Attention 1&2 Flashcards
Attention is
Goal oriented
Attention varies in
Effort
Pop out search tends to be
Very easy
Serial search tends to be
Much harder
Attention can be
Shifted and zoomed
Attention is selective
And acts as a filter
Attention is limited
And acts as a resource, such as “amount of attention” or “paying attention)
Attention can be captured
You control your attention, but only to a degree
Attention can be divided
For example between modalities, you can divide your attention between two things
Broadbent wanted to know
Can we understand two simultaneous messages
Broadbent’s results
Only about 50% of questions were answered correctly, when listening to two simultaneous questions
Cocktail party problem
How do we recognize what one person is saying when others are speaking at the same time?
Cherry- condition 1
Two messages played in two ears, and repeat one message and ignore the other
Cherry- condition 1 result
Task is difficult but possible after many repetitions
Cherry- condition 2; dichotic listening
Two messages by the same speaker simultaneously played to different ears and instructed to shadow one speaker
Conclusions from these attention experiments
Hard to attend to two messages that are not separable by physical cues, and with physical cues it is much easier, and we can attend to one message and know very little about the other one
Broadbent’s filter theory
Senses -> short term store -> selective filter -> limited capacity channel
Broadbent’s filter theory
Senses -> short term store -> selective filter -> limited capacity channel
Short term memory store
Where information from multiple sensory inputs enters
Simple physical stimulus properties are processed
In parallel
Selective filter
Identifies info for further processing and uses physical stimulus properties as the basis for selection
The limited capacity channel
Is a serial processor; current term is the focus of attention in working memory
Selective filtering takes place before
Full meaning analysis can occur in the limited capacity channel
Own name effect
Evidence against early selection; 1/3 participants noticed own name when presented to irrelevant ear which shows it’s possible to recognize words without processing their meaning
The own name effect suggests that the
Presumably unattended info was analyzed which isn’t consistent with early selection theory
Message switching
Participants report info from irrelevant ear when messages switch from ear to ear, evidence against early selection
Conditioning with electrical shocks
Words affect skin conductance responses and this shows that this isn’t consistent with early selection theory
Alternatives to broadbent’s filter theory
Attenuation theory and late selection
Attentuation theory
That the filter is not completely selective and explains for failures of early selection
Late selection
Meaning is analyzed before input is filtered automatically and not capacity limited
Leakage
Filter doesn’t block info from irrelevant channel but it does attenuate it and info from irrelevant channel leaks through the filter
Slippage
If attention isn’t properly focused, then attention will slip to the irrelevant channel
Spillover
If the relevant channel needs less attention than that available, attention will spill over to the irrelevant channel
Lachter et al study shows that
Broadbent might have been incorrect
Irrelevant channel
Is only irrelevant based on instruction
Own name effect and working memory capacity conclusions
those with a low working memory capacity are more likely to let attention slip into the irrelevant channel and those with high working memory capacity are better able to control attention
Channel switching experiment
Listening to two messages at the same time
Channel switching experiment shows that
Subjects get confused when a semantically coherent message suddenly became incoherent and to resolve this confusion subjects reallocate attention
Replicating electric shock conditioning
Attempted to replicate findings that skin conductance changes, which was found, but only in subjects who failed to shadow relevant channel and recalled info from irrelevant channel
Replicating electric shock conditioning study suggests
There might be slippage of attentional resources and some participants do attend the irrelevant channel
Lachter et al hypothesis
If we can exclude slippage there will be no identification without attention
How did Lachter et al. exclude slippage in the repetition priming experiment
Used visual stimuli and present relevant and irrelevant stimuli in different locations, and presented the stimuli in irrelevant locations very briefly
How did the methods Lachter et al. used exclude slippage
Shifts of attention need time and it’s not possible to shift attention to an irrelevant location in 55 ms
How does repetition priming work
Seeing the prime activates the concept in memory, it then becomes easier to indicate that the target CAT is a word
When repetition priming is presented different locations
The reactions were slower
Lachter et al. Results for same location
Where the prime was in the same location then reaction times were faster and slower when in different locations
Relation to the prime and target
Faster when the prime and target are the same, slower when the prime and target were different
Lachter et al possible results for different location possible outcome 1
The same prime in different locations doesn’t affect reaction times and reaction times are the same
Lachter et al possible results for different locations possible outcome 2
Same prime in different location does affect reaction times and there is a speeded response
Lachter et al interpretation of possible results possible outcome 1
Broadbent is correct and there is no identification without attention. Therefore, the same prime in different location doesn’t affect reaction times
Kouider et al study
Training with auditory stimuli left hand response if word is an animal right hand response if word is man made object, and during sleep presented with new untrained words
Kouider et al study result
Participants prepared response in their sleep shown through electroencephalography
Kouider et al implications
They must have understood the meaning of the words and there is identification without attention in auditory domain
Lavie argued that perceptual processing is ___ which is an assumption from late selection theory but that perceptual processing is ___ which is an assumption from early selection theory
Automatic; capacity limited
Lavie assumption
Identification of irrelevant stimuli only if processing of relevant stimuli doesn’t exhaust available sources, and if processing of relevant stimuli consumed all available resources then there is no identification of irrelevant stimuli
Lavie & Cox experiment
Subjects were asked to identify a target letter while an irrelevant letter was presented, and the trials differed where the target and flanker were either identical or different
Lavie and Cox hypothesis
Compatibility effect for low perceptual load trials, but not high perceptual load trials
Compatibility effect
Difference in reaction times between incompatible trials and compatible trials
Lavie and Cox result
In low perceptual load there was a large compatibility effect and this suggests that the letter in the irrelevant channel was processed
Lavie and Cox conclusion
With high perceptual load, info in irrelevant channel is not identified, with low perceptual load, info in relevant channel is identified
Difference between Lachter and Lavie
Lachter believed results explained by slippage to irrelevant channel, which Lavie believed results explained by spillover of attentional resources from relevant to irrelevant channel
