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attention Flashcards

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1
Q

processing bottleneck

A

only a certain amount can get through when there is a lot of input at once

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2
Q

selective attention

A

focusing attention on certain information, while ignoring other information

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3
Q

sustained attention

A

maintain focused attention or vigilance

e.g. security card monitoring surveillance camera

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4
Q

divided attention

A

e.g. multitasking

way of looking at capacity limits

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5
Q

attention to different sensory modalities

A

e.g. sight, touch, sound, smell

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6
Q

ways of studying attention: eye tracking

A
  • problem: attention can move around without our eyes moving
  • problem: we don’t always look at what we intend to (spying/polite) - covert attention
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7
Q

spatial cueing

A
  • assumes attention takes time to move around
  • if they’re slower when the cue is invalid this means they were paying attention to the cue
  • is the target letter N or X
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8
Q

visual search

A
  • if target pops out (different colour), increasing non-targets doesn’t affect reaction time
  • but if the target is in conjunction, reaction time increases with number of non-targets
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9
Q

Distractor effects

A
  • assume attention has been distracted by a stimulus if it slows us down when it is irrelevant
  • or speeds up when it is the target

e.g. stroop task or flanker task

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10
Q

stroop task

A
  • harder when the word is also a colour name - we cannot ignore the word meaning
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11
Q

flanker task

A

central letter - look for X or N but if the out side letters are also target letters - response time is slower

e.g. SXS vs NXN

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12
Q

singleton attentional capture task

A

task: find green circle amongst green diamonds

added: red diamond > reaction time slowed down

or

circle turned red > reaction time sped up

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13
Q

error rates
e.g. sustained attention to response task

A
  • press a button for every digit except 3
  • if it is repeatedly not 3 - lost attention by the time it makes it to 3
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14
Q

attention and error/self-report measures

A

used to test effects of attention on awareness

  • e.g. change blindness and mindwandering
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15
Q

two brain regions known to respond selectively to specific stimulus categories

A

fusiform face area
FFA - COVERT ATTENTION TO FACES

parahippocampal face area
PFA - COVERT ATTENTOIN TO HOUSES

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16
Q

Early vs late load theory

A

to what extent do we process the stimuli we ignore

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17
Q

early vs late selection

A

at what stage is the ignored stimuli filtered out

we process everything to ‘some extent’

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18
Q

early selection

A
  • stuff is filtered out early
  • we never get to know the meaning of it
  • we know there was a sound but that is all
  • maybe we focus on our friends pitch of voice and filter out everything else
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19
Q

late selection

A
  • we process everything to the point of meaning
  • the info has gone in but is filtered out at a later stage
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20
Q

cocktail party theory

A

able to focus on one thing/conversation and block out everything else

early selection

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21
Q

dichotic listening task

A
  • present different messages to each ear
  • subjects told to attend to one ear and ignore the other
  • repeat attended message out loud - shadowing
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22
Q

dichotic listening task - results

A
  • easily paid attention to what they were supposed to
  • could say info about the ignored task e.g. pitch, gender of voice
  • but nothing about what was being said
  • another trial: did not notice if the language was foreign, reversed or repeated
  • supports early selection
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23
Q

broadbent’s filter theory

A
  • filtering occurs before any semantic analysis
  • surface features but not meaning analysed

message > sensory store > filter > detector (meaning) > STM

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24
Q

repetitions of dichotic listening task found varying results

A

Moray: people would notice if the unattended stream said their name

Treisman: bilingual people were influenced by the unattended stream if it was in their 2nd language

Gray and Weddburn: people would say what maid sense - combining the 2 streams - dear aunt jane

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25
Q

Treisman’s attenuation model

A
  • still early selection
  • unattended messages are reduced rather than lost completely
    coming consciously aware of something need to reach a THRESHOLD of signal strength to be detected
  • threshold is lowered for certain words e.g your name
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26
Q

late selection models

A
  • you process and get the semantic meaning of everything
  • so then you can decide which is important to pay attention to
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27
Q

what late selection models can explain

dichotic listening

A

dichotic listening theory:
ambiguous word (bank)

  • if river said in other ear - would interpret as ‘river-bank’ if money was said - ‘money-bank’
28
Q

what late selection models can explain

response competition bias

A
  • search line for P or K
  • ignore letter present above or below line
  • incongruent distractor in irrelevant location - slows RTs
  • means distractor identity is processed
29
Q

negative priming

A
  • task: categorise red stimuli and ignore green
  • result: response to word slowed when ignored picture it was preceded by was semantically related
  • ignored stimuli is semantically categorised AND Inhibited
30
Q

Lavie’s load theory

A
  • both early and late selection are possible
  • the stage of selection depends on availability of perceptual capacity
  • we have a fixed capacity of info that we can take in - no more, no less
  • the amount you have ‘spare’ depends on the task you are doing

HIGH PERCEPTUAL LOAD - no spare - early selection

LOW PERCEPTUAL LOAD - spare - other info can come in - late selection

31
Q

behavioural measures of distraction

A
  • letter search task (like the one we did)

gorilla’s in our midst study: inattentional blindness - focusing on ball don’t see gorilla

32
Q

neuro imaging evidence

A

high load and low load tasks with flickering background

told to ignore background

low load responded more to background

same with fearful faces - high load less likely to respond

33
Q

individuals with higher perceptual capacity

A
  • need higher load to avoid distraction
  • autism
  • children and the elderly
  • people with video game experience
  • also less likely to have attentional bias - notice more
34
Q

summarise

early selection theories

A
  • irrelevant info is filtered, or attenuated at perceptual stage of processing
  • semantic info is not processed
35
Q

summarise

late selection theories

A
  • all stimuli is processed to the point of meaning
  • selection takes place at later stage of processing and may involve inhibition
36
Q

summarise

load theory

A
  • both early and late selection are possible depending on perceptual load of task stimuli
37
Q

why do we need involuntary information

A

because we don’t know what is going to happen

38
Q

reflexive attention

A

involuntary attention

39
Q

bottom-up, exogenous, stimulus driven

A

driven by the stimulus

40
Q

executive attention

A

voluntary attention

41
Q

top-down, goal driven, endogenous

A

driven by the induvidal

42
Q

how is it decided whether attentional control or stimulus driven mechanisms get our attention

A
  • both occur at the same time
  • compete
  • whichever wins gets attention
43
Q

what kinds of stimuli can capture our attention

A
  • stimuli of high salience
  • movement/’abrupt onset’
  • relevant things to us/our values
  • or nothing? stimulus-driven attentional capture not possible?
44
Q

Theewes attentional capture task

A

task: find circle

  • all shapes green except 1 irrelevant red diamond
  • RT still increased - singleton distracted - therefore salient stimuli can capture attention
45
Q

stimulus-driven selection

process

A
  • bottom up mechanisms come before top-down
  • first stage: initial sweep across visual field (entirely bottom-up)
  • second stage: is where my attention is what i am looking for?
  • no? location inhibited and process begins again > attention to next salient thing
  • yes? output response
46
Q

attentional window

A
  • stimulus-driven selection only happens within attentional window - only area of space that you are paying attention to
  • e.g. looking for taxi? only distracted by items in area where taxi is
47
Q

Folk and Remmington: contingent capture

A
  • attentional capture is NOT stimulus driven
  • it must have some kind of relevance to our goals
  • in some cases this relevance is not as obvious
  • e.g. looking for taxi so distracted by yellow sign (Same colour) - rather tan bc it stands out
48
Q

contingent capture - spatial cueing

A
  • 5 squares
  • is target X or Y
  • dots around one box -> if where target then is = valid cue
  • invalid cues = slower RT - attentional capture

but this was dependent on certain thinfs e.g. colour cues capture attention when target was related to colour =CONTINGENT CAPTURE - dependent on something

49
Q

bacon and egeth - singleton strategy

A
  • said in theeuwes method the fact there was only one circle made it a singleton too ! said people were just adopting a singleton search strategy
  • they found that effect was no longer there
  • however theeuwes redid with own method but same idea as above and found it does still occur
50
Q

abrupt onsets

A
  • task: is there an S present?
  • target either a colour singleton - or suddenly appears in unexpected place
  • onsets/suddenly appeared produced attentional capture
51
Q

why may it be important to detect abrupt onset

A
  • safety
  • evolution - predators
  • need to notice and react to new things that appear
52
Q

Franconeri and Simons

A
  • our brains just do it because it is useful
  • moving or looming stimuli capture stimuli but receding do not
53
Q

Gibon and Kesley: against stimulus driven capture

A
  • attention tasks usually begin with some kind of change to display
  • (waiting for something to happen)
  • may end up with us having a goal to detect = ‘display wide settings for dynamic changes’
  • therefore any change is relevant to your goal
  • even onsets
54
Q

attentional capture: beyond physical salience

A
  • past research couldn’t explains some things e.g. rainbow coloured snake vs wool (Fear)
  • spider phobics show more attentional capture to spiders and doctor who fans showed more attentional capture to doctor who
55
Q

reward and attention

A
  • trained to associate attention with reward - distracted by reward as much as colour
  • value is 3rd determinant of attention
56
Q

effect of cognitive load on attention

A

-same visual search task as usual PLUS asked to do another task too

  • easy version (LOW): remember 1 digit
  • harder version (HIGH): remember 6 digits
  • higher cognitive load INCREASED distractor interference - more than high perceptual load

same w diamonds and circle colour singleton task - if had to remember digits too = even slower RT

57
Q

inattentional blindness

A

paying attention to one thing, so do not see another

58
Q

perceptual load…(overall effect)

cognitive load…
(overall affect)

A

perceptual load reduces distractor processing and increases inattentional blindness

cognitive load increases distractor processing

59
Q

Carmel: cognitive load and awareness

A

Task: classify names, ignore faces

extra cognitive task: remember digits (either 1 or 6)

  • at end: surprise memory test for faces they were asked to ignore:
  • low load: 50%
    accuracy
  • high load: 80% accuracy

therefore cognitive load INCREASES distraction

60
Q

Load Theory

referencing capcity and cognitive control

A
  • availability of perceptual capacity is involved at determining how much info gets through
    > whether distractors are filtered out early or get some more processing
  • cognitive control comes at a later stage - once distractors have been processed - they need to be inhibited
61
Q

Operation span OPSAN task: Engle et al

A
  • measures working memory capacity
  • task: do 2 things at the same time, perform simple maths and read words
  • lots of trials
  • end: tested on recall of words

results:

  • ps with low working memory capacity showed increased interreference on attention tasks

e.g. bad at stroop task and dichotic listening task

SO - yes cognitive control is linked to working memory capacity

62
Q

individuals and cognitive control

A
  • better = less distracted
  • deficits = related to ADHD and Anxiety
63
Q

Hopfinger et al, 2000: fMRI spatial cueing studies

A
  • cueing - something going to appear in 1 of 2 locations
  • cue is either valid or invalid
  • looked at brains response during different parts of the task:

visual cortex response to cued location (this is the effect of attention)

frontal-parietal activation at the time of cue - gives info about the mechanisms orienting attention

64
Q

fMRI response to competition

A
  • incongruent distraction is associated with:
  • reaction time interference
  • frontal recruitment: certain areas obviously involved in stopping you from being distracted
65
Q

sustained attention

A
  • series of digits, press key for every digit but 3
  • also activated frontal regions
66
Q

how does attentional control relate to mind wandering

A
  • mind wandering positively relates to external task-irrelevant distraction and to failures of sustained attention
67
Q

increased working memory capacity effect on mindwandering

A

So can go either way - when it is less important to focus = more mind wandering and when it is more important = less mind wandering

Cognitive Psychology (13 decks)

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