Chapter 9: Attention And Awareness Flashcards
Awareness
Active thinking about or concentrating on some source of stimulation
Attention
Selection of some source of sensory stimulation for increased cognitive processing
Dichotic Listening
Listening to one message in left ear and different message in right ear
- attention affects recall- can recall what is paid attention to, but not the ear that wasn’t attended to
- low-level sensory changes in ignored ear are noticed, but changes related to meaning aren’t
Selective Attention
Attention to some things and not to others
- activity focusing on specific sensory system
Filter theory of attention
Suggests all sensory information is registered as physical signals, but attention selects only some of those signals to be interpreted for meaning with the rest being filtered out
*filter out meaning for low salience sensory info
—sensory stimuli form desired input channel and other sensory stimuli—> (sensory mechanisms)— desired info and other info—> (attentional filter based on physical features of signals)—desired info—> (limited-capacity system for higher-level processing, including evaluation of meaning)—desired info—> memory
Cocktail Party Phenomenon
Originally refers to auditory sense, selective attention occurs with other senses (notably vision)
Attenuation Model of Attention
Attenuators looks out for meaning in what we experience
- gets rid of filter
Inattentional Blindness
Failure to perceive a fully visible, but unattended visual object
- miss things because we’re not paying attention
Attentional Blink
Unawareness of stimuli in attended location of stimuli occur when we are processing something else
Ex. RSVP
Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP)
An experimental procedure in which visual stimuli such as letter or photos are presented very rapidly, one after the other, at fixation
Change Blindness
Inability to quickly detect changes in complex scenes
Selective Attention and Limits of Awareness
- looking at something is not the same as seeing it, just as letting the sound of a conversation into your ears isn’t the same as hearing it
- you have to pay attention to be aware of and fully understand what your eyes are pointed at or what you ears take in
Attention to Locations
Overt attention
Covert attention
Attentional Cuing
*eye movement isn’t needed to redirect attention
Overt Attention
Selectively attending to some info by moving one’s eyes
Covert Attention
Selectively attending to some info without moving one’s eyes
Attentional Cuing
- Provides a cue about the location and timing of an upcoming stimulus
- Examines how the spatial location of a person’s attention affects the speed with which the person can become aware of something and respond to it
- eyes stay at fixation point
Attention affects neural responses in […]
Attention affects neural responses in V4
- Shifting attention: directing attention to particular spatial location without moving your eyes, causes corresponding changes in brain activity
Attention and Brain Activity
- can be directed to different spatial locations, enhancing awareness of and other cognitive responses to stimuli that appear in those locations
- affects the responses of sensory neurons with receptive fields in attended locations
- selects which of many competing stimuli will be represented for further cognitive operations
Attention to Features
Visual search research
Feature search
Conjunction search
Visual Search Research
Searching for specific target in a scene containing one, a few, or many objects