntary attention
> top-down, goal directed
reflexive attention
> bottom-up, stimulus driven
describe voluntary attention
focus of attention is usually the same as the focus of the eyes
describe reflexive attention
the more that passes between a reflexive cue and a target, the slower the reaction will be
reflexive attention system has built-in mechanisms too prevent reflexively directed attention from becoming stuck at a location for too long (inhibition of return)
describe feature integration theory
must focus attention on a stimulus before you can synthesise its features into a pattern
attention works as a glue with which various features are combined into an object
