Attention Flashcards
What is attention?
- The incoming input we decide to focus on
- What our memory tells us is important from our past experiences
- What our unconscious decides to process on a deeper level
What are the types of attention?
–External attention: attending to objects in the environment or to specific features of those objects, heavily based on sensory input
–Internal attention: regulating our internal mental states, heavily based on management of short-term and long-term memory
What is Milgram (1970)?
Negative impact of overload
1. role performance
2. the evolution of social norms
3. cognitive functioning
What are the two theories of attention
- Bottleneck theories- explains filter process when many stimuli need to be reduced
- Capacity theories- explains ability to perform tasks based on amount of mental effort (selection)
What is Broadbent (1954)?
–Participants listened to three pairs of digits via headphones with separate audio inputs
–They reported 65% correctly but they said it by the reports in one ear followed by the digits in the other ear
–Sensory channels can receive more than one stimulus simultaneously
–Only one channel at a time reaches the pattern recognition stage
–Switching attention between channels requires both time and effort
What is the filter model?
Was used to test Broadbent’s assumption that the listener can recognize information on only one channel at at time by presenting a different but continuous message to each ear and asking the listener to repeat one of the messages
What is Treisman (1960)?
–Contradicts Broadbent’s filter model
–Participants would sometimes combine the information coming from the input they were supposed to ignore because the intrusion fit the semantic context better than the words they were supposed to repeat
–This tells us that information from the unattended ear must have been recognized and the filter was not an all or none barrier
What was Treisman’s Model?
- Proposed a model consisting of two parts instead the bottleneck, a filter and pattern recognition
- The filter distinguishes between the two messages based on their sensory characteristics (volume, pitch)
- The filter does not completely block out the unattended message but merely attenuates it
- Thresholds are the minimum intensity needed for recognition (fire has a low threshold, its more easily recognized)
What is Deutsch and Deutsch Model (1963)?
Reported selection occurred after pattern recognition
1. All incoming stimuli are recognized
2. Stimuli are quickly forgotten unless important
3. Selection for further processing is based on importance and the amount of activation
What is Kahneman (1973)?
–Suggested that there is a limit on a person’s capacity to perform mental work
–Designed to add to bottleneck theories
–Capacity model proposes that interference is nonspecific and occurs when the demands of two activities exceed available capacity, not because the two tasks are using the same mechanism.
What is allocation of capacity?
–More capacity is available when arousal is moderately high
–Very high levels of arousal can interfere with performance
–Enduring dispositions reflect the rules of involuntary attention (loud noises)
–Momentary intentions reflect our specific goals or objectives at a particular time (watching tv, reading a book)
What is Johnston and Heinz (1978)?
–They used selective listening tasks to develop their theory, so a bottleneck would be likely to occur
–Proposed that the listener has control over the location of the bottleneck and the location can vary along a continuum from early mode of selection to late selection
–The use of selection should cause slower reaction times to the light the signal and more errors on the selective listening task
–The results supported their view that selective attention requires capacity and the required capacity increases from early to late mode of selection
–A person can increase breadth of attention but only at a cost of capacity and accuracy
What is the multimode theory?
Although a listener can attempt to understand the meaning of two simultaneous messages by adopting a late mode of selection, this is achieved at a cost
–As you try to collect more information about the secondary message it reduces the capacity to comprehend the primary message
–More capacity is required to perform at a late mode of selection rather than a sensory filter
What is Pashler (1998)?
–Proposed a general model that is a type of multimode theory
–The model has both an early (filtering mechanisms) and a late (semantic analysis) stage of selection
–A person has a choice on how to use their attention
–Some tasks can become automatic that they do not appear to require any capacity
What is automatic processing?
–Performing mental operations that require very little mental effort and occurs without conscious awareness
