Attention and Performance - Chap. 3 Flashcards
what is the legal rule of driving with phone
need hands free operation
what are 3 different applications of attention
perceptual
cognitive
motor
describe the idea of attention being a pool
attention is like a the water in a pool
1. the way the attentional resources (water) are allocated define how we use attention
2. that water is limited
-to get water back must stop doing a task or get more efficient at it
what is conscious attention
conscious awareness
-selective attention
what is cognitive attention
amount of cognitive effort to perform a task
what are broad categories of task attention is needed for
multitasking
attention to detail
making rapid decisions
vigilance (sustained attention)
what are 2 examples of why vigilance is important in attention
important for things like driving and working (influences how long we should have shifts for)
as we practice tasks we learn how to shift our attention in what 4 ways
- to events in the environment
- monitoring and correcting our actions
- planning future actions
- doing many other processes that compete for the limited resources of attentional capacity
in which stage of informatino processing does parallel processing occur most in
stimulus identification
what is parallel processing
2 or more streams of info can enter the system at the same time and can be processed together without interfering with each other
there is considerable interference that often exists among what task in information processing
movement programming
what is the stroop effect and give an example and why
illustrates how the atuomaticity of reading can interfere with our perfance
-difficulty naming a physical colour when it is used to spell the name of another colour
-process both colour and writing letters in parallel which creates conflict when it comes to response selection
what is the cocktail party effect in this class
if you are having your own conversation and there is a seperate convo going on near you, you are able to focus on what the people you are talking to are saying and ignore what others are saying
-however, if you hear a word in relavince to you, for example your own name, it will catch your attention
-even though not consciously listening, if someone says something relevant to you, you hear it (procces info in parallel)
what are 3 types of sensory information that can be processed in parallel in the stimulus identification stage and give an example for each
-parts of the visual display (what you see)
ex: Stroop effect
-sensory signals
ex: posture and locomotion
-salient info (most noticeable or important)
ex: cocktail party effect
in what type of visual display is parallel processing helpful
large visual display
sustained attention tends to wane after what
extended periods of information processing
what is inattention blindness
we can miss obvious features in our environment when we are engaged in attentive visual search
what type of environemnt skill is tunnel vision effective for and not
effective: closed skills
not: open skills
what is another word for sustained attention
vigilance
what are 4 factors that influence vigilance
-motivation
-arousal
-fatigue
-environmental factors
what 2 things can influence the amount of time it may take for response selection
-number of distractors
-similarity of distractors
what are 4 characteristics of automatic processing
- fast
- not attention demanding (processes do not generate much interference with other tasks)
- can be done in parallel
- involuntary
what are 4 characteristics of controlled processing
- slow
- attention demanding (with interference caused by competing processing)
- serially organized
- voluntary
when is interence between tasks the most obvious and what stage of the informatino process does this happen in
when performaer must perform 2 actions simultaneously
-response selection cause they require that hcoices be made among several possible alternative responses
automatice info processing is thought to be the result of what
an enormous amount of rpactice
what is the benefit of automaticity
processing info in parallel, quickly, and without interference from other processing tasks
-ability to attend to other aspects of performance
-effective when environement is stable and predictable (closed skills)
What is a disadvantage of automaticity
will perform the expected movement when it may not always be the best choice
-not effective when environment changes often (open skill)
-so many more patterns are possible - would have to develop automatic response to all of them (possible but with practice)
when is automaticity most effective
in closed skills where envionrment is mostly predictable
what is the double stimulation paradigm give example
subject is required to respond with separate responses to each of 2 stimuli presented very closely in time
-respond to a tone by lifting right hand
-very short time following the tone
-light appears, and respond by lifting left hand
what is stimulus onset asynchrony
duration of between the 2 stimuli in a double stimulation paradigm
what is the single channel hypothesis
argues that processing of a first stimulus and response completely blocks the processing of a second stimulus and response until such time that the processing of the first response and stimulus has been completed
what are you looking for whne using a double stimulus paradigm
interested in how long it takes to respond to second stimulus
in the double sitmulation paradigm, there is usually a delay to the response of the second stimuli becuase of what
due to interference with movement programming
-single channel hypothesis
what is critical in psychological refractory period and why
stimulus onset asynchrony
-it determines if and how long response will be delayed
when does grouping of 2 sitmuli happen and what is it
when 2 stimuli appear really close together in time - 30-40ms of stimulus onset asynchrony
-processing them as if they were one
what is psychological refractory period
delay in responding to the second of 2 closely spaced stimuli
what is the bottleneck theory
processing that happens during movement/response programming
-can only organize and initiate one action at a time
-any other action must wait until stage has finished initiating
what type of processing happens at each stage of information processing
stimlus identificaiton
-lots of parallel processing
response selection
-mix of automatic and controlled processing
response programming: cereal processing
what is an explanation for the psychological refractory period
the bottleneck theory in response programming stage
when is the bottleneck theory delay the largest and why
when the time between stimuli (stimulus onset asynchrony) is short
-at this time, the mvoement must be emitted before the stage can begin to generate second response
what happens when the stimulus onset asynchrony is very short, say less than 40ms
grouping
-motor system responds to second stimulus in a very different way
what are 2 methods that can be used for studying how attention demanding a task is
-double stimulus paradigm
-probe task
what does the probe task inlcude and describe how it would go
primary task and secondary task
-while subject performs primary task, researcher would probe hte attention demanded in this main task by presenting a secondary task
-subject must respond to this task as rapidly as possible, either manually or vocally
-RT would measure the delay in responding to the probe
when using the probe task technique the researcher would use the RT to the probe as a measure of what
the attention demanded by the primary task
in the probe task, the more attention demanding the primary task is, this would result in what type of response to the probe
slower
in probe task technique, the secondary task is usually what type of stimulus
discrete
what is the problem for probe techniques when it comes to responding manually to the probe
this can produce specific interference effects with a manual primary task
-nature of the reposnse to probe was incompatible with movement require for primary taks
-attention demands assessed by delay in probe RT contaminated by compition between movement requirements
when is there less competition between movement requirements
when responses require movement from things that are not associated with each other, for ecample moving limbs and making noise
what is internal focus of attention
focusing on our body movements
what is external focus of attention
focusing on result or goal of our actions
when does choking occur
when performers change their normal routine, or fail to adapt to a changing situaiton and fail in their performance
-using pathways havent practiced using yet
in almost all situations, what results in more skilled performance, external or internal focus of attention
external
cell phone law is very based on what view of attention
output modality
-cant do 2 thigns at once if require same output modality
-for example, cant look at phone while driving cause need to look at road
-but can talk on phone while driving
what is the problem with the cellphone law
elements of response selection and programming regardless of whether using different ouput modalities require our attentional resources
-response seleciton will be delayed even without a structural interference
what is the inverted u principle
represents an early view of the relatioship between arousal and performance
-increasing arousla level generally inhances performance, but only to a certain point until it
-quality peaks at some intermediate value of arousal
what is the idea behind the updated inverted u
takes into account that the relationship between arousal levels and performance is not that straight forward
-different people performa better under higher or lower amounts of stress
-depends on individual an dtask
whats another word for tunnel vision
perceptual narrowing
what does tunnel vision allow
the performer to devote more attention to those stimuli that are immediately most lilkely and relevant
tunnel visino can be responsible for what
inattention blindness
-so focused on one thing you miss other things around you
which stages does the hands free law of driving believe is affected
response programming
explain the study we talked about in class about novel warning systems and what were the results
STUDY
-2 types of warning sytems: tactile from seat belt and auditory from speakers
-9 conditions : none, simple and complex convo with either no warning, tactile or auditory
RESULTS
-Tactile RT faster then no warning signal
-auditory RT no better than no warning
physiologically, the results of the study about novel warning systems makes sense how
both visual and auditory info must go through cortex in order for us to respond
-tacticle info can mae use of networks and responses before it travels to cortex (faster route)
based on the experiment we talked about in class about novel warning signals, complex conversations always caused RT to be what
increased
