Attention Flashcards
Attention
operational definition issues–> easy to describe, difficult to measure
selective attention
allows us to choose from a multitude of choices what we want to attend to
divided attention
ability to divide, share, allocate attention to two or more tasks simultaneously, including sensory, cognitive and motor tasks
vigilance
capacity to maintain sufficient attentional alertness in monotonous tasks of long duration in which number of stimuli to react is low
sustained
information flow is fast and requires subject to perform continuous active processing
Broadbent’s model of selective attention
filter model; attention was set up to process info from one source “a single channel”
dichotic listening tasks
attend to (shadow) info from attended side & ignore info from unattended side–> info from unattended side lost; delineates limitation of attention
cocktail party effect
we can attend to a conversation with a number of conversations going on around us
Early selection models (broadbent)
stimulus does not need to be completely perceptually analyzed & encoded before selection or rejection; ignored stimuli are ‘gated’ or blocked
cocktail party problem
hear your name from across the room; messes up the early selection model
Treisman’s Model of Attenuation (Research)
tap of every time target word occurs in attended or unattended channel–> tapping occurs less frequently in unattended channel, but it still occurs; words conditioned with mild shock elicit GSR response in unattended channel
difficulty for early selection model
information in unattended channels is weakened (attenuated) but not fully blocked
Late Selection Models
attended & ignored information processed equally until stage of meaning attached; THUS should be no difference in attended & unattended target words bc all processed fully
Problems with late selection models
middle selection a la Triesman most dominant: attention to specific stimuli modifies representations in visual cortex–thus not all stimuli processed equally–even at earliest stages of cortical processing
divided attention
dual task deficit; central capacity theory; multiple resources theory; automatic vs effortful processing
dual task deficit
combining two tasks leads to worse performance on both compared to performing one alone; tasks interfere more when similar (two verbal), when more complex
can you improve the dual task deficit?
yes, practice allows for better performance
central capacity theory
central pool of resources distributed according to task demands; if two tasks demand resources from central reserve, performance on both deteriorates
multiple resources theory
specific pools of attentional resources for different activities
automatic vs effortful processing
supervisory attentional system
Norman & Shallice’s 1980 Supervisory attention system model
perceptual system–> trigger database–> supervisory attentional system (contention scheduling–> schema control units)–> effector system
trigger databse
putting into context; triggers things we are familiar with that are related to the information that came in the perceptual system
schema control units
over-learned responses
contention scheduling
which are more important? what do i need to pay attention to?
