Attention Flashcards
what is attention
the process of concentrating on specific features of the environment or on certin thoughts or activities
what is selective attention
focus on one object, idea, etc excluding others
we do not attend to a large fraction of information in the environment
filtering out some information and promoting other information for further processing
what is divided attention
attending to more than one thing at the same time
results of dichotic listening
participants could not report the content of the message in the unattended eat (knew there was a message vs music vs silence, knew the gender of speaker and tone)
but unattended ear is being processed at some level
cocktail party effect - recognize your own name
change in gender is noticed
-change in tone is noticed
but start in one language end in another not noticed
name the early selection model
broadbent’s filter model
name the intermediate selection model
Tresiman’s attenuation theory
name the late selection model
McKay
explain Broadbent’s filter model
filters model before incoming formation is analyzed for meaning
messages -> sensory memory -> filter -> detector -> to memory
aspects of Broadbent’s filter model
- sensory memory
holds all incoming information for a fraction of a second
-transfers all information to the next stage
aspects of Broadbent’s filter model
- filter
identifies attended message based on physical characteristcis
-only attended message is passed on to the next stage
aspects of Broadbent’s filter model
- detector
processes all information to determine higher-level characteristics of the message ie meaning
aspects of Broadbent’s filter model
- short-term memory
receives output of detector
holds information for 10-15 seconds and may transfer it to long-term memory
name and explain three things broadbent’s mode, does not explain
participants name gets through - cocktail party effect
participants can shadow meaningful messages that switch from one ear to another
effects of practice on detecting informaiton in untrained ear - you can be trained, based on the meaning of the message
explain Treisman’s attenuation theory
attended message is separated from unattended message early in the information-processinf system (before meaning)
only important unattended information is fully processed for meaning and brought into conscious awareness
messages -> attenuator -> dictionary unit -> to memory
aspects of Treisman’s attenuation theory
- attenuator
analyzes incoming message in terms of pysical characteristics, language and meaning
-attended message is let through the attenuator at full strenght, unattended message is let through at a much weaker strength
aspects of Treisman’s attenuation theory
- dictionary unit
contains words, each of which have thresholds for being activated
- words that are common or important have low thresholds
- uncommon words have high thresholds
explain how late selection models work and what evidence supports them
selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur until after all information has been analyzed for meaning
McKay
-in attending ear, participants heard ambiguous sentences
-in unattended ear hear words that could be drawn (eg bank - river or money)
-had to chose meaning of the sentence
-the meaning of the biasing word significantly affected participants choice
-yet participants were unaware of the presence of the biasing word
define inattentional blindness
a stimulus that is not attended is not perceived, even though a person might be directly looking at it
sometimes effects of attention are so strong that we fail to see stimuli directly infront of our eyes
gorilla in basketball video = classic example
selective attention - inattentional blindness experiment
participant attend to a different part of the screen
no warnign leads to failure to detect change 90% of the time
warnign means we do detct it
inattentional blindness results suggest…..
no perception without attention
but
unconscious perception can still occur int he absence of attention
define change blindness
we dont notice massive changes if we dont attend to them
explain the door study
So door study – people change asking for directions
50% of people in the study did not notice when the person asking them directions was switched. Shows change blindness can still happen outside of the lab
explain fight club study
- police officer charged as he had ran right past someone being beaten up. Claimed was impossible the police officer hadn’t noticed it
- this study recreated the scenario. Had to chase someone down the street, staged fight on the way. Many people running down the street failed to notice the fight
attention is necessary for…
conscious perception
stimuli that are not attended to …
still have effects on perception which could indicate late selection
electrical brain activity inputs differ… from unattended inputs ….
70ms
which indicates early selection (to early to be late selection)
V4 neurons are more responsive to
attended stimuli
what is high and low task load
task load - how much of a person’s cognitive resources are used to accomplish a task
high - uses almost all resources so no resources left over for other tasks
low - uses few resources so plenty of resources left for other tasks
explain the flanker-compatibility task
flankers = two letters on either side of target letter
can participatns focus their attention on detecting the target so that the identity of the distractor will not affect their perfprmance
compatible flankers = fastest response
neutral flankers = in the middle
incompatible flankers = slowest
why
low-load task
participants still had cognitive resrouces available to process the additional but irrelevant information
effect of distractors in high load tasks
participants use all resources for the task
no resources left to process te extra distractor
match evidence to hypothesis
high and low load
early and late selection
high = early
-complex stimuli involve more effort, no resources left to process unattended information
low = late
-less complex stimuli take less effort, so even the unattended information is processed to an extent
stroop test is an example of….
low load interference
how can we prime attention (without moving eyes)
participants respond faster to a light at an expected location than an unexpected location
even when eyes are kept fixed
eg posner study
what is location-based attention
attention being directed to one particular spatial location
what is object based attention
attention being directed to one particular object`
explain unilateral neglect syndrome
damage to right parietal lobe
cannot attend to the left side of space
This is a spatial example
Attentions does not point their attention to the left side of their world
They miss things
When pointed out to them they are like ohh yeah don’t know how a forgot that
Never eat things on left side of the plate for example – one solution someone came up with = spin plate whilst eating
what do neglect symptoms like those of unilateral neglect syndrom support
location-based attention
explain an experiment supporting object based attention
need to listen to pocast
so is object or location based attention correct?
environment (location) = static scenes with few objects
specific object = dynamic event
so depends on the circumstance
what is attentional blink
is found in tasks requiring selective processing of information
the attnetion system takes time to recover from processing first piece of information
lag is about 8 items to recover to norma
so two pieces of info presented very quickly or 8 apart do best, anything in between is subject to attentional blink so does badly
what is divided attention
processes where we are focusing on more than on source or task
what is resource specialization
doing two tasks at once is easier if the two tasks are relatively different
divided attention and driving
simulated driving task
participant on cell phone missed twice as many red lights and took longer to apply the brakes
same result when using hands free
but much less so just talking to a passenger in a car
so hands free not good
what is executive control
involved in working memory
keeps desired goal in mind
serves to inhibit automatic responses
name one theory th\t has been proposed to understand divided attention
a central executive model
what do patients with prefrontal cortex damage show
perseveration errors as well as goal neglect
explain the effect of practice on divided attention study
divide attention betweeen remebering target and monitoring rapidly presented stimuli
in consistent mapping target always number and distractor always etters. with practice able to the task automatically without consciously working to divide attention
automatic processing occurs without intention and only uses some of a persons cognitive resources
but in varied mapping condition rules changed from trial to trial. participants never achieved automatic processing
the link between practice and distraction
practice = automaticity = more prone to distraction
attention in social situations with autism
people with autism can often solve reasoning problems that involve social situations well but dont do well in real life
autistic observers look at the mouth of off to the side of the face to assess emotional reaction
so the way the attentional system directs visual processing in autistic individuals may be one way in which they see things differently in the environment
