attention Flashcards
what does it mean by attention is goal directed
attention is deployed to achieve something e.g. finding someone in a crowd
how does attention vary in effort
- it can be very easy or more difficult
what is an example of a serial search
where’s wally
visually similar distractors
how can attention be shifted
the spotlight metaphor
what is the spotlight metaphor
attention can be directed to a particular point of focus
how can we shift attention
- scanning from left to right
- in visual search, attention and eye movements are often coupled but you can shift attention without moving eyes
how can attention be zoomed
the zoomed lens metaphor
how is attention selective
- 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
how is attention limited
- attention as a resource
- difficult to listen to 2 people at the same time
- limited
how can attention be captured
- you control your attention
- attention will be captured by things that are similar even if not intended
how can attention be divided
- between modalities e.g. listening to one thing and looking at another
when did modern research into attention start
1950s
why is it referred to as modern research
- follows a paradigm shift from behaviourism to cognitivism
- cognitive revolution
who is the founding father of modern attention research
Donald Broadbent (1926-1993)
what did broadbent find particularly interesting
air-traffic control as it’s attention-demanding
how did broadbent 1952 research whether we can understand 2 simultaneous messages
- 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
what results did broadbent get from his research
only 50% of the questions were answered correctly
how did cherry 1953 research how we listened to 2 messages simultaneously
- 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
what did cherry 1953 find
- 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
what is the selective filter in broadbents filter theory
identifies information for further processing
- the filter uses physical stimulus properties as the basis for slection
what is the STM store in broadbents filter theory
- 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
what is the limited capacity channel in broadbents filter theory
- a serial processor
- can only process one thing at time
- current term is the focus of attention in working memory
what is the order of broadbent’s filter theory
- senses, STM, selective filter, limited capacity channel
what is broadbent’s filter theory referred to as
early selection theory
what is early selection in broadbent’s model
selective filtering takes place before full meaning analysis can occur in the limited capacity channel
how many channels of information is there
2 e.g right v left ear
what is the own-name effect Moray 1959
1/3 pps noticed own name if it was presented in the irrelevant ear suggesting it was analysed
what is message switching Treismam 1960
- if message switches from one ear to another they will repeat the meaningful message even when presented to the shadow ear
conditioning with electric shocks
-phase 1 words paired with electric shocks
- phase 2 - words presented in irrelevant ear
- found words affect skin conductance responses suggesting they understood words
what is attenuation theory - Anne Treisman
- filter not completely selective
- explains failures of early selection - some concepts are more readily available so make it through the filter
what did Deutsch and Deutsch 1963 suggest
- meaning is analysed before input is filtered
- processing of perceptual input is automatic and it is not capacity limited
what is the irrelevant channel
- pps are instructed to ignore information presented to this ear
what is the relevant channel
- pps are instructed to attend stimuli
what is leakage according to Treisman 1960,1964
- 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
what is slippage
- you cannot aim attentional resources precisely enough
- so it’s not possible to focus on the relevant channel all the time
what is the consequence of slippage
if attention is not properly focused, then attention will slip to the irrelevant channel
what is spillover
- we cannot stop deploying attention until it’s all used up
what is the consequence of spillover
- if the relevant channel needs less attention than available, attention will spill over to the irrelevant channel
what did Latcher at al 2004 find
- 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
what did latcher argue about previous evidence
own-name effect, channel switching and subconscious processing didn’t control slippage or involuntary attention to the irrelevant channel
what did conway et al 2001 find about own-name effect and working memory capacity
- 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
what did Treisman suggest about the channel switching
- perhaps it occurs when pps get confused when a semantic coherent message suddenly becomes incoherent
- to resolve confusion, pps reallocate attention which is slippage
what did Dawson and Schell 1982 find when replicating electric shock study
- 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
what did Latcher argue about excluding slippage
- if we exclude slippage there will be no identification without attention
how did latcher et al exclude slippage
- 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
what task did latcher et al use to test excluding slippage
- 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
how does repetition priming work
- seeing the prime activates the concept in memory
what results did latcher et al find when words were in the same location
- faster when the prime and target were the same
- slower when different
what did latcher et al find for when word were in different location
- the same prime in diff locations doesnt affect RT
- there is no identification without attention
what did Kouider at al 2014 find
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
what did Lavie 1995 research to support slippover
- 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
what task did Lavie and Cox 1997 do
- detect target letter in circle, press left for N, right for X
- flanker on outside of circle irrelevant
what trial types did Lavie and Cox have
- compatible - the target and flanker are identical
- incompatible - target and flanker are different
how did lavie and ox manipulate perceptual load
- 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
what results did lavie and cox find
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
what is an example of inattentional blindness
- the monkey business illusion - ‘count how many times players pass the ball’
who performed the monkey business illusion experiment
simon and chabris 199
what percentage of pps noticed gorilla
- count white team - 42%
- count black team - 83%
what experiment did Hyman et al 2010 conduct
- 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
what results did hyman et al 2010 find
anything unusual?
- music player - 32%
- on phone - 8%
see the clown?
- music player - 61%
- phone - 25%
what is a real-world example of inattentional blindness by chabris and simons 2010
- i never saw the bicyclist when driving
what is a real-world example of inattentional blindness by drew,vo and wolfe 2013
- when examining CT scans expert radiologists may often miss anomalies even when looking directly at them
what study did simons and levin do
- the door study
- person changes when hidden by a door and pp doesn’t notice
when is change blindness more likely
- empty frame shown between two pictures
- temporary occlusion
- change occurs very slowly
what is change blindness
- memory plays a role - need to compare
- looking at each picture separately - nothing unusual
- can occur if finding the change is actual task
what is inattentional blindness
- memory not required to notice
- occurs when observer is performing another task, becomes easy if pps are told to look out for something odd
what is magnetic resonance imaging
structural MRI
- cerebral cortex - outermost layer
- white matter
what are the 4 main lobes of the brain
- parietal lobe
- frontal lobe
- occipital lobe
- temporal lobe
what are the anatomical terms of location
- behind - posterior
- the front - anterior
- the bottom - inferior
- the top - superior
what does large-scale attentional networks mean
- large scale - areas in different lobes of the brain
- attentional - activity modulated by attention
- networks - areas tightly interconnected by neuronal pathways - often activated together
what is the dorsal attention network made up of
- frontal eye field
- intraparietal sulcus
what is the ventral attention network made up of
- ventral frontal cortex
- temporoparietal junction
what is the role of the dorsal attention network
- top down control
- goal-driven orienting
- left and right hemisphere
what is the role of the ventral attention network
- bottom up control
- stimulus driven re-orienting
- mainly right hemisphere
what is the cause of spatial neglect
consequence of damage to the ventral network
what is spatial neglect
- 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
what is extinction in spatial neglect
- seen in recovering patients
- 1 stimulus on neglected side perceived
- 2 stimuli - only stimulus on non-neglected side perceived
- not a visual deficit
what evidence is there that neglect is an attentional deficit
- 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
