Automatic and controlled attention - A3

Question 1

What is automatic processing? (5)

Answer 1

• fast and parallel, requiring little effort
• no capacity demands
• not conscious
• practice can develop it
• difficult to control

Question 2

What is controlled processing? (4)

Answer 2

• slower and serial, effortful
• dependent on capacity demands
• dependent on focussed attention
• can be changed quickly

Question 3

What are the 2 kinds of mapping in Schneider and Shiffrin’s task?

Answer 3

• variable mapping (distractors can be targets in other rounds)
• consistent mapping (distractor and targets separate)

Question 4

Other than mapping type, what was altered in Schneider and Shiffrin’s task? (3)

Answer 4

• memory set size
• frame size
• frame time

Question 5

What were the results for consistent mapping in Schneider and Shiffrin’s task? What does this suggest?

Answer 5

• no effect of memory set size
• no effect of frame size
• so capacity demands didn’t affect performance
• suggests that automatic processing is used

Question 6

What were the results for variable mapping in Schneider and Shiffrin’s task? What does this suggest?

Answer 6

• memory set increase = increased RT
• frame set size increase = increased RT
• so performance was affected by memory load and perceptual load (increased capacity demands)
• suggests controlled processing is used

Question 7

What happened when participants were trained with new sets of consonants for consistent mapping?

Answer 7

• after 2100 trials performance was independent of memory and frame set sizes - it became automatic
• it took even longer to unlearn this automatic response when the distractors and targets were swapped

Question 8

What happened when participants were trained with new sets of consonants for variable mapping?

Answer 8

• established in a few trials the new distinction - conscious control

Question 9

What are the elements involved in Posner’s spatial cueing task? (2)

Answer 9

• peripheral or central cue
• valid or invalid cue

Question 10

How can the cue presentation be varied in Posner’s spatial cueing task for each participant? (2)

Answer 10

• how informative they are (% of valid trials)
• cue target delay (time between cue and target)

Question 11

What happens for informative cues in peripheral cueing?

Answer 11

response is fast acting and consistent across cue target delays
validity effect increases up to 100ms then it stays level after that

Question 12

What happens for informative cues in central cueing?

Answer 12

response is slower acting and consistent across cue target delays
validity effect takes longer to develop (no effect until after 100ms) then it stays at a constant level

Question 13

What happens for uninformative cues in peripheral cueing?

Answer 13

at short cue target delays, there is a validity effect and people still follow the cues but then with longer gaps, there is an opposite effect and people look away from the cues

Question 14

What happens for uninformative cues in central cueing?

Answer 14

there appears to be no effect of cueing whatsoever and people ignore it

Question 15

How do you calculate the validity effect?

Answer 15

invalid RT - valid RT

Question 16

What does Posner’s spotlight metaphor suggest?

Answer 16

on cueing:
- spotlight disengages from fixation spot
- spotlight moves to cued spot
- attention/spotlight is focused on that spot
if the cue is valid, it is in the right place. If not, the steps need to be repeated, slowing response

Question 17

What does endogenous mean?

Answer 17

top-down, conscious allocation of attention

Question 18

what does exogenous mean?

Answer 18

bottom-up, automatic allocation of attention

Question 19

Why might attention be oriented away from the cue in uninformative peripheral searches after longer CTD?

Answer 19

if you don’t find something somewhere then it makes sense to look somewhere else and not look there again

Question 20

What was found when eye gaze was used as a central, uninformative cue?

Answer 20

a validity effect is found at 100ms (early) and it is consistent across cue target delay, suggesting that eye gaze is followed automatically

Question 21

What was found when testing real faces as uninformative cues in an initial task and why wasn’t the task very good?

Answer 21

validity effect present only at 700ms
it was a judgement task with an extra level of complexity

Question 22

how was the real face cueing task improved? what did they find?

Answer 22

participants were allowed to get used to the face first before the cue
found a validity effect early on and not later, suggesting early is automatic and later is more controlled

Question 23

What did Ristic et al (2002) find about eyes and arrows?

Answer 23

They show automaticity even as a central cue, suggesting they have a special social significance

Question 24

What are the defining features of automatic attentional control? (4)

Answer 24

• inevitable evocation (difficult to control, stimulus driven)
• incorrigible completion (can’t stop once started)
• efficient execution (no real capacity demands)
• parallel processing (fast and multiple processes at once)