ATTENTION

Question 1

Attention

Answer 1

cognitive process of concentrating on one or more things whilst excluding other things

Question 2

information processing

Answer 2

changing of info in any manner detectable by an observer, Process which describes everything that changed in the environment

Question 3

information channels

Answer 3

distinct sources that search for relevant stimulus and scan the world for particular features

Question 4

orientating response

Answer 4

attention drawn to source of sudden change

Question 5

filtering

Answer 5

of extraneous events

-attend to only one of several available distinct sources of info about our environment

Question 6

orientating reflex

Answer 6

we adjust our sensory organs to optimally pick up input from an information source

Question 7

overt attention

Answer 7

act of directing sense organs towards information source

Question 8

Selective attention

Answer 8

• process one stimuli by ignoring the rest
• respond discretely to a stimulus
• ignore irrelevant information

Question 9

divided attention

Answer 9

process two or more stimuli at the same time

-allocate some attention to each

Question 10

Methods for selective attention-Dichotic listening task

Answer 10

-select one of two messaged presented at the same time thought two different information channels (both ears)

Question 11

Methods for selective attention– shadowing

Answer 11

-repeat back aloud one of the messaged as it is played- focus on one stimulus

Question 12

Cocktail party phenomenon (Cherry, 1953)

Answer 12

• can understand and answer questions about the shadowed passage
• not bale to do this for the non-attended message
• physical differences were reported such as changes in pitch, voice intensity and if a tone/ noice was used-once these were removes: semantic content was lost and rarely notices speech that was foreign or reversed.

Question 13

Theories of Selective Attention-
Early Selection
Filter Model
Broadbent 1958

Answer 13

• limited ability to process information
• attention has a limited capacity
• there is a filter which allows or blocks at any early stage of processing

Question 14

Theories of Selective Attention-
Early Selection
Filter Model 
Broadbent 1958
Evaluation

Answer 14

Does not explain cocktail party

Question 15

Theories of Selective Attention-
Intermediate Selection
Attenuator Model
Treisman 1964

Answer 15

• same architecture to Broadbent’s
• filter does not strictly block out unattended
• some information is tunes down
• semantic analysis for selected input
• word units very in thresholds (our name has a low threshold so is easily activated)
• at an early stage of analysis

Question 16

Theories of Selective Attention-
Intermediate Selection
Attenuator Model 
Treisman 1964
Evaluation

Answer 16

How do we know if certain stimuli is relevant?

Could repose to other names such as parents’ or partner’s?

Question 17

Theories of Selective Attention-
Late selection
Pertinence Model
Deutsch & Deutsch 1963

Answer 17

• bottleneck is later- all information is initially processed
• each input is analysed in memory
• based on pertinence of information

Question 18

Theories of Selective Attention-
Late selection 
Pertinence Model 
Deutsch & Deutsch 1963
Evaluation

Answer 18

• information non-attended is lost
• why is it impossible to recall semantic content?
• possible scanning of unattended message?
• stored into short term memory and forgotten?

Question 19

Methods for divided attention-dual tasking

-attending to more than one feature of a stimulus

Answer 19

cost in performance/accuracy

Question 20

Methods for divided attention-dual tasking

-perform two tasks separately before both simultaneously

Answer 20

dual task decrement-deteariation in performance of either

Question 21

Theories of Divided Attention
Central Capacity Theory
Kahneman 1973

Answer 21

• central processor allocated attention
• attention is a skill
• performance depends on available capacity
• parallell processing
• capacity is not fixed
• mental effort based on difficulty of practise
• momentary intentions(particular time)
• enduring disposition(always important =biological or learnt)
• enduring usually override

Question 22

Theories of Divided Attention
Central Capacity Theory
Kahneman 1973
Evaluations

Answer 22

• demands effect allocation
• allocation policy remain unchanged when there is spare capacity left
• but if demands of several tasks are too high, allocation has to be changed
• does not explain influence of similarity
• two tasks will interfere if the available capacity if exceeded

Question 23

Theories of Divided Attention
Central Capacity Interference Theory
Norman &Bobrow 1975

Answer 23

-attention is limited in capacity, centrally controlled
-some tasks scan be improved by more resources
complex tasks performance cannot be improved; resource limited tasks
-others cannot be improved because attention is data limited (quality)

Question 24

Theories of Divided Attention
Central Capacity Interference Theory
Norman &Bobrow 1975
Evaluations

Answer 24

Cherry (1953)

• support of data-limited because less resources are required to detect names
• support of resource limited because there is no spare capacity for speech for the non-shadowed message

Question 25

Theories of Divided Attention Modules of Attention Allport 1980,1993

Answer 25

attention consists of specialised modules which: - deal with different ability or skill - has its own resources - has a limited capacity - similar tasks compete for resources of one module and interfere with each other - dissimilar tasks use different modules and do not interfere (parallel processing)

Question 26

Theories of Divided Attention Multiple Resource Theory Navan &Gopher 1979

Answer 26

- specialised mental resources - performance on one task traded for levels on another - input transformed to output - transformation slowed if tools aren't enough - alternative tools can help but not as effectively

Question 27

Inattentional Blindness Simons and Chabris(1999)

Answer 27

- failure to notice unexpected change or event in our environment when we are engaged in an attention demanding task - selective or focused attention - attention captured and followed by sustained attentional processing - failure of conscious awareness

Question 28

Change Blindness Simons and Levins (1998)

Answer 28

- changes t objects or stimuli central to the meaning of the scene are more readily detected - attention focused on important and meaningful objects/ stimuli - changes to attended objects/stimuli are unnoticed - change detection requires observers to encode the changing features before and after the change