Chapter 4: Attention Flashcards
attention
the ability to focus cognition on specific information
selective attention
ignoring one stimuli for another
what is an example of selective attention
cocktail party effect
what is sustained attention?
the ability to sustain selective attention over time
what is divided attention
alternating attention between multiple stimuli
we allow low priority information to go through our filter, but…
you still hear things you’re not intentionally listening for, what is the benefit of this?
you can still listen to information that is pertinent to you and your safety
ex. FIRE
treismans (1965) attention model
- we sort all information as high an low priority (attenuation) depending on the goal
- we focus most cognition on high priority information
- low and high priority information can be switched (Dictionary Unit Ability) if your goals change “FIRE!!”
what is attenuation?
the ability to sort information into low and high priority
what is Dictionary Unit Ability?
the ability to switch high and low priority information when goals change
what is the attenuation model (probably should know the diagram)
(probably should know the diagram)
without selective attention….
irrelevant information uses up our cognition
what is processing (cognitive) capacity
how much information we can handle cognitively
what is the task load model?
how mentally effortful the current task were focusing on
our attention keeps this low
forster 2008
“is the letter N present”
measured performance as reaction time
-low task load : uses a small amount of our processing capacity for tasks
0
N 0
0 0
0
-high task load: uses a larger amount of our processing capacity for tasks
K
M Z
H X
W
researchers then added an irrelevant picture/distraction
task load and pikachu:
use some of the processing capacity for task and some for the distracting. Then looked at if high or low load was more impacted
in forster 2008 what happened when pikachu was added to the high load?
-2% lower response (+19ms)
-no change in errors
in forster 2008, what happened when pikachu was added to the low load?
-12% lower response (+60ms)
-42% more errors
why were the low load trials in Forster 2008 more impacted by the pikachu distraction?
**look at the circle diagrams
there is more cognitive room to devote to the distraction stimulus and that provides more opportunities to make errors. When you don’t have the cognitive space to intake a distraction you are more likely to ignore it
some information is more ____________ than others
distracting
what is attention capturing?
we automatically put attention on things we practiced
what is the Stroop effect (1935)
-reading words is a very practiced task
-it is hard not to read words
ppl were tasked to state the color of different words “red, blue, green” ppl are inclined to just read the color rather than answering what color the word is written in
** look at the circle chart
we direct our visual attention with our_________, this is called _________ ____________.
eyes
overt attention
what is central vision?
-visual attention priority
-detailed vision (cone cells)
-1% of our field of vision
what is peripheral vision?
-limited detail vision (rod cells)
-ability to grab attention as needed