Attention Flashcards
1
Q
THE MONKEY BUSINESS ILLUSION
A
- demonstrates phenomenon aka. inattentional blindness
- highlights worrying reality that we’re far less aware of things happening around us than we think
- demonstrates how powerful selective attention is; enables us to focus on task relevant info while filtering irrelevant info out of awareness
- demonstrates limited attention capacity
2
Q
DEFINING ATTENTION
A
PASHLER (1998)
- well-studied psychological process BUT notoriously hard to define
JAMES (1890)
- taking clear/vivid possession of objects/trains of thought by the mind
- focalisation/concentration are of its essence
- implies withdrawal from some things to effectively deal w/others
3
Q
ATTENTION
A
- we can select a particular object amongst others & subject it to further processing/act upon it
- selection process = generally what we mean by attention though there are some forms of attention (ie. sustained attention)
- attention is NOT = looking at something (change blindness)
4
Q
CHANGE BLINDNESS
A
- demonstrates that we can be looking at something BUT not selectively attending to it
- also demonstrates power of selective attention
5
Q
SELECTIVE ATTENTION
A
- multisensory; we can selectively attend to visual/auditory/tactile stimuli & switch attention between senses
- selective attention types include:
OVERT - turning head/eyes to orient towards stimulus
COVERT - paying attention to one thing while appearing to pay attention to another
6
Q
THE COCKTAIL PARTY EFFECT
A
- covert attention example
- being in a room w/multiple audible conversations but only being able to focus on the person currently speaking to you
- BUT you can also instantaneously switch attention to a neighbouring conversation while appearing to carry on your current one if you hear something interesting
7
Q
CHERRY (1953): PROCEDURE
A
- designed dichotic listening experiment to investigate how attention works in a lab
- particularly interested in finding out how much info we filter out from unattended sensory sources
- pps listened to 2 simultaneous sentences spoken into 2 dif ears; attended to 1 sentence & ignored the other; had to shadow (repeat out loud) attended sentences
8
Q
CHERRY (1953): RESULTS
A
- pps couldn’t detect most properties of unattended channel (ie. language used/message meaning/content)
- pps DID notice gender of voice/physical attributes (ie. human VS musical instrument)
- aka. attention filters out most info & operates at early processing stage
9
Q
EARLY SELECTION
A
- attention operates at an early stage in the processing stream filtering out irrelevant info
- Cherry (1953) -> early selection attention model; stimuli processed according to physical attributes & then selected by attention before reaching awareness & receiving more elaborate semantic analysis; late selection models suggest all stimuli receive semantic analysis before attentional selection filters what enters awareness
- aka. only simple physical attributes made it through the dichotic listening in Cherry (1953)
10
Q
POSNER (1980): SPOTLIGHT MODEL OF ATTENTION
A
- argued that attention operates like a spotlight enhancing sensory processing of objects in spatial location to which it’s directed
- endogenous VS exogenous spatial cueing paradigms
11
Q
POSNER CUEING EFFECTS: INTERPRETATION
A
- attention increases efficiency of info processing by influencing sensory/perceptual processing
- hypothesised that beh effects of cues = caused by neuronal enhancement/suppression in early visual cortical areas aka. early selection
- attention enhances processing of objects occurring in particular spatial locations
12
Q
EARLY SELECTION CHALLENGES: CONTEXT EFFECTS
A
- subjects oft notice their own name/highly relevant info on unattended channels (ie. cocktail party eg)
- how can they be aware of this if all unattended info is being filtered away?
- effect suggests that more info on unattended channels is actually being processed than suspected
13
Q
EARLY SELECTION CHALLENGES: CONTEXT EFFECTS (MACKAY (1973))
A
- ambiguous sentences in dichotic listening task
- ambiguous words on attended channel w/priming (biasing) words on unattended channel
- pps’ interpretation of ambiguous sentence = influenced by meaning of biasing word:
1) “money” = referring financial situation
2) “river” = referring to a river - aka semantic info about unattended channel = processed; incompatible w/early selection theory
14
Q
EARLY SELECTION CHALLENGES: OBJECT-BASED SELECTION
A
- even when change happens in front of you, you can miss it (aka. change blindness)
- suggests attention may not operate over regions of space
- objects are typically situated in particular locations so how can we distinguish between spatial VS object attention effects?
15
Q
EARLY SELECTION CHALLENGES: OBJECT-BASED SELECTION (EGLY ET AL. (1994): PROCEDURE)
A
- pps saw 2 shapes; cued to location on 1 of them
- target appeared either in:
1) same object/same location
2) same object/dif location
3) dif object/same location - conditions 2/3 = spatial distance between cue/target was same BUT in 1 they both appeared in same target; in the other targets were dif
