Attention and Distraction

Question 1

Why do we need attention?

Answer 1

We need attention so that we don’t waste limited resources processing irrelevant information

Question 2

What does attention as a spotlight mean?

Answer 2

It is said to be like a spotlight as we can focus our attention in order to enhance the processing of relevant information

Question 3

Give 3 characteristics of controlled processing

Answer 3

Controlled/deliberate processing:

• involves mental effort
• limited
• subject to distraction

Question 4

Give two characteristics of automatic processing

Answer 4

Automatic/obligatory processing

• happens independently of effort
• causes distraction when in congruent with the focal task and facilitation when congruent with the focal task

Question 5

What are controlled and obligatory processing also called?

Answer 5

Controlled= deliberate
Automatic= obligatory

Question 6

What is selective attention?

Answer 6

Selective attention the process which controls our awareness so ghat we don’t become conscious of all the stimuli our sensory organs detect.

Question 7

Discuss memory and attention

Answer 7

Attention controls what enters our short term memory and therefore what stuff enters our explicit long term memory

Question 8

Does all information we don’t pay attention to get lost?

Answer 8

No, information doesn’t get lost but is instead stored in our implicit memory

Question 9

Define 2 cues used in visual detection experiments to do with attention, like posners cueing

Answer 9

Endogenous cue:“a cue, such as a centered arrow, that instructs a participant in a task to direct attention to a particular location but does not automatically draw attention to that location. It initiates a voluntary movement of attention” They push attention
Exogenous cue: “a cue, usually the onset of a stimulus in the peripheral visual field, that draws attention automatically to the location of the stimulus. It initiates involuntary movement of attention” They pull attention.

Question 10

What is congruence in visual cueing?

Answer 10

Congruence is where the number of object flashes up is where the arrow was pointing the participant look

Question 11

Why does congruence mean faster reaction time?

Answer 11

The interval between arrow and number is too short to allow eye movement, so looking to the other side of the screen means diverting our attention which takes longer

Question 12

What is the stroop effect?

Answer 12

“The finding that the time it takes a participant to name the color of ink in which a word is printed is longer for words that denote in congruent color names than for neutral words or for words that denote a congruent color.

Question 13

What is visual inattentional blindness? Give an example

Answer 13

Visual innattentional blindness is where we don’t see a visual stimulus because our attention has been drawn to something else even when it is an obvious thing.
Simon and Levin 1998 found people didn’t notice when a person giving directions changed when they switched them behind a moving door

Question 14

What is dichotic listening and how does it show selective attention?

Answer 14

When there are two messages, one in each ear. Someone is able to pay attention to only one of the messages and completely disregard the other (Cherry 1953). information that wasn’t being attended to is lost. They wouldn’t even notice is language or reading backwards changed

Question 15

Is the message in the unattended to ear entirely lost in dichotic listening?

Answer 15

No, there is evidence that we form implicit memories of the unattended message.

Question 16

What kind of information makes someone more likely to form implicit memories from the unattended information?

Answer 16

• Von wright et al 1975 presented words along with a electric shock then used a dichotic listening experiment after, when the words associated with the electric shocks were played in the unattended ear they triggered an emotional reaction. (Shocks)
• Moray 1959 found names would be heard and remembered
• Sexually explicit words neison and sarason 1981

Question 17

What is the cocktail party phenomenon?

Answer 17

The cocktail party phenomenon
when in a room with a lot of people all having conversations we are able to pick out certain voices,mirroring the effect iof when you hear soemone saying you name in a conversation you arent in.

Question 18

What happens to background noise?

Answer 18

Background noise is unnecessary information so we ry to become less conscious and less aware of what we feel we don’t need to hear

Question 19

What worsens performance more, background speech noise or any background auditory stimuli?

Answer 19

There is mixed evidence and it is still not known.

• be at conversation level?
• show some variance?

Question 20

What is the fundamental difference between early section and late selection modes of selective attention?

Answer 20

Early selection models of attention say that any information not attended to is not selected for perceptual analysis so will have no later information processing whereas late selection models say all information is attended to but is only select later in the processing chain after perceptual analysis.

Question 21

What is the attenuation model of selective attention? early or late selection?

Answer 21

Attenuation model of selection attention is an early selection model by Treisman 1960. said selective attention is early information processing and all info gets through,just unattended info gets through in a weakened, attenuated form

Question 22

Discuss and evaluate the all or nothing model of early selection

Answer 22

Broadbent 1958 all of nothing filter theory of attention with a sensory store filter limited capacity perceptual system which identifies the material.
Proved wrong by Moray 1959 as found people could switch between what ear they were listening to, in broadbents model then one channel should have been blocked

Question 23

What is divided attention? Does it worsen or aid performance?

Answer 23

Divided attention is where attention is split over a range of tasks, there is conflicted evidence as to whether it makes any difference

Question 24

Name 2 models of resource pools in divided attention

Answer 24

• single capacity models

- Multiple resource model

Question 25

Describe the single capacity model of resource pools in divided attention

Answer 25

We have one pool of resources to deal with cognitive and perceptual challenges, suggesting dual task methodology performance will worsen if we undertake more than one

Question 26

Describe the multiple resource model of resource pools in divided attention

Answer 26

This model suggests we have several resource pools to deal with various cognitive and perceptual processes therefore we an undertake multiple task at equal efficiency.

Question 27

Do all models either take the early or late selection idea?Give an example.

Answer 27

Johnson and Heinz 1978 said that early selection is selecting perceptual and sensory information whereas late selection is selecting the meaning of things.

Question 28

What do the 2 cerebral hemispheres do in attention?

Answer 28

left hemisphere: lots of focal attention and local cues

right hemisphere: global attention, holistic attention which takes on whole scenes

Question 29

What part of the brain shows increased activation in selective attention?

Answer 29

Selective attention shows increased activity in the posterior regions of the brain

Question 30

What region is involved in both divided an sustained attention?

Answer 30

The prefrontal cortex is involved in both sustained attention and divided attention, but different sides of it are involved.

Question 31

What is spatial neglect?

Answer 31

Spatial neglect is a perceptual disorder where brain injured patients cant report or respond to stimuli contraltaeral to the side of the brain injury