Chapter 4 Flashcards
dichotic listening task
- involves the presentation of 2 different messages at the same time into the left and right ear
- verbally repeat the message in the attended ear
broadbents filter model
- a model of attention based on the findings of dichotic listening tasks
- attention acts as a filter that lets attended stimuli through and blocks to-be-ignored information
- first flow diagram of the mind
sensory memory
holds incoming unanalyzed sensory stimuli for a brief duration
iconic memory
holds visual stimuli for .24 - .50 seconds
echoic memory
holds auditory stimuli for 1-3 seconds
detector
- information from the attended message that passes through the filter stage is then processed for higher-level characteristics
- the stage where the stimulus is recognized
problems with the filter model
it does not explain why the meaning of the ignored message can still be processed at times
short-term memory
- incoming information from the detectors is held here for 10-15 seconds without rehearsing the information
- repeated/rehearsed information can remain in short-term beyond 15 secs
- transfers info to long-term memory
attention
focusing on specific features, objects, or locations or on certain thoughts or activities
selective attention
the ability to focus on one message and ignore all others
distraction
occurs when one stimulus interferes with attention to or the processing of another stimulus
divided attention
the ability to pay attention to, or carry out, two or more different tasks simultaneously
attentional capture
a rapid shifting of attention, usually caused by a stimulus such as a loud noise, bright light, or sudden movement
visual scanning
movement of the eyes from one location or object to another
cocktail party effect
the ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out other stimuli, especially at a party where there are a lot of simultaneous conversations
treismans model of attention
- attention acts as an attenuator that attenuates ignored information
- info is analyzed by the attenuator for the messages physical characteristics, language and meaning
dictionary unit
- that consists of words in memory with varying thresholds for detection
- words with low activation threshold are likely to be detected
- e.g. salient/common or important words like our name
late selection models of attention
model of selective attention that proposes that selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur until after the information in the message has been analyzed for meaning
mackays late selection model
information is filtered after the meaning of the message is recognized
mackays 1973 study
- given pairs of sentences after listening to a sentence and asked to select which sentence is closest in meaning to what they heard
- tt would be clear based on which sentence is picked whether the attended or unattended message had been processed
lavies load theory of attention
- focuses on the amount of information that can be processed at one time based on task difficulty
- the ability to ignore task-irrelevant stimuli depends on the load of the task the person is carrying out
processing capacity
amount of information one can process at a time
processing load
difficulty of the task
high-load tasks
- difficult task
- use more of the processing capacity and won’t leave room for other irrelevant stimuli/distractions to be processed
low-load tasks
- relatively easier tasks
- use only a small amount of a person’s processing capacity
- can more easily process distractors
posner’s spatial cueing study
- conducted a visual priming study in which they examined how attention to a stimulus location facilitates responding to that same location on a later trial
- results showed faster responding to target on valid trials compared to invalid trials
valid trials
precue location congruent/the same as the target location
invalid trials
precue location incongruent/different from the target location
same-object advantage (egly et al)
occurs when the enhancing effect of attention spreads throughout an object, so that attention to one place on an object results in a facilitation of processing at other places on the object
scanning
- necessary because good detail vision occurs only for things you are looking at directly
- scanning is influenced by knowledge and preferences a person brings to the situation
central vision
area you are looking at
peripheral vision
everything off to the side
saccadic eye movement
rapid, jerky, eye movements from one fixation point to another
overt attention
shifting of attention by moving the eyes
covert attention
- occurs when attention is shifted without moving the eyes
- aka seeing something “out f the corner of your eye”
stimulus salience
the physical properties of the stimulus, such as color, contrast or movement
saliency map
map of a scene that indicates the stimulus salience of areas and objects in the scene
precueing
- a procedure in which participants are given a cue that will usually help them carry out a subsequent task
- used in visual attention experiments
posters precueing experiment
- general principle behind a precueing experiment is to determine whether presenting a cue indicating where a test stimulus will appear enhances the processing of the target stimulus
- participants focused on a “+” while a cue directed them as to which side of the display they should focus their attention
- results indicated that participants reacted to the square more rapidly when their attention was focused on the location where the signal was to appear
datta and deyoes hot spot experiment
- demonstrated how attention directed to a specific location results in enhanced activity at one place in the cortex
- created “attention maps”
attention warping
- tolga cukur
- occurs when the map of categories on the brain changes to make more space for categories that are being searched for as a person attends to a scene
divided attention experiment (water schneider and richard shiffrin)
- the experiment involved divided attention because they required the participant to carry out two tasks simultaneously:
1. holding information about target stimuli in memory
2. paying attention to a series of “distractor” stimuli to determine whether one of the target stimuli is present among these distractor stimuli
automatic processing
- occurs automatically, without the person’s intending to do it, and that also uses few cognitive resources
- automatic processing is associated with easy or well-practiced tasks
experience sampling
- procedure that was developed to answer the question, “what percentage of the time during the day are people engaged in a specific behavior?”
- one way this has been achieved is by having people report what they are doing when they receive signals at random times during the day
inattentional blindness
- occurs when people are unaware of clearly visible stimuli if they aren’t directing their attention to them
- grouilla or lady with an umbrella experiment (simons and chabris)
inattentional deafness
- occurs when inattention causes a person to miss an auditory stimulus
raveh & lavie inattentional deafness experiment
- had participants carry out a visual search task (scanning a scene to find a specific object)
- the search task was either easy or difficult
- participants were also asked to indicate whether they heard a tone that was presented during the visual display
- results indicated that it was more difficult to detect the tone when engaged in the hard visual search task
change detection
detecting differences between pictures or displays that are presented one after another
change blindness
difficulty in detecting changes in similar, but slightly different, scenes that are presented one after another
continuity errors
- in film, changes that occur from one scene to another that do not match
- e.g. different hairstyles or length from cut to cut
binding
the process by which features such as color, form, motion, and location are combined to create our perception of a coherent object
binding problem
- the problem of explaining how an object’s individual features become bound together
- e.g. as the person sees the red ball roll by, cells sensitive to the ball’s shape fire in his temporal cortex cells sensitive to movement fire in an area specialized for motion, and cells sensitive to depth and color fire in other areas
- even though the different chadctertics fire in different areas of the person cortex he doesn’t perceive the ball as separated shape, movement, depth, and color perceptions
feature integration theory (FIT)
- an approach to object perception
- a sequence of stages in which features are first analyzed and then combined to result in perception of an object
2 stages of object processing
- preattentive stage
- focussed attention stage
preattentive stage
- first stage of Treisman’s feature integration theory
- object is analyzed into its features in separate areas of the brain
- said to be automatic, unconscious and effortless because attention is not yet involved
- e.g. the visual system of the person observing the rolling red ball would process the qualities of redness (color), roundness (form), and rightward movement (motion) separately
focussed attention stage
- attention is focused on an object and the independent features are combined
- the individual features combine to form perceptions of whole objects
- e.g. the man becomes consciously aware of a red ball rolling to the right
illusory conjunctions (treisman)
- features from different objects are inappropriately combined
- occur because in the preattentive stage, each feature exists independently of the others.
illusory conjunction study (treisman)
- presented displays, in which four objects are flanked by two black numbers onto a screen for one-fifth of a second, followed by a random-dot masking field designed to eliminate any residual perception
- were told to report the black numbers first and then to report what they saw at each of the four locations where the shapes had been
- participants had to divide attention between identifying numbers and identifying shapes
- reported seeing shapes that were made up of a combination of features from two different stimuli
- e.g. presented with the small triangle is red and the small circle is green, they might report seeing a small red circle and a small green triangle
conjunction search
- searching among distractors for a target that involves two or more features, such as “horizontal” and “green.”
- useful for studying binding because finding the target in a conjunction search involves scanning a display in order to focus attention at a specific location
feature search
searching among distractors for a target item that involves detecting one feature, such as “horizontal.”
