Attention - Models

Question 1

What are the main components of attention ?

Answer 1

1.Information is selected for processing

2.Some information is suppressed or not processed

Question 2

What is the structural limit of attention?

Answer 2

The brain filters out information that is irrelevant and does not process it - this is a structural feature

Question 3

What is early attention selection?

Answer 3

Early on the brain focuses on certain aspects of the stimuli and filters out info that you do not attend to and it is not possessed and therefore not remembered.

Question 4

What is the Dichotic input study?

Answer 4

getting two inputs with one intended and one that is supposed to be ignored focus on attended and that’s what you will recall, They have to repeat what is going into the attended ear.

Question 5

What of the unattended speech in the Dichotic experiment can be remembered?

Answer 5

Can remember gender whether the sound is a voice or noise. Basic physical traits.

Question 6

What of the unattended speech in the Dichotic experiment can NOT be remembered?

Answer 6

cant give meaning or context. No semantics. language, whether it has been reversed. Since it has not been processed. Selection is prior to processing

Question 7

What is channel selection?

Answer 7

input from only one channel is processed at one time switching channel takes time and means information is lost.

Question 8

Broadbent’s Model argues for …

Answer 8

structural limits and early selection

Question 9

Describe the flow of Broadbents model

Answer 9

Sensory store —> Filter (selection of what will be attended to) —> Processing is limited to attended to material.

Question 10

When we focus on one channel what do we process?

Answer 10

no real processing beyond basic physical elements

Question 11

Broadbent believes in what kind of processing?

Answer 11

All or nothing

Question 12

Broadbent argues that dual processing is actually …

Answer 12

Dual tasking is actually doing one thing and then switching to another - because you can only attend to one channel at one time.

Question 13

Limitations of Broadbents model

Answer 13

• Around 30% of people of name notice their name in an unattended channel - this is semantic information
• Physiological response (sweating) to words in non-attended channel that were pre-associated with electric shocks. even though they couldn’t recall the word

Question 14

Treismans model challenged what aspect of Broadbents model

Answer 14

Proposed evidence of processing in unattended channel

Question 15

what is Treismens challenging evidence?

Answer 15

• people follow sentences when starts in attended and then unattended channel suggesting some semantic processing otherwise you wouldn’t suggest - Tresiman - its not an all or nothing filter - just info in unattended is turned down / reduced
• strong signals dont need to be attenuated to like your name

Question 16

what is late selection?

Answer 16

All in-coming information is processed to the “highest level” and irrelevant information is filtered out. It is named and categorised.

Question 17

Kahneman, 1973

Answer 17

the meaning of all current stimuli are extracted in parallel and without interference

Question 18

is late selection a structural or capacity model?

Answer 18

structural - Everything goes through processing, Selection/Filtering happens after processing., New bottleneck is prior to response, Still a structural model

Question 19

How can the stroop task be used as evidence for late selection?

Answer 19

even though you are focusing on colour name of word is being processed and supports idea that all info is processed - both elements are encoded, word and colour - automatic response (reading) - controlled response - ( naming or counting)

Question 20

Leaky information

Answer 20

Is the unattended information remembered because…

1.the filter is leaky

• Unattended Information is identified/processed - we are asuming people are focusing on the attended information - your attention can be grabed by things - it could be that you attention is slipping on ONE thing

Question 21

slippery information

Answer 21

the filter is slipping

• The attention system “slips” and attends to material (and processes) it shouldn’t - most research suggests that
• 2. is compatible with early selection
• Lachter, et al 2004 says that evidence for 1 comes from experiments that did not ensure this information was truly unattended.

Question 22

capacity model

Answer 22

Cognitive system has a limited amount of attentional energy for a task

Cognitive system has limited amount of processing capacity

Question 23

what is capacity dependent on?

Answer 23

capacity depends on difficulty of task, individual expertise

Question 24

what is performance dependent on?

Answer 24

• enduring dispositions (habits and preferences)
• momentary (need right now)
• evaluation of demands on capacity

Question 25

too much arousal

Answer 25

educed focus, more irrelevant details noticed

Question 26

too little arousal

Answer 26

no real motivation

Question 27

is there drop in performance when dual tasking according to capacity?

Answer 27

yes - drop in performance when doing task one and two together rather than take one/two separately

Question 28

can practice improve dual tasking?

Answer 28

with practice they can do two very different things at the same time since the capacity to do these two tasks had grown. when one is visual ana done is auditory they had less of a bad effect compared to visual and auditory dual tasks since they access different brain areas

Question 29

PLT theory

Answer 29

- The system is limited (as in early selection) - you can only focus on a certain amount of stimuli But will process everything until it runs out of capacity

Question 30

Acording to PLT, when percepton is low

Answer 30

more is processed including distractors

Question 31

does PLT argue for early or late selection?

Answer 31

BOTH - Early (when its complex) and Late selection (when its simple)

Question 32

Lavies study to support PLT

Answer 32

x is being processed even though you are not supposed to be focusing on it - If irrelevant stimuli (distractors) are processed - Prediction from the model… - Increased load should decrease effect because you are have more stimuli to focus on

Question 33

results from lavies study

Answer 33

RT for incongruent - congruent Higher score = more interference by incongruent Low = no interference Low perceptual load = strong compatibility - high RT for incongruent compared to congruent - processing more of the stimuli High perceptual Load - no real effect - no real difference in RT - this suggests distractor isnt processed - more complex stimuli less to get an effect because you attention has been drawn to what you are supposed to focus on - focus is narrowed to what you are supposed to pay attention to

Question 34

does perceptual load make a difference to inattentional blindness?

Answer 34

- Increased load —> reduced participants noting irrelevant element of stimuli - Simple task —> more likely to see the square - higher perceptual load = more focus on what you are supposed to attend to **Perceptual load reduces the compatibility effect and increases Inattentional Blindness**

Question 35

what is inattentional blindess?

Answer 35

Inattentional blindness is a psychological phenomenon where you fail to notice something fully visible in your environment because your attention is focused elsewhere.

Question 36

what is the compatibility effect?

Answer 36

The Compatibility Effect refers to faster and more accurate responses when the stimulus and the response are naturally or spatially aligned (compatible), and slower or less accurate responses when they are not (incompatible).

Question 37

example of compatibility effect?

Answer 37

Light on the left → press left button = ✅ Faster (compatible) Light on the left → press right button = ❌ Slower (incompatible)

Question 38

What is the Single Resource Model of attention?

Answer 38

One fixed pool of attentional resources for all tasks and modalities. Tasks compete for the same finite resource. Performance on tasks declines when attention is split across multiple tasks (known as dual-task decrement). No distinction between different types of tasks (e.g., visual vs. auditory); they all draw from the same pool.

Question 39

what is a multiple resource model?

Answer 39

Multiple pools of attentional resources exist, one for each type of task or modality (e.g., visual, auditory, motor). Tasks compete for resources within their respective pools, but resources don’t overlap across modalities. Less interference between tasks from different modalities (e.g., performing a visual task and an auditory task simultaneously). Dual-task performance can be maintained if tasks use separate resource pools.