Attention & Performance Flashcards
week 6
what is attention?
- Mental process of concentrating effort on a stimulus
what are the 4 interrelated ideas of attention?
- We are constantly confronted with more information than we can attend to
○ Have to de ide where we are focusing our attention
○ Too much to focus on all at once - There are serious limitations in how much we can attend to any at one time
- We can respond to some information and perform some tasks with little if any attention
○ As we practice more, some tasks can be completed with little attention needed- focus on other tasks at the same time - With sufficient practice and knowledge, some tasks become less demanding of attention
what is focused (selective) attention?
- Select one input while ignoring all others (attention only focuses on one input at a time)
- Eye movements
○ Move eyes so that input of interest falls on the central fovea
§ Centre point of attention
○ Motion triggers reflex of movement
§ Survival instincts- danger response - Head movement
○ Position ears for better hearing- In a loud environment
what is the visual search?
- Indicate as quickly as you can whether a particular target is present
- Takes longer and requires more attention when searching for a combination (or conjunction) of features
- With first two, attention can find the target quickly (pre-attentively)
- In the third, it is difficult because we have a conjunction of features.
what is feature inegration theory?
Treisman & Gelade (1980) Treisman (1990)
* Two processing stages:
1. Basic features processed rapidly and pre-attentively (recognise features instantly) in parallel across visual search
Targets defined by a single feature- can have as many distractors as we like, the process will still be as equally quick
2. Slower serial process with focused attention
- Having to process and break things down using the stimuli
- Targets defined by a combination (or conjunction) of features= have more distractors makes the response time slower
what are illusory conjucntions?
- No difficulty perceiving features on display
- Mistakes we might make when focusing our attention on lots of different stimuli.
- However, unsure how features are combined
○ Combination of features that is being focused on - Report illusory conjunctions
○ Remembering the features but them being in the wrong order
Incorrectly reporting the features
what are exogenous attention networks (posner, 1980)?
- Bottom-up
- Stimulus-driven
- Automatically shift attention
- Peripheral cues (what is identified)
- More uncontrolled
E.g.: looking at a door if someone walks in.
what are endogenous attention networks (posner, 1980)?
- Top-down
- Goal-directed
- Controlled by expectations- what we expect too see
- Central cues
More focused on it.
according to posner (1980), what are attention networks?
- Participants focus their eyes on a cross in the centre of the screen and have to press a button the side that a flash is presented on the scree. They will wither be given valid or invalid (central cues) that point arrows in the direction (or opposite direction) to where the flash appears
- In the peripheral cue conditions, there will be an outline of the flash on one side of the screen and then the flash either happens on the same side (valid) or on the incorrect side (invalid).
- Select the side a flash of light is presented
○ Left/right of a central fixation cross
○ Press a button to say which side the flash was on. - Flash preceded by a central cue: ENDOGENOUS ATTENTION
○ Arrow correctly points to flash location (valid)
§ When the arrows point the correct way
○ Arrow incorrectly points to flash location (invalid)
§ When the arrows point the incorrect way - Flash preceded by a peripheral cue: EXOGENOUS ATTENTION
○ As participant is focusing on a central cue, they will have a prompt that says where the flash will be (will either be true or there to trick them)
○ Outline of shape in flash location (valid)
Outline of shape opposite side of flash location (invalid)
what heppened when the najority of the cues were valid in posner’s attention networks study?
- Majority of cues valid- in some trails
- Trials had a combination of central and peripheral cues (not just one or the other)
○ Central cues = RTs faster for valid cues
○ Peripheral cues = RTs faster for valid cues
§ Didn’t matter if the cue was central or peripheral, response times were equally as quick - Separate exogenous and endogenous systems? NO- not completely separate.
○ Expect that cues are reliable (i.e. correctly cue the correct location of the flash)
§ Preconceived expectation that the cues are reliable
○ Endogenous attention used when central cues present and controlled by expectations
§ Arrows in centre- expect the was the arrow points will be right so the flash will be as well
○ Exogenous attention used when peripheral cue present and stimulus-driven
If the prompt is on the left we expect the flash to be on the left as well.
what happened when the majority of cues were invalid in posner’s attention networks study?
- Majority of cues invalid- in some trials
○ Central cues = RTs same for both valid/invalid
○ Peripheral cues = RTs still faster for valid trials
§ Irrespective of the central cue the response times were the same which suggests that the participant is focusing all of theior attention on the arrows- can guess where the flash will be by ignoring invalid cues.
§ If the prompt was on the correct side of the flash, response times for the peripheral cues were faster when the trials were valid. - Separate exogenous and endogenous systems? YES- different response times for the same type of trial.
○ Expect that cues should be ignored (i.e. do not cue the correct location the flash)
§ Ignore them and focus on the other information
○ Endogenous attention used when central cues present and controlled by expectations
§ Will just expect the arrow to point in the opposite direction to where the flash is shown
○ Exogenous attention used when peripheral cue present and stimulus-driven
If the prompt is on the right we will expect the flash to be on the left.
what is focused auditory attention?
- Lessons learned from vision applied to our sense of hearing
- Select sounds of interest, while ignoring others
- Must separate (or segregate) different auditory stimuli
E.g.: in a loud room, focus attention on your conversation. - Cocktail Party Problem - Cherry (1953)
- “cocktail part effect”
○ How do we focus on one conversation at a time?
○ Using physical differences (e.g. gender, location)
§ Naturally female voices are higher in pitch than male voices
§ At a busy party will be louder than in a lecture
○ Extract little information from unattended stimulus
§ Not focusing attention on anything we aren’t interested in
§ At this point is endogenous.
○ Exogenous (stimulus-driven), as hear salient information in unattended stimulus
§ If someone in the difference shouts our name
Salient feature- unattended stimulus
what is the cross-model attention?
- Coordinate information from two or more modalities simultaneously
○ Focus information on more than one stimuli - Ventriloquism effect
○ Close together in time/space
§ Sound and image are combined together
○ Match expectations
○ Example of visual dominance
§ Visual field is more dominant than auditory field.
Matching and implanting sound into dummy (ventriloquism- e.g.)
what is the McGurk effect?
- The McGurk effect
○ Sound same in both clips
○ The way the mouth moves we expect it to say a certain thing
○ E.g.: Ba, Fa, Va. - Further evidence for visual dominance
○ Input from vision influences auditory perception - Focus on the way the mouth moves instead of the sound made.
what is the develeopment of cross-modal attention?
- Does visual information improve speech identification in children?
○ Speech degraded to simulate cochlear implant listening
○ Multitude of different channels to develop the sound of what is heard. - Maidment et al. (2015) - will be assessed on this in the exam
- Whether interpreting the instructions was clearer if the video was there or if it was auditory only.
- The youngest children did not benefit from visual information (ages 4-5 years old)
- Audio-visual gain increased with age
○ As they got older, they didn’t need as high of a channel to understand the instructions
○ Having the alien talking as well, the number of channels decreased even more
○ Understand instructions better.
Maidment et al. (2015)- Having both increases the accuracy of reporting the instructions.
Processing can become automatic.
- Having both increases the accuracy of reporting the instructions.
what is divided attention?
- Present two stimulus inputs at same time
- Must attend and respond to ALL inputs
○ Using divided attention - Also known as multi-tasking
- Tells us the capacity of attention
○ How much stimuli we can attend to at any one time
what is dual-task performance?
- What determines how well we can perform two tasks at the same time?
○ Why are we more accurate when we complete both tasks. - Uses divided attention due to attending to two stimuli at once.
○ Similarity between tasks modality - can be impaired if there are high levels.
§ e.g. visual vs auditory
§ Due to both being visual stimuli
§ Sound and imagery would be more accurate
○ Similarity between responses
§ e.g. manual vs vocal
Using different responses (e.g.: hand and shouting)- would make it easier
what is automatic processing?
- Practice makes perfect!
○ Accuracy will increase with practice - Assume that processes become automatic
○ Go on autopilot - Two major theoretical approaches
1. Traditional approach
(Shiffrin & Schneider, 1977)
2. Definitions of automaticity
(Moors & de Houwer, 2006)
what are controlled processes, according to the traditional approach?
○ Limited capacity
○ Require attention
§ In-depth
○ Used flexibly in changing circumstances
§ Our attention can change based on circumstances
what are automatic processes, according to the traditional approach?
○ No capacity limitations
§ Attend to multiple things at once
○ Do not require attention
§ Tasks don’t require attention at all
§ automatic
○ Hard to modify once learned
§ Hard to unlearn or change
No interlinking between controlled processing and automatic processing
what is the definition of aitomaticity?
- Reject assumption that clear-cut distinction between controlled and automatic processes
○ Both are interlined (controlled and automatic)
what are the 4 factors associated with automaticity?
- Unconscious- not aware we are doing it
- Efficient- mor successful
- Fast
- Goal-unrelated- because we aren’t focussing on stimulus.
* Not always found together (don’t have to all be present)
e.g. can be partially conscious or fairly fast/slow
what is the importance of attention?
- Attention is important and helps us to:
○ Focus on a specific object to gain more information
○ Bind (or integrate) features together so we can perceive a coherent object
§ Focus attention on object to be able to understand what the object is.
○ Ignore unwanted distraction
Less likely to be distracted.
what is change blindness?
- Failure to detect changes in the environment
- “the door study”
○ One experimenter asked for direction, a door came between the two, the experimenter swapped with someone else carrying the door
○ 50% of participants didn’t know the experimenter changed.
Simons & Levin (1998)
what causes change blindness?
○ Representations may be incomplete due to limited attentional focus
§ Hadn’t actually focused that deeply on the experimenter.
○ Representations may decay or be overwritten
§ When the door came in the way they forgo0t what the experimenter was like and the new one overwrote the perception
○ Representations of pre-change stimulus may be limited to the unconscious
§ Conscious mind hasn’t noticed the change
§ Limited to unconscious mind
○ Impossible to compare pre- and post-change
§ In terms of attentional focus and the way out brain works, we might not be able to compare the two
○ Perceptual accuracy sacrificed so that we have continuous and stable perception of environment
§ Defence mechanism to protect us.
what is inattentional bias?
Fail to notice an unexpected, but fully visible item when attention is diverted to other aspects of a display
Simons & Chabris (1999)
* Gorilla experiment= gorilla walks across the screen as the people in the video continue to play basket ball and pass between themselves.
○ Also a woman carrying an umbrella- no difference in seeing this unexpected object for either team.
* Either told to watch the team in the black tops or the white tops
what causes inattentional bias?
- Depends on probability that unexpected object attracts attention
○ Depends on how likely the unexpected object is to catch our attention. - Two factors of importance:
1. Similarity of unexpected object to task-relevant stimulus
○ Black gorilla - ignore team dressed in black, whereas count passes between team dressed as white
○ More likely to see gorilla when counting passes between team dressed in black.
○ When told to follow the team in the black you are more likely to notice the gorilla the if you are following the white team.
§ Stimulus merges in colour.
2. Observer’s available processing resources
How much attention you are placing on the stimulus- how much you have to divide between multiple stimulus.
what are the differences between change. blindness and inattentional bias?
- Unlike inattentional bias, change blindness occurs because we FAIL to:
○ Attend to the change location
○ Encode the pre-change visual stimulus at the change location into memory
§ Our memory hasn’t locked in the original person so we don’t acknowledge that the individual changed.
○ Encode the post-change visual stimulus at the change location into memory
§ Haven’t acknowledge the new man into our memory.
○ Compare the pre- and post-change representations
§ Nothing to compare it to
○ Recognise at the conscious level the discrepancy between the pre- and post-change representations
§ In our conscious mind we aren’t recognising any change.
Jensen et al. (2011)
what is spatial neglect?
○ Lack of awareness of stimuli presented to side of space on the opposite (or contralateral) side to the brain damage
§ If damage to right hemisphere struggle to process the left side of the image
§ If damage to right hemisphere struggle to process the right side of images
* Typically involves right- hemisphere damage
Left side of objects and/or objects presented to the left visual field are undetected
what are the different types of spatial neglect?
- Object-centred (allocentric)
○ Lack awareness of side of objects - Subject-centred (ego-centric)
○ Lack awareness of entire side of visual field
Copying- object centred
Tracing- subject centred
Have only traced the image on the right
which attenton network is used when central cues are present?
endogenous
the mcgurk effect provides evidence for…
corss-modal integration
what is not associated with automaticity?
goal related (it is actually goal-unrelated\0
soolcentric neglect can be defined as…
a lack of awareness to one side of objects
