Attention Flashcards
Attention has three components…
Posner and Boies (1971)
orienting to sensory events,
detecting signals for focused processing,
and maintaining a vigilant or alert state.
What is attention?
Attention is the process that involves, at any given moment, selecting some information for further processing and inhibiting other information from receiving further processing.
Failures of attention in space:
Failing to notice all of the information when presented simultaneously.
Failures of attention in time:
Failing to notice new information when presented successively in a rapid stream.
Simons and Levin (1998):
what was their study called?
‘The Door’ study
Change blindness:
The failure to detect changes in the physical aspects of the scene (Simon & Rensink, 2005)
We select partial information from the world around us and not attentive to the rest
true or false
true
We tend to perceive the world as…
coherent and continuous
Who said this?….
changes of central interest (thematic content of a scene) are detected more quickly than changes marginal interest.
Rensink et al. (1997)
Two types of changes of interest in the failures of attention in space…
Change of marginal interest
change of central interest
When can failures of attention in space also occur?
when trying to attend two stimuli at once.
The ability to attend to two sources is impaired compared to the ability to process information from one source alone.
Focused attention:
Concentration on one source of input to the exclusion of any other.
Divided attention:
Attending to more than one source of information.
Limitations on the speed with which information can be processed in temporal sequence (e.g., Shapiro et al., 1984).
the two tasks???
Single task: Ignore T1 and indicate whether T2 was present or not. The percentage of correct detection of T2 was recorded as a function of how long after T1 it appeared.
Dual task: Report the presence of T2 and identify T1 whenever it appeared.
Attentional blink is a
short period during which incoming information is not registered, similar in effect to the physical blanking out of visual information during the blink of an eye.
Bottleneck:
restriction on the amount of information that can be processed at once: certain critical mental operations have to be carried out sequentially (Pashler & Johnston, 1998).
Dual task interference:
Divided attention impairs the performance when attempting to perform two tasks at once (e.g., Neisser & Becklen, 1975).
Endogenous attention:
Some internal goals/thoughts guide our attention (top-down).
Voluntary, effortful, controlled.
(an arrow pointing to something)
Exogenous attention:
Some external stimuli capture our attention (bottom-up)
Automatic, easy, stimulus-driven
(two boxes, one highlighted)
Both endogenous and exogeneous cues can…
facilitate or inhibit the attention.
Selective attention involves a dynamic process that enhances…
some information and inhibits other.
When does selection occur?
Two types…
Early: before further processing or late: after further processing
The early selection stages…
Input: External stimuli Sensory Store Selective attention Information processing Output:response
The late selection stages…
Input: external stimuli Sensory store Information processing Selective attention Output: response
Filter model (Braodbent,1958): Selection is made at an early stage of processing. Describe 3 components...
sensory store: briefly stores all incoming input
selective filter (bottleneck): analyses the physical properties of all incoming input (e.g., loudness, pitch, motion, colour) and identifies the attended input on the basis of its physical properties and filters out all unattended inputs.
further information processing: analyses the meaning of the attended input
Cocktail party effect
Unattended information can intrude and capture attention (e.g., hearing your name at a loud party).
According to the early selection models, cocktail party effect should not be possible.
Treisman’s attenuation model (Treisman, 1964):
Analyses the physical properties of all incoming input.
Selective attention involves a dynamic process that enhances…
Selective attention involves a dynamic process that enhances some information and inhibits other.
1-When does selection occur?
(Early: before further processing or late: after further processing)
Early selection models
Filter model (Braodbent,1958)
Attenuation model (Treisman,1964)
late selection models
Response selection model (Deutsch & Deutsch, 1963)
Corteen and Dunn (1974)
Duncan et al. (1997): Biased/Integrated competition theory
‘Competition’ and ‘load’ models of attention
Lavie (1995): Load model
Feature integration theory
Concerned with role of attention in selecting and binding complex information (Treisman, 1986)
The perceptual system is divided into separate maps, each registering a visual feature: colour, shape, size
Examined in ‘visual search’ tasks
Feature (Disjunctive) search Scan for a single feature Color, size, shape Target pops-out Short reaction times / Rapid
Conjunctive search Scan for a combination of features Color & size, size & shape No pop-out Long reaction times / Slow
Feature integration theory stages
Preattentive stage
Does not involve attention
visual input is analysed into separate features (e.g., colour, size, orientation)
each feature is represented by a separate mental feature map
features are represented immediately
feature search occurs in parallel (all-at-once)
Input (stimulus)
Focused stage
Involves attention
features must be combined for conjunction search
our attentional resources act as the mental “glue” that combines features
but features can only be combined one item at a time
conjunction search occurs serially (one-at-a-time)
output (response)
Treisman and Schmidt (1982)
Briefly presented with the display of numbers and objects
what are the two steps?
(1) Report the numbers
(2) describe the object at a specific location
Feature integration theory
Behrmann et al. (2003)
They examined the visual search performance of neglect patients.
Guided search theory
Wolfe et al. (1989)
Both disjunctive and conjunctive searches involve two consecutive stages.
Parallel stage: Simultaneous activation of all potential targets. Includes feature maps as in FIT, but items that cannot be the target are eliminated.
Serial stage: Sequential evaluation of each of the activated elements.
automaticity:
automaticity: state in which tasks do not require conscious control
Automatic processes:
Require little or non intentional effort or attentional resources.
The processing is parallel (all at once) and rapid.
Controlled processes:
Require intentional effort, attentional resources.
The processing is serial (one at a time) and relatively slow
How does a controlled process become automatic?
People use automatic processing on easy or very familiar tasks but are forced to use controlled processing for difficult or new tasks.
By practice, the efficiency of the processes increase and become automatic.
Difference in cognitive control that can be applied to automatic and controlled processes: once a process becomes automatic, it becomes difficult to control
who said this?
(Schneider & Chein, 2003).
