Attention 2 Flashcards
early selection theory
meaning of unattended stimuli = not identified/analysed
late selection theory
meaning of unattended stimuli = identified/analysed
identify 3 theories for why sometimes stimuli from irrelevant channels are identified
- leakage
- slippage
- spillover
Explain leakage
- this is where information from irrelevant channels ‘leaks’ through filter
- the selective filter doesn’t block the information, it attenuates
Explain slippage
- this is where we cannot focus on the relevant channels all the time
- if attention is not properly focused, attention will slip into irrelevant channel
Explain spillover
- too many attention resources trying to fit into relevant channel
- the leftover resources are then used by irrelevant channel
what is meant by relevant channels?
information that ppts is instructed to attend to the information presented
what is meant by irrelevant channel?
information that ppts is instructed to ignore
Outline Lachter et al. (2004) study into slippage
(supports early-selection theory)
- believed that there is no identification without attention
- supporting early selection theory
- suggested research contradicting early-selection theory did not have control for slippage
- this means it cannot be sure ppts did not pay attention to irrelevant channels
- Lachter reinterpretted previous studies
- concluded that Broadbent was correct in suggesting that there is no identification without attention
what is the own-name effect?
when individual recognises/processes their name when presented in the irrelevant channel
Outline Conway et al. (2001) study into own-name effect
- replicated study
- extended study to look into working memory as well
(how many stimuli can ppts hold at the same time - in one group 20% noticed their own name
- on another group, 65% recognised their name
the people with high working memory span tend to not notice their own name
In Conway et al. study, which group has a higher working memory?
the people with high working memory span tend to not notice their own name (so group 1 - 20%)
explain what ppts with high WM capacity means for attention
- ppts with high WM capacity better at controlling their attention
- less slippage
- attention resources are not dedicated to irrelevant channels
explain what ppts with low WM capacity means for attention
- ppts more likely to let information slip into irrelevant channels
what is channel-switching?
information/messages switches from ear to ear
how is slippage shown in channel-switching?
- ppts were able to identify info in irrelevant channel
- experiment can be quite confusing with messages switching between ears
- coherent sentences becoming incoherent suddenly is confusing
- could cause attention resources to be reallocated as they start to notice info in other channel that they are told to ignore
- reallocation of attention resources = form of slippage
What evidence from the replication of the electric shock condition study suggest about slippage
- most pronounced skin conductance changes in ppts who seemed to attend to irrelevant channel
- Evidence for this = when ppts failed to shadow what was in the relevant channel but able to recall some material from the irrelevant channel.
- If ppts attend to relevant channel and ignore irrelevant channel, they should not be able to recall any semantic information about what was in the irrelevant channel
Indicates that ppts let their attention slip.
What type of stimuli did Lachter et al. use when creating a task to investigate attention without identification?
visual stimuli
identify features of experiments that eliminate chance of slippage
- auditory stimuli are not suitable as experimenters do not have lots of control over what ppts listen to at a given time
- Visual stimuli - where based on the length of time you present stimuli for; you can control if ppts have a chance to acc look at them or not
- present some stimuli very briefly for 55 milliseconds so ppts could not perform attentional shifts towards them
- Argued that with this timing that it should not be possible that ppts slip and attend to the irrelevant channel which is now the irrelevant location
What is repetition priming?
where irrelevant stimuli is presented which can speed up the responses to the relevant stimuli (target)
the point of priming is to influence ppts response to subsequent stimulus
Outline Lachter et al. study into identification without attention
- if slippage = excluded, there can be no identification without attention
- visual stimuli used to exclude slippage
- to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant stimuli, use different location to present stimuli
- if prime word matches the target word the prime activates the concept stored in memory
- making it easier to indicate target word
- response to pseudo-word was not analysed
- but recorded to set up the concept
how is Lachter’s study different to classical repetition priming studies?
the prime words were presented in different locations
target word always presented in centre of screen
What are the four conditions of Lachter’s study?
- location: presented in same location as target or presented above target word
- word identity: whether word is the same or not
What were the results of Lachter’s study and what does this show?
There is no effect on reaction times if prime and target are in different locations.
Reinforcing exactly what Broadbent proposed; there is no identification without attention.
Outline Kouider et al. (2014) research that supports idea that there can be identification without attention.
- sleep, animals, man-made objects
- ppts were trained during the day to respond to auditory stimuli in two ways
- if auditory stimuli presented animal word, ppts gave a left-handed response
- if auditory stimuli presented man-made objects word, ppts gave a right-handed response
- ppts then slept
- brain activity was monitored using EEG
- experimenters presented new animal words that had not been used in training
- EEG picked up brain activity of ppts preparing a response to the stimulus
- suggests ppts were able to identify stimulus without using attention
Spillover
idea that you have to allocate all your attention resources, even if it spills over to irrelevant channel
What are the 2 main assumptions about spillover according to Lavie (1995)?
- perceptual processing is automatic
- perceptual capacity is limited
Explain the assumption that perceptual processing is automatic
one of the central assumptions of the late selection theory
idea that this happens involuntarily
Explain the assumption that perceptual capacity is limited
assumption from early selection theory
indicated by the idea of there being limited amount of attention resources (resources are not infinite)
Outline Lavie (1995) theory for spillover
theory assumes that identification of irrelevant stimuli ONLY if processing of relevant stimuli does not take up all available resources
if processing of relevant stimuli take up all available attention resources, there will be no identification of irrelevant stimuli
Explain Lavie and Cox (1997) experimental task to investigate theory
(similar to flanker task, X, N)
- task involved having ppt detect target letter within circle
- target letter was always X or N
- there was also a flanker (distractor/irrelevant)
two trials:
- compatible: where target and flanker trials were identical
- incompatible: target and flanker were different (i.e.: target is X but flanker is N)
flanker would be presented outside circle
What does a low perceptual load mean (Lavie and Cox 1997)
- target is immediately visible, don’t need to search for it
- because target is easy to spot, there is left over attention resources that you are going to dedicate to relevant channel
- attentional resources ‘spillover’ to flanking letter (the irrelevant channel)
What does a high perceptual load mean (Lavie and Cox 1997)
- target letter hidden amongst neutral distractors that are not associated with response
- ppts needs to search for target
- central circle of letter = relevant channel, consumes all attentional resources
- no spillover available for irrelevant channel
What were the findings of Lavie and Cox (1997) experiment into spillover?
in low perceptual load condition:
- there was a compatibility effect in this condition
in high perceptual load condition:
- tiny effect in high perceptual load
can assume that in the low perceptual load, information in irrelevant channel is identified because there are leftover attention resources
CONCLUSION:
- perceptual load for relevant channel influences extent to which information in irrelevant channel is processed
Compare Lavie and Lachter theories of attention
- both are early selection theories
Lavie:
- Lavie would argue that we cannot not dedicate our attention resources in each task
- if relevant channels do not use all attention resources, irrelevant channels will
- this is how irrelevant information gets processed
Lachter:
- would assume that if we were able to properly and constantly focus attention resources, there would be no slippage into irrelevant channels
