Attention - automatic and controlled

Question 1

What is automatic processing?

Answer 1

• Fast and quick
• Parallel - Can do multiple at the same time
• Requires little effort
• No real attention
• Can arise through practice
• Difficult to control since they are stimulus driven
• Once you start you cannot stop

Question 2

What is controlled processing?

Answer 2

• Slower
• Serial processing
• Effortful
• Depends on capacity
• High demand = lower performance
• Can be changed quickly

Question 3

Is reading controlled or auto?

Answer 3

Auto

Question 4

Schneider and Shiffrin’s Visual Search Task

Answer 4

• Ps shown item and then asked to search for it in a field of distractors

Question 5

What are the two conditions in Schneider and Shiffrins visual task?

Answer 5

positive and negative trials
The target is present or is not
variable vs consistent mapping

Question 6

Variable mapping

Answer 6

The trial and distractors can be the same - no consistent difference - the target can be a distractor in another set - no consistent difference making it harder to find that target.

Question 7

consistent mapping

Answer 7

items you are searching for are never used as distractors they are consistent. Targets are always one type of thing as are distractors - consistently different.

Question 8

is consistent or variable mapping controlled?

Answer 8

• variable mapping hypothesised to need controlled processing
• Consistent mapping hypothesised to trigger automatic processing

Question 9

What were the further IV of Schneider and Shiffrin’s task?

Answer 9

• Memory set size (1,2 or 4)
• Frame size
• Frame time ( length of presentation of each frame)
  Each of these makes the task hard increasing capacity demand. Do these factors influence RT?

Question 10

Results for consistent mapping

Answer 10

No real effects of number of items to be remembered memory - as frame size increases no increase in RT change in capacity demands = no change in demands.

Question 11

Results for variable mapping

Answer 11

All three effect performance. Performance affected by memory load and perceptual load.

Question 12

memory load

Answer 12

how much to remember - memory set size

Question 13

perceptual load

Answer 13

how much to visualise - frame size

Question 14

could Shiffrin and Schneiders task be learnt?

Answer 14

Yes - after 2100 trials with consistent mapping, performance became independent of items in memory set and frame set - around 600Ps became automatic

Question 15

Once learned can you unlearn automatic processes?

Answer 15

It is harder to unlearn automatic processes, controlled processes are conscious so easier to learn or unlearn than automatic

Question 16

Dual task - Study - trying to learn reading prose while writing

Answer 16

Initially impossible but 6 weeks of practice lead to competence, it became automatic and didn’t seem to demand attention. Made some semantic errors

Question 17

Posners Task

Answer 17

• spatial cueing task
• Ps respond to the presence of a target which is left or right fixation point
• prior to the target there is a cue either in the centre or peripheral
• the cue is either informative or uninformative

Question 18

cue target delay can be

Answer 18

CTOA - cue target onset asynchronicity
SOA - stimulus Onset Asynchronicity

Question 19

informative cueing finding

Answer 19

peripheral cueing is faster than central cueing
both display a validity effect

Question 20

uninformative cueing findings

Answer 20

You still get the validity effect at 100-200ms for peripheral cueing even though the cues aren’t helpful - suggesting it is automatic and can be helped.

This is not the same for central cueing where there is no effect.

Question 21

positive validity effect

Answer 21

means that participants respond faster on valid trials (where the cue correctly indicates the target location) than on invalid trials

Question 22

negative or absent validity effect

Answer 22

Valid cues don’t help or may even hinder your performance in certain conditions, such as when your attention is already focused elsewhere or when the target is obvious and doesn’t need a cue.

Question 23

are RTs faster on cued or non-cued targets

Answer 23

cued

Question 24

central cues produce controlled or automatic response

Answer 24

controlled

Question 25

what causes the peripheral cueing effect?

Answer 25

attention is a spotlight spotlight is focused on a fixation point then the cue 1.Spotlight disengages from fixation spot 2.Spotlight moves to cued spot 3.Attention/Spotlight is focused on that spot - If cue valid Spotlight is on the target when it appears - fast reaction time - If cue invalid then 1 to 3 have to be repeated, slowing response.

Question 26

Endogenous process

Answer 26

Top down - allocation of attention - effortful and interpretive - controlled or modulated by goals. Voluntary

Question 27

exogenous processing

Answer 27

Exogenous —.> Bottom-up automatic allocation of attention, controlled by external events, reflexive and involuntary. Attention is captured,

Question 28

example of exogenous

Answer 28

compatibility effect single-feature search --> pop out effect flashing peripheral cueing semantic priming

Question 29

example of endogenous

Answer 29

reading and ignoring background noise central cueing task switching

Question 30

Inhibiition of return

Answer 30

IOR occurs when a peripheral uninformative cue initially facilitates target detection, but after a delay (~200ms+), reaction times (RTs) to cued locations become slower than to uncued locations. This happens because attention drifts away from the cued location and is slow to return, leading to an inhibition of return effect.

Question 31

when are uncued target faster?

Answer 31

when cue delay increases - automatic response

Question 32

why are uncued targets faster after 200ms?

Answer 32

- If you don’t find something somewhere - It makes sense to look elsewhere and not where you were looking. - The spotlight moves on and its return is inhibited - Facilitates foraging behaviour (Klein, 2000) - Triggering visual search

Question 33

inevitable evocation

Answer 33

Difficult to control, stimulus driven

Question 34

incorrigible completion

Answer 34

Once you start you can’t stop

Question 35

Parallel processing

Answer 35

- Fast and you can do a number of such processes at once - How Automatic a process is dependent on how much each contributes

Question 36

Does eye Gaze act as a cue?

Answer 36

Yes --> people using eye gaze as a cue even if uninformative and central

Question 37

when is eye gaze effect present?

Answer 37

100ms SOA delay

Question 38

Driver - eye gaze study using real faces - eye gaze as cue

Answer 38

found validity effect but only at 700ms

Question 39

how did driver change the study to find validity effect?

Answer 39

made it so you would focus on the face first and got used to it before testing found effect at 300ms

Question 40

when 80% of the cues are invalid in eye gaze study

Answer 40

still found validity effect but it changed at 700ms when you get time to be more controlled

Question 41

when can central cues controll attenton

Answer 41

when they are biologically primed when they have strong meaning automatic symbolic orientatting

Question 42

Automatic Symbolic Orienting

Answer 42

he involuntary shift of attention in response to symbolic cues (e.g., arrows, gaze direction) that indicate where a stimulus may appear. This process is influenced by learned associations and occurs without conscious effort.