Attention Flashcards
Wiliam James
“Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind in clear form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought…It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state.”
Selecting information to attend to
we select information that is relevant to our goals.
Irrelevant Stimuli
acts as noise that can make it difficult to identify and attend to important information.
Automatic Processes
are triggered involuntarily by external events and triggers the capture of attention. Operate in a fact, efficient and obligatory manner.
Controlled Proceses
voluntarily guide attention and consciously to the objects of intent. Operate slowly because they require more cognitive effort.
It’s difficult to attend to many aspects of a task environment at the same time because the resources for controlled processes are limited.
As demands for attention increase, you must make adjustments to compensate.
Intimately linked with learning - some cues lead to stronger and quicker associations
Spotlight Model
there is an analogous process to visual attention - attentional spotlight focuses on only part of the environment at a time.
can be hijacked by unconscious process that can quickly grab your attention.
objects within the spotlight and processed preferencially
Cueing Paradigms
quicker response when target appears in flashed box - automatically attracts attentional spotlight and attention will amplify the perceptional processes of that target
slower response when target appears outside of flashed box because attentional spotlight will be directed away from the target
Cocktail Party Effect
surrounded by many sounds competing for you attention - despite noise, you can still single out the voice of your conversation partner.
Filter Models
sifts away distractions and only allows important information through
Broadbent’s Single Filter Model
the attentional filter selects important on the basis of physical characteristics and allows that info continue on for further processing (info that doesn’t pass through is completely eliminated)
Dichotic Listening Paradigm
subjects remember nothing about unattended information and rarely noticed changes in the message in unattended ear - attentional filter only allow info from attended ear to proceed
Limitations of Broadbent’s model
assumes that there s absolutely no additional processing of unattended signals - some say that some info is processed even in unattended ear
Breakthrough
participants are able to remember important info in an unattended stream - they responded to conditional stimuli even in unattended ear and some info about sound and meaning is able to pass through the filter
Triesman’s Dual Filter Model
based on physical and semantic filters
Physical Filter
importance of incoming stimuli based on physical cues and passes them along to semantic