Attention Flashcards
What is attention?
Set of processes that increase or decrease the priority of information (sensory or internal)
Basic Properties of Attention?
Attention controls our mental environment by choosing the events that will enter our consciousness
Limited - able to focus on a limited number of activities for a fixed period of time
Selected - we must be selective in our attention by focusing on some events to the detriment of others
Attention is a filter? Dichotic listening task (Cherry, 1953)
- Two different messages, one in each ear
- Shadow one channel/ear
Attention is directed toward one message only, attention is filtering which information is being processed. Some things are still getting though the unattended message, like hearing one’s name, change in volume, or change in gender of speaker.
Attention is a filter? - Selection
Early selection filter: Eliminate info early
Late selection filter: Eliminate info later
Broadbent’s Filter Model?
Early-selection model:
Filters message before incoming information is analysed for meaning
Sensory memory:
Holds all incoming information for a fraction of a second and transfers everything to next stage
Input -> Sensory memory -> Filter (selects a subset of the info -> Detector -> Memory
Treisman’s Attenuation Theory - Intermediate-selection model?
- Attended message can be separated from unattended message early in the information-processing system
- Selection can also occur later
Input -> Attenuator -> Attended message & Unattended message -> Dictionary unit -> Memory
Attenuator?
–Analyzes incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning
–Attended to message = full strength
–Unattended message = much weaker strength
Dictionary Unit?
Something in the mind that contains things we know, but all things have a threshold to get picked up by the higher level dictionary unit.
“Leaky fileter model”
Example, your name is a very low threshold in order to be detected.
Feature search?
Find something with a particular feature, it is easy to find a singular feature.
- Targes defined by only one feature (colour, shape, orientation, intensity)
- Target found fast and automatically “pop-out”
- Parallel search, attending to the whole image
- Preattentive, happens before we allocate our conscious directed attention
Conjunction Search?
More difficult than single feature search, more object = more information, more dimensions of information to filter
- Targets defined by differences in two or more features
- Targets found slowly
- Search is serial (one at a time)
- Requires conscious & effortful attention (focused or controlled processing)
Feature Integration Theory? Will be on the exam!
Object -> Preattentive Stage, analyse the object (any different single feature will “poppet”) -> Focused attention stage (Serial search, combine features) -> Perception
Attention is selective and limited?
Preattentive processing/stage (of visual search):
Ability to hone in on a relevant event to the exclusion of all else so rapidly that you may be unaware of all the stimuli that have been excluded
- Explains the orienting reflex, hearing your name -> instantly direct our attention
Focused attention processing/stage
- Features are combined
- Slow
Load Theory of Attention? Processing capacity
Processing capacity –how much can you handle in a given moment
Low perceptual load?
- Easy tasks
- Use less processing capacity
- Leaves resources available for processing task-irrelevant stimuli
Divided Attention (Schneider & Schiffrin, 1977)?
Divide attention between remembering target and monitoring rapidly presented stimuli
Primary task -> Memory set: one to four target stimuli (new set for every trial) example; number 3
Secondary task -> Test frames: target (for half of trials), distactors example; did you see number 3 in the raid display?
For the first ~600 trials, had to repeat memory set, response accuracy 50%
Task eventually became automatic (consuming few cognitive resources)
Cell phone use?
Stimulated driving: use cell phone & apply the brakes as quickly as possible in response to a red light
Missed x2 as many red lights
Took longer to apply the breaks
Very bad outcomes!
Illusory conjunctions?
Conjoin features that are not correct. Example, you thought you saw a blue triangle even though there was not one (blue square, red triangle)
Late selection (MacKay)? MacKay’s Ambitious Sentence Experiment
Meaning of words are always processed even if unattended
MacKay’s Ambitious Sentence Experiment:
- In attended ear, participants hear ambiguous sentences (e.g. “throwing stones at the bank”)
- In unattended ear, participants hear words that resolve the ambiguity (e.g. “Money, teller”)
The meaning of the words in the unattended ear resolved the ambiguity in the attended ear, even though participants could not consciously report them. Meaning of unattended words was processed without attention and conscious awareness.
Selection Theories Review? + Which theory is dominant with limited processing capacity
Early selection
- Broadbent’s (1958) Filter Theory
Intermediate selection
- Treisman’s(1964) AttentuationTheory
Late selection
- MacKay’s (1973) late selection study
- Deutsch & Deutsch (1963) theory
There is support for all these theories, but early selection becomes dominant when there is limited processing capacity (high perceptual load)
Processing capacity?
how much can you handle in a given moment
Perceptual load?
The difficulty of a task
- Load consumes limited processing capacity
