attention 2 Flashcards
What is the definition of attention?
a possible definition as it is hard to define
- the ability to focus mental resources on something
What is selective attention?
- we try to pay attention to a particular stimulus and try to ignore others that would distract us
- selective attention helps us to simplify our experience of the world
- if we were able to focus on key aspects in our environment it would be constantly overwhelmed
- although this seems limiting, it is beneficial as it gives us control over which stimuli to receive our attention and any subsequent processing
e.g. dichotic listening task
attending to only one source of info while trying to ignore others
allows us to maintain attention even when faced with distractions
What is inattentional blindness?
failure to process info that is not attended to
how little info we actually attend to
gorilla video- monkey business illusion
What is overt attention?
shifting the eyes from one place to another
easily observable by others
example= word search- some words seem to jump out - others require purposeful, effortful, good detailed vision requires looking directly at something
What is stimulus salience?
a bottom up process
-driven by the data or stimulus itself
- colour/ contrast/ movement/ sound
‘attentional capture’- when it occurs involuntarily
this can happen for reasons of safety - a loud noise, something coming at you- most processes happen this way
What is top down processing?
- parkhurst et al 2002
-our perception of a scene is soon impacted by these cognitive factors, such as goals, expectations and knowledge - our eye movements and scanning are influenced by our schemas- what we expect to see in certain scenes
-knowledge influences where attention is directed
What is covert attention?
-attention is directed in the absence of eye movement
-common in sport when attending to the and / or an opponent and yet still completing a perfect ‘no look’ pass
-we can also assess covert attention experimentally
a) top down selection (goal driven mechanisms)
an endogenous cue indicates where a target might appear in the visual field. manipulate the kind of cue; valid, neutral, invalid
b)bottom up selection (stimulus driven mechanisms) an exogenous cue indicates where a target might appear in the visual field. manipulate the kind of cue; valid, neutral, invalid
What are the findings of Posner cueing task ?
P’s were faster on valid trials-without moving eyes p’s can shift attention. Covert attention can happen- happened with both types of cues. Bottom-up cue is more reflective- not voluntary. Exogenous cues the invalid trails remain slower.
Participants were faster on valid trials compared to neutral trials
* Participants were slower on invalid trials than neutral trials
This tells us that even without moving their eyes participants can shift attention (eyes had to
stay on the fixation point)
This is called covert attention
This attentional shift can be achieved with both endogenous and exogenous cues
The exogenous (bottom-up) cues depend on a more reflexive, less voluntary mechanism
If we make valid and invalid trials equally likely, for endogenous (top-down) cues both trial-
types result in the same response time
For exogenous cues the invalid trials remain slower – we can’t help but respond to the cue,
which tell us it is not voluntary
What is controlled processing?
- involves the conscious use of attention and effort, and is slow
learning to perform a task generally involves lots of conscious processing initially - have to focus on specific aspects of the task and think carefullly about performing them accurately, e.g. learning to drive-ends up being an automatic thing, years later
What is automatic processing?
- can be performed without conscious awareness or effort and is typically fast
Routine actions or well-practiced tasks, performed in familiar circumstances, can become
automatic
Brain areas involved in conscious thought become less active (Jansma, Ramsey, Slagter &
Kahn, 2001)
Examples include driving, sports performance and musical skill
However, automatic processing can reduce the ability to find new ways to approach problems (Langer,
1989
well practised tasks
What is the Stroop test?
-name the colour of the ink not the word
selective attention- automatic vs controlled
clearly illustates selective attention- people are easily distratced by the irrelevant stimuli and most focus on the ink colour
well practised tasks can become automatic
when necessary stimulus is presented then the response is automatic
you need to inhibit the ‘wrong’ response
stroop has been widely applied across psych, with lots of variants
Example of searching for the blue L?
Searching for a single feature is easy and clear, rapid. Focusing. Looking for a conjunction of features is harder and unclear, slow.
When searching for a single feature it stands out from
the group of items (Blue letter) and the number of
distractors is not very impactful
When features are conjoined (Blue and L) it takes much
longer to search, when the distractors all share one of
the features, the number of distractors has a dramatic
impact here
Treisman & Gelade (1980) argued that one uses parallel
processing (fast) and the other serial processing (slower,
effortful)
Many factors impact search speed (e.g. nature and
number of distractors)
What is the posterior attention network?
- parietal lobe
-visual search of stimuli
-neuroimaging studies: increased blood flow associated to visual search
-brain damage: patientsd able to notice only stimuli in the left or right side
What is the anterior attention network?
- frontal lobe
- inhibiting automatic responses
What is (hemi) neglect?
- a disorder of visual attention
- stimuli presented to the opposite side to the damage remain undetected
- typically presenting with damage to the right hemisphere
- patients with neglect remain unaware of stimuli in the left visual field
studying patients such as these sheds light on what happens to unattended stimuli
patients typically fail to attend to stimuli in the left visual field, and have no conscious awareness of them
normal attention is attended and unattended stimuli produce similar ERP activity initiallly with unatteneded stimuli activity quickly diminishing=- so the effects of attention are seen quickly in processing terms
What is ADHD?
attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder
developmental disorder affecting 5% of children, 70% of them male
main symptoms:
- frequently in motion
-difficulty stopping talking
- often impatient
- easily distracted and frequently switch from one task to another
- have difficulty maintaining focus on one task
A recent interview study reported participants feeling
that ‘life gets better’ with many factors impacting
resilience – relationships, acceptance, techniques
(Dangmann, 2024)
Possibly a multifaceted disorder with numerous factors contributing
Clear evidence for a genetic basis (e.g. , Baboli et al., 2024;
Smalley et al., 2000)
