Attention Pt.2 Flashcards
Change Blindness
-We’re not taking everything in as we think we are
-The failure to detect changes in stimuli
-E.g. continuity errors in film
Measuring Change Blindness : Flicker Technique Paradigm
-2 similar visual images are presented with an interstimulus ‘‘mask’’
-Across trials, small chnages are made to the images… and sometimes they change nothing
-Participants asked if something changed between the images
-People are innacurate
-Can’t detect very slight changes even if we’re focused on the task
Inattentional Blindness
-Not noticing something new in your focus of attention
-Failure to attend to new or unexpected events in attented-to-environment
-E.g. a deer jumps in front of your car; you don’t notice it even though you are attending to that space (the road)
Measuring Inattentional Blindness
-Participants learn to focus attention to a particular space (do a task), then an unexpected target is presented in that space
-Participants determine which cross arm is longer
-Critical trials, a small white square is included next to the cross (attentional space)
-Participants were later asked if they saw this white square; Many said ‘‘no’’
Activating Attention
-Posner’s (1980) attentional spotlight theory
-Attenton is about focusing on space and ignoring what is located ‘outside’ of the focused space
-When moving attentional spotlight, disengage from current focus and shift to another area
-Attention is about getting ready to move to another location
Posner Cueing Task
- Fixation display : Fixate on the center of a screen
- Cue display : A ‘space’ cue directs attention to an area (blue square; left or right)
- Target Display : Detect the target, reaction time is measured
-Reaction time to valid trials area faster than to invalid trials
SOA : Stimuli Onset Asynchrony
-The time between the cue and target
-Short time interval (SOA) - 200 ms
-Long time interval (SOA) - 300 ms
-Enough time to look where cue is suppose to be and then move your attention spotlight to a new space
IOR : Inhibition of Return
-Attention is inhibited from going to a recently attended space after a long duration between space cue and target (SOA)
-Adaptive, it helps us search our environment efficiently
Integrating Features
-Attention needed to integrate features to perceive and find objects during perceptual (visual search); consciously focus on something
-Feature-based attention evident during visual search tasks
-2 types of attention for these tasks : Pre-attention phase + Focused attention phase
Pre-Attention Phase
-Object features are separately coded
-Bottom-up processing, automatic
-Pick-up on features from environment
Focused Attention Phase
-Object features are integrated to guide a search
-Top-down processing, voluntary attention
-Integrate features to help you look for something
Visual Search Tasks : Feature Search
-Search for an object that differs from the distractors based on one feature
-Bottom-up attention
-Automatic
-Quick / pre-attention phase
-E.g. you just need the cue ‘‘red’’
Visual Search Tasks : Conjuction Search
-Search for an object that differs from distractors across many features
-Combination of features to keep in mind to guide your search
-Top-down attention
-Voluntary / focused attention
-E.g. you need a combination of ‘‘red’’ + ‘‘square’’
-Distractors increase, time + effort increase
The Pop Out Effect
-Time to find a target that is different by one feature from distractors is independent of the number of distractors (set size)
-But ONLY occurs for features processed automatically in the primary visual cortex
-E.g. going from small number of cats to larger number of cats, time to find green cat remains the same
Embodied theories of Attention
-Eye movements detect visual attentional goals
-Overt visual attention
-Covert visual attention
-Focus on different things depending on the goal
Overt Visual Attention
-Attending to something with your eye movements
-Eyes move to target area
-How to shift your eyes to focus on something in your environment
-E.g look at ‘+’, then look at ‘P’
Covert Visual Attention
-Attending to something without eye movements
-Decide to move your eyes to target area
-What they’re giving attention to + how they are scanning this
-look at ‘+’ but see whats below and above it
Cultural Differences in Visual Attention
-Eye movements as 2 groups (Western, East Asian) attended to images with a central object (tiger, airplane) and background (mountain, forest)
-Evidence of more holistic processing in East Asian cultures
Divided Attention : Task Switching
-Changing from working on one task to working on another task
-Need top-down processes to switch between mental sets associated with each task
-Over a series of trials, participants perform blocks of tasks on the same input, sometimes switching between these tasks
-Is this number odd/even? Is this number high/low?
-Mental sets
-Switch cost
Mental Sets
-Method of organizing information based on the goals
-A tendency in how you approach certain goals, situations or solve a task
-Switch between tasks = switch between mental sets
Switch Cost
-Decline in performance (reaction time, accuracy) after switching tasks
-The attentional system must be ‘re-set’ to engage in the next task
Attentional Capture
-Bottom-up cues in the environmnent
-Automatically processed (capture your attention)
-It is about surprise or an error of our expectations
-A prediction error to pay attention this is surprising thing and not current task (important for safety/survival)
-E.g. seeing a mouse scurry in the corner of a room / the sound of a car crashing or sirens
Fearful Stimuli
-The ‘ preparedness premise’
-E.g. snakes
-Fear-network response in the brain centering on the amygdala
Personally Relevant Stimuli
-E.g. our name!
Addictive Stimuli
-E.g. cigarettes capture attention for smokers… or for non-smokers to stay away because aware of addiction
Threatening Stimuli
-E.g. war content for veterans with PTSD
Measuring Attentional Capture
-A modified go-no-go task
-Go trial
-No-go trial
-The signal is presented under four conditions and response time to signal measured
-E.g. The presence of human faces impaired attention for go/no go task because these faces automatically capture attention… but not if inverted!
Go Trial
Green signal : indicate if there is a vertical line is on the left or right of the image
No-go Trial
Red signal : press a task neutral button, do nothing
