Chapter 3: attention Flashcards
what factors determine where we direct our attention
1) GOAL-DIRECTED FACTORS (ENDOGENOUS)
-Intentional
2) STIMULUS-DRIVEN FACTORS (EXOGENOUS)
-Incidental
explain serial bottleneck
A point in the path from perception to action at which people cannot process all the information in parallel
-Think about all the info you encounter at any given time. It’s too much for you attentional resources all at once.
when do bottle necks occur
EARLY-SELECTION THEORIES
-Filter occurs before we perceive the stimulus.
LATE-SELECTION THEORIES
-Filter occurs after we perceive the stimulus.
explain the dichotic listening task
-Subjects are presented with two messages to two ears over headphones and are instructed to “shadow” one
-SHADOWING: repeating back the words from one message only.
-Very little about the unattended message is processed in a shadowing task.
explain the filter theory
-Early selection theory
-Sensory information has to pass through some bottleneck, at which point only some of the information is selected for further processing.
-Selection of the message to which to attend is based on physical characteristics (e.g., pitch of voice).
what else can drive attention
semantic content (meaning of language)
explain cocktail party effect
When you are at a party where a lot of sound is going on, you attend to your name being said
explain the Gray and Wedderburn study with two lists
Two lists are presented simultaneously:
Dogs eight
Six scratch
Fleas two
Participants instructed to shadow meaningful message
-“dogs scratch fleas”
what are the two theories for auditory attention
1) THE ATTENUATION THEORY (Treisman, 1960)
-Early selection theory
-Certain messages would be weakened but not filtered out entirely on the basis of their physical properties
-Messages are minimized but not eliminated
2) LATE-SELECTION THEORY (Deutsch and Deutsch, 1963)
-The filter occurs after the perceptual stimulus has undergone analysis for verbal content
-No attenuation
-Limitations are in response system
which theory for auditory attention is better
Probably attenuation theory
-Treisman and Geffen (1967)
-Shadow one message while listening to both for target word
-Tap when word is heard in either stream
-87% of target words in shadowed ear detected
-8% of target words in unshadowed ear detected
-If late selection is correct, they should have done equally well
explain the Neisser and Becklen visual attention study
Performed visual analog of the shadowing task:
-Participants watched two videotapes superimposed over each other.
-Could find critical events… (ex. Being told to pay attention to the times people shook hands with one another)
-When told to monitor one film
-Not when told to monitor both
-Indicates they could successfully filter
explain the O’Craven study with the houses and faces layered on top of each other
-When face is attended, there is activation in the fusiform face area
-When house is attended, there is activation in the parahippocampal place area
explain the neural basis of visual attention
-Similar to auditory processing
-Provided evidence that there is enhanced neural processing in the portion of the visual cortex corresponding to the location of visual attention (much like the ear)
explain the visual search task with letters and search time
Neisser (1964)
-Participants scanned a matrix of letters searching for a target letter.
-Search time was a function of how far down the target letter was in the matrix.
explain the pop out effect
TREISMAN AND GELADE (1980)
-Distinctive targets are easier to find (pop out at you) than when they blend with the context.
-People are much more affected by the number of objects to scan when target is not distinctive
-Ex. Finding a T is harder in a field of Zs than in Ys
what is the binding problem
-Different neurons respond to different individual features – a vertical red line is both vertical and red. Furthermore, what if there is a red vertical bar and a green horizontal bar?
-If different neurons respond to each feature, how do we “bind” them together to make a coherent perception?
solution to the binding problem
TREISMAN AND GELADE: FEATURE-INTEGRATION THEORY
-First, people perceive features from visual field (color, movement, etc.)
-Next, use attention to synthesize those features located in the same place into an object
-Attention is important here
explain illusory conjunctions in the realm of the study with numbers and different colored letters
TREISMAN AND SCHMIDT (1982)
-People report digits from one part of their visual field
-(they pay attention to this)
-colored letters are shown in another part
-(they’re not paying attention to this)
-People report color/letter combinations of features that did not occur
-Can combine features accurately only when attention is focused
what are the three studies on neural mechanisms involving binding of a single object together
1) LUCK AND COLLEAGUES (1997)
-Found neurons specific to particular object types fire only when attending to that object (even if other objects are there)
2) KASTNER AND COLLEAGUES (1998)
-Demonstrated enhanced neural processing in visual area of attended objects (not unattended objects)
3) SIMONS AND CHABRIS (1999)
-video of people and basketball with gorilla
-Demonstrated effects of sustained attention
what brain areas are involved in controlling attention
Posterior parietal lobe
explain unilateral vision neglect
POSNER AND COLLEAGUES (1982)
-Patients ignore information in the visual field on the opposite side as the brain damage.
study with unilateral vision neglect
Someone with brain damage on the one side was unable to cross out circles on the left side of an array
explain the study with brain damage on either side of the brain and drawing
-The right parietal region is responsible for attention to such global features as spatial location, whereas the left parietal region is responsible for directing attention to local aspects of objects.
-Showed people pictures and asked people to reproduce the pictures
-Those with right brain damage got the detail right but not the overall shape, those with left brain damage got the shape right but not the detail
explain object based attention
-Where people focus their attention on objects rather than on regions in space
-May be easier
explain central attention: selecting lines of thought to pursue
Executive control
People are often able to pursue only one line of thought at a time.
Two laboratory tasks:
-No ability to overlap two tasks
-Almost total ability to overlap tasks
explain the Byrne and Anderson study about solving math problems
-Selecting lines of thought to pursue
-Participants were not able to overlap two math computations at the same time.
-Participants were given three numbers and had to verify that they were an addition math equation and multiply the first and last number by each other as well
-Hit a bottleneck trying to do two math problems at the same time
explain the schumacher et al study about time sharing
-Selecting lines of thought to pursue
- PERFECT TIME-SHARING
-The ability to pursue more than one task at the same time
-Hearing different tones, when they heard the tone had to say high, medium or low and encoding different letter locations
CENTRAL BOTTLENECK
-The inability of central cognition to pursue multiple lines of thought simultaneously
-Can occur for any stream of processing
-(also, some practice – task became automatic)
They did not have any bottlenecks with the timing of each task so they were able to do them at the same time or by themselves at the same speed
-You cannot think about two things at the same time, but you can think about a thing while you are doing something else
what is automaticity
Expertise through practice
-Performance of a skill that has been practiced repeatedly that eventually is executed with little or no direct attention
-What are some things that you do automatically?
-Usually this is a good thing, but sometimes maybe not
explain the stroop effect
Reading becomes automatic
Participants say the ink color in which words are printed
-The words spell names of colors that are not congruent with the ink color.
what prefrontal sites are important for executive control
Direction of central cognition (executive control)
Prefrontal regions important in executive control
-Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
-Anterior cingulate cortex
