7. Mental imagery and attention and performance Flashcards
What is mental imagery?
Mental representations of visual and verbal
information
– Processing of visual (or visuospatial) and verbal
information exhibits different properties
What did the study of visual vs verbal imagery include?
(a) geometric condition
study array = actual shape of triangle, square and circle
Test array:
- identical, same configuration (YES)
- Same elements, linear configuration (YES)
- Different elements; same configuration (NO)
- Different elements; Linear configuration (NO)
(b) Verbal condition
(Same as above but instead of shapes the words presented)
Reaction time was slower when there was the same configuration of actual shapes compared to a linear configuration in GEOMETRIC condition. but for the WORD condition, the reaction time was slower in the same and faster in the linear configuration
What is change blindness?
Change blindness—inability to notice (salient) changes in a visual scene
We might feel that our visual perception captures all the rich details of the environment, but apparently it doesn’t
What do we have a great ability to do?
we have a great ability to
recognize visual scenes
– e.g., Standing (1973): after studying 10000 pictures,
participants accurately recognized 8300 of them!
what is the boundary extension?
When we memorize a visual scene, a wider-angle view of the scene tends to be stored in memory
What did Mandler & Ritchey (1977) find regarding correct rejection rates?
– When the changed object did not affect the meaning
of a scene: 60%
– When the changed object altered the meaning of a
scene: 94%
What do Standing (1973), Intraub and Richardson (1989), and Mandler and Ritchey (1977) studies tell us about the nature of mental visual representations?
When we perceive a visual scene, two types of
representations seem to be formed
– Representation of the meaning of the scene
– Representation of surface properties of the scene
(visual details, color, etc.)
What aspects of a visual scene are and are not well represented?
• The meaning (or the gist) of the scene is very
well represented
• The surface properties are not
What is attention according to William James?
Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrain state.
how much information do we receive and how much do we process?
We often receive more information than we can process simultaneously
what is necessary to use our neural and cognitive resources effectively?
In order to use our neural and cognitive resources effectively, it is necessary to select important pieces of information for further processing
what is attention (generally)?
The selection mechanism used to select important pieces of information for neural and cognitive processing
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 “bottleneck”)
Stimulus (beer) -> sensation (yellow white liquid foam) -> perception (BEER) -> action (drink beer)
What do the early and late selection theories suggest?
- Different theories about when selection occurs
* Vary depending on how early or late they think the bottleneck is
What does the filter theory (early-selection theory) suggest?
- Sensory information has to pass through some bottleneck
- Only some of the sensory information is selected for further processing
- The unattended message is usually not remembered
- However, some information about the unattended message is processed
What task was sed to test the filter theory?
Dichotic listening task.
Contrary to the filter theory, what information about the unattended message is processed?
– Some non-semantic aspects of the message (e.g., whether the voice was male or female) are remembered later
– This does not support the filter theory
What is the cocktail party effect (in the filter theory) and what does this suggest?
You can hear your name mentioned in a crowded bar,
even when you are talking with someone else this suggests that Some semantic information can also pass through a bottleneck without attention
What does the attenuation theory suggest (early selection theory)?
Salience of unattended
stimuli is reduced, but they
are not filtered out entirely
What do the late selection theories suggest?
The filter occurs after the
perceptual stimulus has
undergone analysis for its
semantic content
What was Treisman & Geffen’s (1967) Dichotic listening task?
– Participants had to shadow one message from one ear
– At the same time, they had to detect a target word, which was heard by either ear
What did Treisman & Geffen (1967) hypothesise in their Dichotic listening task?
– The attenuation theory: the target will be less frequently detected in an unshadowed ear
– Late-selection theories: the target will be detected equally well in either ear
What were the results of Treisman & Geffen’s (1967) Dichotic listening task?
Results (detection accuracy)
– In the shadowed ear: 87%
– In the unshadowed ear: 8%
Supports the attenuation theory
What is voluntary attention?
Top-down, goal-directed
Focus of attention is usually the same as the focus of the eyes
