Chapter 4 (Attention) Flashcards
1. Understand different views on how attention functions as an information selector/filter 2. Understand research on multitasking, mind wandering and divided attention 3. Understand the difference between covert and overt attention
William James” view on attention
“,,, the taking of possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, one out of what seem several simultaneous possible objects or trains of thought”
What does William James view on attention imply
attention is primarily a filtering process
Does seem fundamentally true,
though it’s equally true that attention means different things to different people
A method of attentional filtering
Selective attention
What is selective attention
view of attention which holds that its job is to identify relevant information, so that irrelevant information is filtered out
One method to demonstrate selective attention (selective hearing)
The cocktail party phenomenon (Cherry, 1953)
This model does not work for selective attention (we filter out irrelevant conversations with ease)
This model doesn’t work and assumes that no meaning is used to engage in selective attention
What is the cocktail party method
5 ways people could potentially filter out one message from the rest with relative ease
Cherry (1953)
What are the 5 ways people can filter out messages with relative ease (of the cocktail party method)
- The direction of the voice in space
- Body language (gestures, lip-reading, etc.)
- Differences in speaking voices (pitch, speed, male vs female, etc.)
- Differences in accents
***5. Transition probabilities (predicting the words you will hear and may have missed based on implicitly known probabilities and context)
We need to lock out the extra auditory stuff to be able to pay attention to the main conversation, thus we would pay no attention to other auditory stimuli and its meaning
However,
the attentional filter is not fully blocking out the other stimuli
If two people talk simultaneously about different topics and switch topics half way through, you will follow the topic rather than the person, and will likely not notice
Similarly, if someone says you name across the room, you will likely hear it and recognize the meaning right away even if fully invested in another conversation
What is an example of overzealous filtering
Inattentional blindness:
The failure to attend to critical information we ought to be able to notice
Eg A pilot landing a plane under difficult conditions might focus exclusively on the gauges informing him on his performance
he might not notice a truck sitting on the runway
Daniel Simons was one of the first to show
change blindness out of the lab
The anatomy of the eye doesn’t help us understand this phenomenon at all
Again, something unexpected was completely filtered out
The SART task Robertson et al. (1997)
Quick measure of sustained attention
Uses no-go trails to measure attention
Response to all didgets except 3
Severe TBI patients have trouble
Adjusting their strategy
Prior to an error, people were likely to have been responding faster than they would have before a correctly withheld response.
This seems true for everyone
Some people correct their strategy mistake
Similar strategy between control + minor TBI
major TBI did not adjust their strategies, lose self-regulation, may not recognize they should change their behavior to do it better
Does sitting vs standing make a difference for the SART task
Yep
Capacity theory states that
the longer we use our brain, the less capacity will remain
This is only true for certain types of attention
The structural limit model view attention as
Made of relatively independent modules
Each structure has its own capacity limit
Your attentional performance won’t diminish as long as you are switching between structures on a regular basis
This could suggest multitasking would be a good thing
Multitasking Task by Watson & Strayer (2010)
Participants drove in a driving simulator, behind a braking pace car
While driving, they also performed an auditory version of the Operation Span (OSPAN) task.
On average, across the board multitasking was bad for task performance
The central bottleneck theory explains this – at some point we must alternate between tasks to do multiple things “at once
Supertaskers
Not everyone showed multitasking deficits
As a general rule, multitasking is a bad idea. But for about 2.5% of undergraduate students, it seems not to be a big deal
Does attention always filter critical information well
No
Inattentional blindness was the failure to attend to critical information we ought to be able to notice - overactive filtering
Some information is so salient that it breaks through the “filter, or in other words it can capture attention
What is Attentional Blink
how a stimulus can capture attention
Observed in the context of a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task paradigm
This involves brief presentation (80 ms) of simple information (e.g. letters and digits)
One type of information is the distractors, and the other is the target - like the SART, there are more distractors than targets
Your task is to remember and report back only the targets
sometimes one, sometimes two number (33% of the time there was one)
We can identify all the targets, except when attention is captured
The relative position of the second target is critical to whether it is “blinked” out or not
The blink does not occur immediately - attention takes a bit of time to fully activate
What did Cain et al. (2014) show
The video gamer advantage
They proposed the attentional blink should be less pronounced in frequent video gamers (VGP)
The blink (probably) does not occur to the same extent for everyone, but they were wrong about video gaming being good for it
There was no significant difference found
In the SART, the likelihood of an error depends on
when the last 3 was shown
The version you completed kept the 3 in a fixed position in an otherwise random sequence
The fixed position can explain why we didn’t see slowing down after a mistake (good news - no evidence of TBI) and the very steep speeding up after corrects
Intenttention as mind wandering
When people reported mind wandering in an fMRI they had similar brain activity as when resting
Default mode network: mind wandering. Our default may be mind wandering, so at rest we mnd wander
Multitasking is a generally bad idea, but
task-irrelevant stimulation could be okay
What did Olivers & Nieuwenhis (2005) demonstrate (mind wandering and multitasking)
that background music reduces the attentional blink
One explanation for this is that music decreases the likelihood of attentional capture
May reduce mind wandering
Not demonstrating bottleneck theory
What is Complete filtering
If subsequent targets ar fully filtered, it won’t matter if they are related or not
However, it seems like related targets were easier to find and reducing the attentional blink
Connectedness of information may impact overall performance
It can’t only be a fixed rate of a neuron firing because relatedness would increase firing
When people look at this image, they need to direct they fovea to the information that seems most relevant
Based on Yarbus (1967)
What you attend to the most when asked to describe ppl 1. Face
William James said about attention
Everyone knows what attention is:
“how we focus on things”
Like a filter (but that’s debatable)
Attention has different forms
Forms of filtering
Every time someone attempts to measure attention comes up with new kind of attention
In Broadbents model of attention as a filter
It’s filtered based on basic physical characteristic (sensory)
So not higher order understandings
Attention as a filter in the Broadbent’s filter model
It’s like a coffee filter (it lets some things through)
You’ll switch automatically (follow the thread with out noticing)
Something can break through the filter (ex priority like your name)
Filter makes sense & it’s
Coherent with what James said
Inattention blindness
Part of filtering (overzealous) keeping something out that would be important to you
eg pilot landing a plane
eg An invisible Gorilla (while you count the passes)
Error for SART task
Did respond to a 3
For of mistake but not called error = omission = Not responding to another
What is the average of response for the SART task?
350-400 ms
What did Roberts et al find on their SART task
Ppl with traumatic brain injury had more errors than control (press 3 on no-go)
Better than the Triplet traditional task
Strategy changing -
SART strategy adjustment
When make error adjust behaviour (response strategy)
Unless TBI then don’t adjust their behaviour
Is there a difference SART sit stand
Not conclusive in the end
No multitasking is not truly possible just switch (Attentional bottleneck Brodbent’s idea fixed overall capacity)
So doing homework with music not truly better
No multitasking deficit “supertaskers” in driving simulator
3% of undergrads fine
Two ways of assessing mind wandering
- Interrupting the task to ask
- fMRI measure default mode network
Things don’t get filtered out completely
Primming can augment future word recall on task (Shapiro, Driver, Ward, Sorensen 1997)
Eye tracking image (Yarbus, 1967)
Describe the people on the picture - Look at their faces!
early selection view of attention
Eg selective attention - cocktail party effect
that “attention can effectively prevent early perceptual processing of irrelevant distractors”
late selection view of attention
Eg Stroop task
both relevant and irrelevant stimuli are perceived and participants must actively ignore the irrelevant stimuli in order to focus on the relevant ones. Late selection is often illustrated by the Stroop task
Stroop task
Invented by Dr Stroop
Vs Late selection view of attention
Overlearnt process vs inhibit the reading of the word to read the colours
Control vs automatic processes
controlled processes of attention
Requires attention / energy
Top - Down
Goal directed / voluntary
automatic processes of attention
Do not require attention
Bottom - Up
Stimulus driven / involuntary
What is the spotlight metaphor
Selective attention is often referred to as the spatial attention
The idea that spatial attention is like a spotlight that we shine on an object that we select for more complex and conscious processing
What are exogenous shifts (vs spatial attention)
involuntary movements of attention triggered by external stimuli
Also called attention capture
What are endogenous shifts (vs spatial attention)
Voluntary movement of attention
Selective attention is often referred to as
Spatial attention
What is a peripheral cueing paradigm?
Exogenous shifts of attention typically demonstrated using this
(attention capturing)
They include catch trials (participants respond when its a no-go)
In the peripheral cueing paradigm, people are ___ at detecting the target when it appears in the cued location than in the uncued location: this is called the ___ effect
Faster / the cueing effect
What is the stimulus onset asynchrony in the cueing paradigm
The time difference between the onset of one stimulus and the onset of a subsequent stimulus
What is inhibition of return
Slower responses to cued than to uncued trials in the cueing paradigm.
target detection faster at the uncued location than at the cued location, because the delay in the appearance of the target has led attention to shift to the uncued location, and now it has to disengage from that location and shift back to the cued location if that is where the target happens to appear. The reversed cueing effect at long intervals between
the cue and target is called inhibition of return
What is the central cueing paradigm
An experimental method in which a central cue (e.g., arrow) points to a location in which a target might subsequently appear.
What is inattention blindness
Failure to notice events that we would be expected to notice
Eg pilot landing a plane don’t see truck on the landing strip
Eg Gorilla in the ball game
Eg Crosses which one is larger … add square (faces more often detected)
What is attention capture
Exogenous shifts of attention, external stimuli salient enough captures our attention when we are focused somewhere else
What is the flanker task
An experiment in which participants may be influenced by an irrelevant stimulus beside the target
Congruent and Incongruent conditions
Is face processing mandatory
Yes, even when we try to ignore it
Is deja vu a thing?
Yes
Most likely to happen to people who have travelled, higher socio-economic better educated
What are domain-specific modules
The hypothesis that parts of the brain may be specialized for particular tasks such as recognizing faces
What is the primary determinant of selective attention
Meaning
We see what interests us and what we are looking for and expecting
What are notions around the capacity of attention
As tasks become more complex they start to interfere with each other
- Capacity model = attention as fuel tank
- Structural limits = tasks with similar activities will compete and interfere
- Central bottlenec = only 1 path at a time for info to travel
What is a central bottleneck hypothesis of attention
The hypothesis that there is only one path along which information can travel, and it is so narrow that the most it can handle at any one time is the information relevant to one task.
Doing two things at once= task switch
Can be overcome with practice!
What is the Capacity model of attention
= attention as fuel tank with limited capacity
What is the Structural limits model of attention
= tasks with similar activities will compete and interfere with each other
Divided attention
The capacity to attend attention to more than one thing at once
We can’t prove if it’s truly divided or if it’s just good switching
What is stimulus response mapping?
figuring out what response goes with what stimulus
The attentional blink task illustrates the
Limits of human attention
When two stimuli presented within 550 ms of each other (we don’t see the second)
Could allocating attention to a secondary task improve performance on a primary task?
Yes if the other task regards task-irrelevant activity (ex visual & music)
What is a set (task switching)
A temporary, top-down organization in the brain that facilitates some responses while inhibiting others in order to achieve a certain goal; also referred to as a “mental set.”
What is task switching
changing from working on one task to working an another; usually studied in situations in which the switching is involuntary
What is switch cost
The finding that performance declines immediately on switching tasks
What is vigilance
Sustained attention that is imposed eg your job
What is sustained attention
the act of maintain attention focused on a single task for a prolonged period of time
Mackwork clock task
Having participants monitor a line
Watch for clock hand skipping
Performance drops (vigilance decrement)
What is the vigilance decrement
Imposed sustained attention (vigilance) going down on sustained attention tasks
Eg Driving & lectures
What are three views on the cognitive mechanics under vigilance decrement
- Overload view (tasks overwhelm)
- Ressource depletion account (limited attentional ressources)
- Underload view (task boring we switch)
embodied attention 2 for ms
- Covert attention (attending to something with out moving eyes)
- Overt attention (attending to something by moving eyes)
What is the sequential attention hypothesis?
relationship between overt and covert attention = tight relationship
Covert attention shifts first and overt eye movement follows
eye tracking vocab
Saccades = Rapid chaotic
Fixation = Stillness
Nystagmus = small mvmd during Fixation not exactly still
Regression = left to right motion when reading
We look for entry point (when reading a newspaper)
Where we focus our eyes before we start reading
Either a heading or a picture
What is smooth pursuit movements
Movements of the eye that, because they are not jerky, enable the viewer to maintain fixation on a moving object.
Eg follow a finger
What is task-related knowledge
An observers knowledge of the goals and the task at hand as it guides the eyes during a visual task
What is the quiet eye?
Sustained and steady eye gaze prior to action or behaviour
what is the location-suppression hypothesis
A two-stage explanation for the quiet eye phenomenon: in the preparation stage, the quiet eye maximizes information about the target object; then, during the location stage, vision is suppressed to optimize the execution of an action or behaviour
