Attention in the real world - A4 Flashcards
What happened in the study about driving while on the phone? (3)
- people were slower to brake, braked for longer and took longer to slow down in both high and low density traffic
- also they were worse at a surprise recognition test
- a lot worse at parking than people having in-car conversations
What was found in the study about texting while driving?
- slower braking, more varied following distances, more failure to maintain lane
Why might texting be worse for driving than hands-free phone conversations?
- texting draws on the same modality as driving
- texting involves more attention switching between driving and typing
What was found in the study about walking while on the phone?
- more changing direction, weaving, less acknowledgement of others
- ignored a unicycling clown
What do workload models focus on? (3)
- the demands of the task
- the availability of mental resources
- the impact of these on task outcome
What does Wickens’ model of multi-tasking suggest?
- separate resources split into different areas within the model
- stages of processing - how far down the cognitive system is the process that underlies the task
- codes of processing - spatial vs verbal (similar to WM)
- modalities - visual vs auditory
- tasks that make demands on different resources should be performed better than tasks drawing on the same resources
What did Wickens find when giving pilots instructions by sound or text?
They performed flying better for sound and scanned information about the outside world better
drawing from different resources/modalities
but there were a number of read-back errors for sound
What happened when students were texted during a ted talk?
they performed worse on an MCQ test after, especially stuff from the last quarter
What determines how people search X-rays properly and effectively? (2)
- elements of the visual scene
- expertise
What do experts tend to do when looking at chest x-rays compared to non-experts?
- fixate quicker on abnormalities
- spend less time on non-salient structures
- have different search patterns (systematic, look at abnormality first then look round to compare, global/focal searching)
How were students and experts the same and different when looking at different types of abnormalities in chest x-rays?
- both looked at specific areas in focal images and dispersed search in diffuse images
- students had higher fixation durations for normal images than experts and less global/local pattern or search
What happens when experts are shown x-rays for 200ms?
- they detect abnormalities at 70% accuracy and before any eye movement
- they can’t give specific judgements
How does the quick presentation x-ray search result apply to Wolfe’s model?
- non-selective pathway provides the gist, which is the identification that there is an anomaly
- the selective pathway would provide the detail but can’t in this case because there is not enough time
What happens when baggage scanners search for a target over many trials?
they get better at finding it, but were still not as good at novel targets (no improved foraging)
Why is baggage scanning difficult for search?
the search is disorganised (things are always in different places) so it is difficult to develop a gist
What was found when baggage searchers were given targets at a very small (realistic) prevalence?
Accuracy was only 41% for a 1% prevalence, which isn’t very good news :(
How did the search patterns of expert and novice basketball players differ?
- they were the same speed, but experts focussed more on the empty space and their teammates’ marker
How did the search patterns of expert and novice football players differ when guessing the direction of a penalty kick?
- experts were more accurate
- experts focussed more on the legs and the ball
- novices focussed more on the hips and top half of the player
What is an early deficit that emerges in schizophrenia?
cognitive function deficits, including possibly attention
What happened with schizophrenia patients in a spatial cueing task where a target was cued by a box disappearing around it then it was quickly masked?
they were the same as regular people in how quickly they could follow the cue
this is automatic
What happened to schizophrenia patients in a conjoined search task (targets share features with distractors) compared to a pop out target?
They are slower than controls for the controlled task but not for the automatic one
What did Maruff et al (1988) find when comparing Sz patients varying how informative the cues were?
- did normally on the traditional cueing task
- did poorly on the counter-indicating task, showing a validity effect - indicates that they couldn’t stop the automatic looking at where the cue was
Where is the deficit in attention in schizophrenia patients? Why might this be?
the control of attention, not the implementation of attention
may be because of executive function issues
What happened in the initial study comparing ASD patients and controls with eye gaze cueing?
they showed the same results, with automatic cueing
What happened in the better, age and mental age matched, version of the ASD eye gaze cueing task?
no validity effect for short cue target delay for ASD children
so there is a difference in automatic cueing effects for faces
What was found when arrows and faces were used as cues for voice or tone targets presented in ears in ASD patients vs controls?
- controls showed a greater effect for eye gaze over arrows for voice targets
- there was no difference in the type of cue used for ASD children
