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cognitive psychology > attention > Flashcards

attention Flashcards

1
Q

what does it mean by attention is goal directed

A

attention is deployed to achieve something e.g. finding someone in a crowd

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2
Q

how does attention vary in effort

A
  • it can be very easy or more difficult
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3
Q

what is an example of a serial search

A

where’s wally
visually similar distractors

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4
Q

how can attention be shifted

A

the spotlight metaphor

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5
Q

what is the spotlight metaphor

A

attention can be directed to a particular point of focus

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6
Q

how can we shift attention

A
  • scanning from left to right
  • in visual search, attention and eye movements are often coupled but you can shift attention without moving eyes
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7
Q

how can attention be zoomed

A

the zoomed lens metaphor

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8
Q

how is attention selective

A
  • attention as a filter
  • e.g decide to focus on one convo at a party, ignoring another so filtering out other things
  • attending to one thing
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9
Q

how is attention limited

A
  • attention as a resource
  • difficult to listen to 2 people at the same time
  • limited
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10
Q

how can attention be captured

A
  • you control your attention
  • attention will be captured by things that are similar even if not intended
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11
Q

how can attention be divided

A
  • between modalities e.g. listening to one thing and looking at another
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12
Q

when did modern research into attention start

A

1950s

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13
Q

why is it referred to as modern research

A
  • follows a paradigm shift from behaviourism to cognitivism
  • cognitive revolution
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14
Q

who is the founding father of modern attention research

A

Donald Broadbent (1926-1993)

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15
Q

what did broadbent find particularly interesting

A

air-traffic control as it’s attention-demanding

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16
Q

how did broadbent 1952 research whether we can understand 2 simultaneous messages

A
  • presented pps with a grid with 5 locations, symbols placed in some locations
  • presented a stimuli- played through head phones simultaneously
  • messages had instructions e.g. is there a heart on condition 1
  • had various conditions - e.g. only answer 1 question and ignore the other
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17
Q

what results did broadbent get from his research

A

only 50% of the questions were answered correctly

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18
Q

how did cherry 1953 research how we listened to 2 messages simultaneously

A
  • the cocktail party problem
    condition 1
  • 2 messages same speaker played to both ears
  • repeat one message and ignore the other
  • found task was very difficult but possible after many repetitions
    condition 2
  • 2 messages by same speaker but played to different ears
    -dichotic listening
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19
Q

what did cherry 1953 find

A
  • easier to be able to attend to 1 ear
    the irrelevant message
  • no words or semantic content reported
  • change in language not noticed
  • reversed speech was sometimes recognised
  • change from male to female or to pure tone was recognised
  • suggests basic physical stimulus characteristics are processed
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20
Q

what is the selective filter in broadbents filter theory

A

identifies information for further processing
- the filter uses physical stimulus properties as the basis for slection

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20
Q

what is the STM store in broadbents filter theory

A
  • info from multiple sensory inputs enters STM store
  • aka sensory register, immediate memory, iconic/echoic memory
  • processed physical stimulus properties e.g. location and pitch
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21
Q

what is the limited capacity channel in broadbents filter theory

A
  • a serial processor
  • can only process one thing at time
  • current term is the focus of attention in working memory
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22
Q

what is the order of broadbent’s filter theory

A
  • senses, STM, selective filter, limited capacity channel
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23
Q

what is broadbent’s filter theory referred to as

A

early selection theory

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24
Q

what is early selection in broadbent’s model

A

selective filtering takes place before full meaning analysis can occur in the limited capacity channel

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25
Q

how many channels of information is there

A

2 e.g right v left ear

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26
Q

what is the own-name effect Moray 1959

A

1/3 pps noticed own name if it was presented in the irrelevant ear suggesting it was analysed

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27
Q

what is message switching Treismam 1960

A
  • if message switches from one ear to another they will repeat the meaningful message even when presented to the shadow ear
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28
Q

conditioning with electric shocks

A

-phase 1 words paired with electric shocks
- phase 2 - words presented in irrelevant ear
- found words affect skin conductance responses suggesting they understood words

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29
Q

what is attenuation theory - Anne Treisman

A
  • filter not completely selective
  • explains failures of early selection - some concepts are more readily available so make it through the filter
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30
Q

what did Deutsch and Deutsch 1963 suggest

A
  • meaning is analysed before input is filtered
  • processing of perceptual input is automatic and it is not capacity limited
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31
Q

what is the irrelevant channel

A
  • pps are instructed to ignore information presented to this ear
32
Q

what is the relevant channel

A
  • pps are instructed to attend stimuli
33
Q

what is leakage according to Treisman 1960,1964

A
  • filter does not block information from the irrelevant channel but it does attenuate it
  • info from irrelevant channel leaks through the filter
    attenuated info can activate concepts in LTM which leads to identification of stimuli
34
Q

what is slippage

A
  • you cannot aim attentional resources precisely enough
  • so it’s not possible to focus on the relevant channel all the time
35
Q

what is the consequence of slippage

A

if attention is not properly focused, then attention will slip to the irrelevant channel

36
Q

what is spillover

A
  • we cannot stop deploying attention until it’s all used up
37
Q

what is the consequence of spillover

A
  • if the relevant channel needs less attention than available, attention will spill over to the irrelevant channel
38
Q

what did Latcher at al 2004 find

A
  • for over 40 years researchers assumed that there is identification without attention however they are wrong
  • reinterpret old experiments and conduct new
  • expect to find that broadbent was correct and there is no identification without attention
39
Q

what did latcher argue about previous evidence

A

own-name effect, channel switching and subconscious processing didn’t control slippage or involuntary attention to the irrelevant channel

40
Q

what did conway et al 2001 find about own-name effect and working memory capacity

A
  • tested a group with high working memory capacity and a group with low WMC
  • high WMC - 20% noticed own name
  • low WMC - 65% noticed own name
  • people with high WMC are better at controlling attention so fewer slippage
41
Q

what did Treisman suggest about the channel switching

A
  • perhaps it occurs when pps get confused when a semantic coherent message suddenly becomes incoherent
  • to resolve confusion, pps reallocate attention which is slippage
42
Q

what did Dawson and Schell 1982 find when replicating electric shock study

A
  • found changes in skin conductance but in subjects who failed to shadow relevant channel and recalled material from irrelevant channel
  • suggests there might be slippage of attentional resources and sosme pps do attend the irrelevant channel
43
Q

what did Latcher argue about excluding slippage

A
  • if we exclude slippage there will be no identification without attention
44
Q

how did latcher et al exclude slippage

A
  • used visual stimuli and presented relevant and irrelevant stimuli in different locations
  • presented the stimuli in irrelevant locations very briefly
  • this excludes slippage because shifts of attention need time, it is not possible to shift attention to an irrelevant location in 55ms
45
Q

what task did latcher et al use to test excluding slippage

A
  • repetition priming
  • in priming experiments, an irrelevant prime word is presented shortly before the target word
  • pps make a button press to indicate if the word in upper case is an actual word or pseudo-word
  • if a prime word is the same as the target word, this can speed up responses to the target word
  • presented words in different locations on the screen
46
Q

how does repetition priming work

A
  • seeing the prime activates the concept in memory
47
Q

what results did latcher et al find when words were in the same location

A
  • faster when the prime and target were the same
  • slower when different
48
Q

what did latcher et al find for when word were in different location

A
  • the same prime in diff locations doesnt affect RT
  • there is no identification without attention
49
Q

what did Kouider at al 2014 find

A

training with auditory stimuli
- left hand response if word is animal
- right hand if word is man-made object
- during sleep they presented new untrained words
- pps prepared a response in their sleep so they understood the meaning of the words
- we don’t pay attention when we sleep so must be identification without attention

50
Q

what did Lavie 1995 research to support slippover

A
  • perceptual processing is automatic - late selection theory
  • capacity is limited - early selection theory
  • hybrid theory
  • assumes no identification without attention
  • assumed identification of irrelevant stimuli only if processing of relevant stimuli does not exhaust available resources
  • if processing of relevant stimuli consumes all available resources then there is no identification of irrelevant stimuli
51
Q

what task did Lavie and Cox 1997 do

A
  • detect target letter in circle, press left for N, right for X
  • flanker on outside of circle irrelevant
52
Q

what trial types did Lavie and Cox have

A
  • compatible - the target and flanker are identical
  • incompatible - target and flanker are different
53
Q

how did lavie and ox manipulate perceptual load

A
  • low perceptual load - target immediately visible, attentional resources spillover to flanking letter
  • high perceptual load - target hidden among neutral distractors, search required, no spillover as all attention is needed
54
Q

what results did lavie and cox find

A

low perceptual load
- large compatibility effect
- average 40ms difference
- flanker has been identified

high perceptual load
- small compatibility effect
- average 4 ms difference
- flanker has no been identified

55
Q

what is an example of inattentional blindness

A
  • the monkey business illusion - ‘count how many times players pass the ball’
56
Q

who performed the monkey business illusion experiment

A

simon and chabris 199

57
Q

what percentage of pps noticed gorilla

A
  • count white team - 42%
  • count black team - 83%
58
Q

what experiment did Hyman et al 2010 conduct

A
  • the unicycling clown
  • pps crosses a square at western washington uni and passed a unicycling clown
  • after crossing they were asked if they noticed anything unusual and did they notice the clown
59
Q

what results did hyman et al 2010 find

A

anything unusual?
- music player - 32%
- on phone - 8%
see the clown?
- music player - 61%
- phone - 25%

60
Q

what is a real-world example of inattentional blindness by chabris and simons 2010

A
  • i never saw the bicyclist when driving
61
Q

what is a real-world example of inattentional blindness by drew,vo and wolfe 2013

A
  • when examining CT scans expert radiologists may often miss anomalies even when looking directly at them
62
Q

what study did simons and levin do

A
  • the door study
  • person changes when hidden by a door and pp doesn’t notice
63
Q

when is change blindness more likely

A
  • empty frame shown between two pictures
  • temporary occlusion
  • change occurs very slowly
64
Q

what is change blindness

A
  • memory plays a role - need to compare
  • looking at each picture separately - nothing unusual
  • can occur if finding the change is actual task
65
Q

what is inattentional blindness

A
  • memory not required to notice
  • occurs when observer is performing another task, becomes easy if pps are told to look out for something odd
66
Q

what is magnetic resonance imaging

A

structural MRI
- cerebral cortex - outermost layer
- white matter

67
Q

what are the 4 main lobes of the brain

A
  • parietal lobe
  • frontal lobe
  • occipital lobe
  • temporal lobe
68
Q

what are the anatomical terms of location

A
  • behind - posterior
  • the front - anterior
  • the bottom - inferior
  • the top - superior
69
Q

what does large-scale attentional networks mean

A
  • large scale - areas in different lobes of the brain
  • attentional - activity modulated by attention
  • networks - areas tightly interconnected by neuronal pathways - often activated together
70
Q

what is the dorsal attention network made up of

A
  • frontal eye field
  • intraparietal sulcus
71
Q

what is the ventral attention network made up of

A
  • ventral frontal cortex
  • temporoparietal junction
72
Q

what is the role of the dorsal attention network

A
  • top down control
  • goal-driven orienting
  • left and right hemisphere
73
Q

what is the role of the ventral attention network

A
  • bottom up control
  • stimulus driven re-orienting
  • mainly right hemisphere
74
Q

what is the cause of spatial neglect

A

consequence of damage to the ventral network

75
Q

what is spatial neglect

A
  • one half of space is ignored - hemineglect
  • deficit almost always on the left
    patients unaware of deficit
  • frequent - 40% of patients with right hemisphere
  • 10% patients - severe deficits even after more than 6 months
  • often not correctly diagnosed
  • if not diagnosed, no rehabilitative efforts
76
Q

what is extinction in spatial neglect

A
  • seen in recovering patients
  • 1 stimulus on neglected side perceived
  • 2 stimuli - only stimulus on non-neglected side perceived
  • not a visual deficit
77
Q

what evidence is there that neglect is an attentional deficit

A
  • neglect patients are unaware of their deficit
  • can affect imagination as well as perception of space
  • can be multi-modal - can occur visually and auditory

cognitive psychology (8 decks)

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