attention Flashcards
what is attention?
ability to focus on specific stimuli or locations in our environment
selective - attending to one thing while ignoring others
divided - paying attention to more than one thing
distractions
one stimulus interferon with the processing of another
attentional capture
rapid shifting of attention usually caused by a stimulus such as a loud noise or sudden movement
visual scanning
movement of the eyes from one location or object to another
dichotic listening
different messages presented to each ear
pay attention to one and shadow (ignore) the other
cannot report content of unattended message
- knew there was a message
- knew gender of speaker
processed at some level but not fully
where does attention filtering occur?
early selection model - Broadbent’s filter model
intermediate selection model - Treisman’s attenuation model
late selection model - MacKay
Broadbent’s filter model (early selection)
filter message before incoming information analysed for meaning
only attended message goes through filter
detector processes content before entering memory
process of Broadbent’s filter model
sensory memory
- holds all incoming information for fraction of a second
- transfers all information to next stage
filter
- identifies attended message based on physical characteristics
- only attended message passed on
detectors
- processes all information from attended
- determines higher level characteristics
short term memory
- receives output of detector
- holds information for 10-15 seconds and moves to long term
limitations of Broadbent’s model
cocktail party phenomenon
model suggests we shouldn’t be aware of information in unattended message but we can be
Treisman’s attenuation model (intermediate selection)
selection of attended message occurs later
doesn’t involve complete filtering
leaves some attention capacity to be open to relevant environmental information
process of Treisman’s model
attenuator - stage 1
analyses incoming message in terms of
physical characteristics
language
meaning
attended message let through at full strength
unattended let through weaker
dictionary unit - stage 2
contains words, each of which has threshold for being activated
words that are common or important have low thresholds - hearing them attracts attention easier
uncommon words have high thresholds - less likely to pay attention to them
MacKay (late selection)
selection does not occur until after meaning has been processed
processing capacity
how much information a person can handle at any given moment
perceptual load
the difficulty of a given task
low load tasks = take up less processing capacity
- more resources for processing unattended task
high load tasks = more capacity
- uses all cognitive resources
Stroop test
name of word interferes with the ability to name the colour
cannot avoid paying attention to meanings of the words
because reading is highly trained and automated
training effects
more often you do a task
better you get at it
more automated it becomes
means less processing capacity is taken up
reduced cognitive load
overt attention
observable attention
eg in eye movements
measurable eye movements
saccades - rapid eye movements from one place to another
fixations - short pauses on points of interest
track the dilation of the pupil
can indicate emotion or stress
bottom up determinant of eye movements
salience of stimuli
how important they are or easily they attract attention
areas or objects that stand out attract attention
high salience = pay more attention
contrast, motion and colour = high
top down determinants of eye movements
scene schemas
knowledge about what is contained in a typical scene
exceptions affect what we pay attention to
help guide fixations from one area to another
affected by knowledge - top down
covert attention
attention without eye movements
tested using cueing procedure
cueing procedure
participant presented with cues (words or phrases) to aid recall of previous stimuli
cues show directions and some location
subtraction method used to determine response times
attention to location - participants respond faster to target at expected location even when eyes fixated
divided attention
practise enables people to simultaneously do 2 things at once that were difficult before
atomised and highly practised tasks mean attention can be divided to other things
depends on difficulty
better with practice
automatic processing occurs without intentions and only uses some of a persons cognitive resources
feature integration theory
every object has multiple features that need to be integrated after feature detectors have processed them individually
mostly bottom up processing
top down processing influences when participants told what they would see
stages of FIT
pre attentive stage
- object analysed into separate features
- automatic - no effort or attention, unaware of process
focussed attention stage
- attention plays key role to combine features
- features are combined so we can consciously perceive an object
illusory conjunction
a situation which features from different objects are inappropriately combined
people report combination of features from different stimuli
occurs as features are free floating, combined the second stage of FIT called the focus attention stage
Blinding Problem
blinding = process by which features (colour, form, location etc) are combined to create our perception of an object
blinding problem = problem of expelling how an objects individual features become bound together
- explained by Treisman’s FIT
Balint’s syndrome
parietal lobe damage
caused inability to focus attention on individual objects
caused issues with focused attention stage
high number of illusory conjunctions reported
neural correlates of attention
attention networks in brain
attention network
- more active during tasks
- engaged attention
default mode network
- more active at rest
- mind-wandering
