Attention & Performance Flashcards
week 6
1
Q
what is attention?
A
- Mental process of concentrating effort on a stimulus
2
Q
what are the 4 interrelated ideas of attention?
A
- 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
3
Q
what is focused (selective) attention?
A
- 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
4
Q
what is the visual search?
A
- 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.
5
Q
what is feature inegration theory?
A
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
6
Q
what are illusory conjucntions?
A
- 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
7
Q
what are exogenous attention networks (posner, 1980)?
A
- Bottom-up
- Stimulus-driven
- Automatically shift attention
- Peripheral cues (what is identified)
- More uncontrolled
E.g.: looking at a door if someone walks in.
8
Q
what are endogenous attention networks (posner, 1980)?
A
- Top-down
- Goal-directed
- Controlled by expectations- what we expect too see
- Central cues
More focused on it.
9
Q
according to posner (1980), what are attention networks?
A
- 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)
10
Q
what heppened when the najority of the cues were valid in posner’s attention networks study?
A
- 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.
11
Q
what happened when the majority of cues were invalid in posner’s attention networks study?
A
- 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.
12
Q
what is focused auditory attention?
A
- 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
13
Q
what is the cross-model attention?
A
- 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.)
14
Q
what is the McGurk effect?
A
- 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.
15
Q
what is the develeopment of cross-modal attention?
A
- 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.
