chapter four: attention

Question 1

what is attention

Answer 1

Attention: concentrating on information that is either internal or external
to oneself.

o Selective attention: attending to one thing and ignoring another

o Divided attention: paying attention to more than one thing at a
time

Question 2

chapter four: attention

Question 3

what is information processing

Answer 3

Information Processing: reflects ideas from a computer metaphor in
which incoming stimuli is processed in stages

Question 4

information processing

dichotic listening task

Answer 4

Dichotic Listening Task: involves the presentation of 2 different messages
at the same time. Message #1 in the left ear and message #2 in the right
ear. Participants shadow (verbally repeat) the message in the attended ear

notes:

In a dichotic listening task a participant is presented with two different messages simultaneously specifically one message is presented in one year and another in the alternate year

participants might be required to report everything they heard from both ears or they might be required to attend to messages arriving from one eaer or what we call channel and to ignore the message that arrives from the other year this is called the to be ignored or the unintended channel

to make sure that participants are doing the task required they’re often asked to shadow the message that they are attending to that is they are to repeat what they hear

results of these dichotic listening tasks reveal that participants can do it they can do the task furthermore they often don’t know what was presented in the unattended here however sometimes information that is very salient such as your name is attended to when it’s presented in the “to be ignored channel”

Question 5

findings of dichotic listening

Answer 5

o Cocktail party effect: ability to focus on one stimulus and filter out
other stimuli.

o Could report that there was a message
o Could not report the content of the message
o Could report the gender of the speaker
o Could report if the tone of voice changed

Question 6

information processing

broadbent’s filter model

Answer 6

Broadbent’s Filter Model: A model of attention based on the findings of
dichotic listening tasks. This was the first flow diagram of the mind.

see figure 4.3

Information processing models are flow diagrams of the mind, the first flow diagram of the mind was broadbent’s filter model

human information processing approach to cognition reflects ideas from a computer metaphor in that there is information input and information storage.

Question 7

information processing

sensory memory

Answer 7

Sensory memory: holds incoming unanalyzed sensory stimuli for a brief
duration.

o Iconic memory: holds visual stimuli for .24 - .50 seconds
o Echoic memory: holds auditory stimuli for 1-3 seconds
o Capacity is very large but not unlimited

notes:

sensory memory stores unanalyzed sensory stimuli for a fraction of a second sensory. memory can be divided into what’s called iconic and echoic stores

iconic store is for visual stimuli and echoic stores for auditory information.

visual stimuli is stored in the iconic sensory memory for about .242 to .5 seconds whereas auditory stimuli is stored for one to three seconds

Question 8

information processing

filter

Answer 8

Filter: Attention serves as a filter in which only some of the incoming
information passes to the detector for higher-level recognition.

o Identifies stimuli based on physical characteristics (tone, intensity, pitch, location).

attention acts is a filter that allows only some of the incoming stimuli through for higher level recognition

the filter selects information based on physical characteristics of the message such as tone gender intensity pitch or even location

Question 9

information processing

detector

Answer 9

Detector: processes all incoming information for higher-level
characteristics (e.g.,meaning)

information that passes through the filter stage will be processed for higher level characteristics such as its meaning by what’s called the detector. you can think of the detector stage as one in which the stimulus is recognized

Question 10

information processing

short-term memory

Answer 10

Short-term memory: incoming information from the detectors is held here
for 10-15 seconds without rehearsing the information.

o Limited capacity (7+/- 2 chunks of information)
o Can transfer information to long-term memory which can hold
unlimited amounts of information for an unlimited duration.

notes:

after information is processed for a tier level characteristics by the detector this then enters the short term memory store and it’s healthier for about 10 to 15 seconds unless one rehearses this information in other words if the information is repeated, if you repeat the information to yourself it can remain in short-term memory beyond the 15 seconds while it is not completely clear what the capacity of short-term memory is a common estimate is that it can contain between 7 ± 2 chunks of information and a chunk of information just means that it’s a meaningful grouping of information

information in short term memory can then be transferred to long-term memory depending on how you encode encode we’re going to discuss later on in this class but it just means that it’s there’s some type of process you do with the information that transfers that information to long-term memory

Question 11

early selection model

Answer 11

Early Selection Model: information selected before its meaning is
analyzed. Selection based on physical properties of the message (e.g.,
location, pitch).

o Broadbent’s Filter Model
o Treisman’s Attenuation Mode

Question 12

broadbent’s filter model

Answer 12

Broadbent’s Filter Model: attention acts as a filter that BLOCKS to-beignored information.

*Problem with the Filter Model is that it does not explain why the meaning
of the ignored message can still be processed

notes:

Broadbent’s filter model is a type of early selection model that proposes to be ignored information is filtered at the beginning stage of information processing

attention will allow some information through and completely block other pieces of information that’s to be ignored

the problem with the filter model is that it does not explain why the meaning of the ignored message can sometimes still be processed

Question 13

dear aunt jane study

Answer 13

Dear Aunt Jane Study (Gray & Wedderburn, 1960)

Instructed to shadow the left ear, however,
participants would report “Dear Aunt Jane” instead
of, “Dear 7 Jane” indicating that to-be-ignored
information was processed.

notes:

according to broadben;ts filter model the two be ignored information is completely blocked from further processing however in Gray and wedderburn’s dear aunt Jane study participants reported content from the 2 be ignored channel indicating that information was still being processed

to provide you written example during a dichotic listening task, participants would be instructed to shadow their left ear in the figure on the screen you would expect that the participants would shadow dear 7 Jane however what the researchers found was that participants reported hearing dear aunt jane indicating that the word aunt from the ignored channel had passed through the filter broadbands model can’t account for ignored information passing a filter that was meant to completely block it out

Question 14

tresiman’s attuenation model

Answer 14

Treisman’s Attenuation Model: attention acts as an attenuator that
attenuates ignored information (like turning down the volume).

o Contains a dictionary unit that consists of words in memory
o Words with low activation thresholds (e.g. salient words) are likely to be
detected.

see figure

notes:

Another Early selection model is called treisman’s attenuation model

when attention is not directed at the unattended channel information in this channel is not blocked like in Broadbent’s model instead it is attenuated that’s like turning the volume down to weaken the message so that the probability of it being recognized is lower is lowered

instead of the filter that blocks information from the ignored channel it Broadbent proposes according to Treisman’s attenuation model information is analyzed by the attenuator for the messages physical characteristics, language and meaning

however the processing of meeting is rudimentary at this point the attended information then passes through the attenuator but the to be ignored information is attenuated making its signal weaker than the than the attended message

next the information is analyzed by what is called the dictionary unit. the dictionary unit consists of words in memory with varying thresholds for detection

salient words such as our name will have a low activation threshold meaning that even when it’s a weak signal it can still be detected

Question 15

treisman’s attenuation model

Answer 15

see diagram

in this diagram you can see that the message enters the attenuator where the message from the ignored and attended ear are processed the arrows exiting the attenuator differ in their size

the larger arrow represents a strong signal from the attended channel and the thinner arrow represents a weaker attenuated message both the attended and unattended messages passed through to the dictionary unit

if the signal strength of the words from the attended or unattended channel reaches its activation threshold the word will be detected

Question 16

MacKay’s late selection model

Answer 16

MacKay’s Late Selection Model: Information selected for further
processing occurs after the meaning of the message is analyzed.

In Mackay’s late information model, information is filtered after the meaning of the message is recognized, in other words in a late selection model the filtering of information happens after all incoming information is processed for meaning

Question 17

mackay (1973)

Answer 17

see slide 17

evidence for a late selection model comes from mackays’ 1973 study participants completed a dichotic listening task

in the attended ear they were presented with an ambiguous message such as they were throwing stones at the bank

ank can refer to a financial institution or it could be the Bank of a river participants’ interpretation was influenced by words presented in the unattended ear if the word money was presented in the unattended year they were likely to select they threw stones at the savings and loan association yesterday as the sentence that closely matches the meaning of what they heard from this McKee proposed that filtering information occurs only after the meaning of both messages from the attended and unattended ear are processed

Question 18

early + late selection

Answer 18

• Task and type of stimuli determine whether selection of information for
  processing occurs early or at a later stage.

Question 19

processing capacity + perceptual load

Answer 19

Lavie’s Load Theory of Attention: Focuses on the amount of information
that can be processed at one time.

o Processing capacity: amount of information one can process at a time

o Processing load: difficulty of the task
o High-load tasks
o Low-load tasks

notes:

Load theory of attention Is a capacity model of attention, unlike the early and late selection models of attention, capacity models focuses on the amount of information that can be processed at a time based on task difficulty.

difficult tasks are considered high load tasks whereas relatively easier tasks are considered to be low load tasks

Question 20

processing capacity + perceptual load

Answer 20

see figure

participants are presented with the display of letters arranged in a circle and they are instructed to detect the letter X or N and respond by pressing the corresponding keys, you will notice that participants are quick to detect the letter N when it is surrounded by Os

the easy task is a low load task however in the second display detecting X takes much longer because it’s surrounded by various letters such as Z K M&H&W the hard task is considered a high load task that involves more processing capacity to complete

now the more interesting finding is shown in figure B a distractor is introduced in the form of a dog cartoon character this cartoon is a task irrelevant stimulus which means that it’s not needed for task completion

what was found was there was greater impaired response times for the easy condition relative to the hard condition. that suggests that the low load easy task is associated with larger amounts of leftover processing capacity that you used for processing task irrelevant stimuli

Question 21

scanning a scene

Answer 21

Tracking how one visually scans a scene is one way to measure overt
attention .

o Visual scanning: eye movement from one stimulus to anther

o Overt attention: shift of attention by moving where the eyes are looking

Question 22

scanning a scene

Answer 22

Fixation: short pauses on points of interest

Saccadic eye movement: rapid movements of the eyes between fixations

Question 23

scanning a scene

stimulus salience

Answer 23

Stimulus Salience: bottom-up processes in which
physical properties of stimuli captures attention.

 o Attentional Capture: rapid shift of attention to a stimulus

Saliency map: map of a scene that indicates points of
stimulus salience. Lighter areas are highly salient.

Question 24

scanning a scene

scene schema

Answer 24

Scene schema: knowledge of what is in a
particular scene. Guides fixations from one
area of a scene to another

ex: Participants look longer at the printer because
it does not fit the scene schema (Võ & Henderson, 2009)

Question 25

scanning a scene

visual search

Answer 25

• Visual search: scanning a scene to find an object
• Eye movements determined by task demands
• Eye movements typically precede a motor action

Question 26

outcomes of attention

Answer 26

Covert Attention: shift of attention without eye movement.

Precueing: providing a cue to help participants complete a subsequent
task.

Question 27

outcomes of attention

Posner et al.’s (1978) study

Answer 27

procedure:

• valid trials (precue location congruent with target location)
• invalid trials (precue location incongruent with target location)

Posner and others 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

on valid trials the precue location was the same as the target location we call this congruent an invalid trials the precure location was different from the

results:

o Faster responding to target on valid trials
compared to invalid trials

o Covert attention in Posner et al.’s (1978)
study facilitated information processing.

location we call that incongruent

the procedure of their study involved the presentation of a cue while having participants fixate on the centre cross a pointing arrow cues a location then a target square appears that is either congruent or incongruent with the cue location results indicated that reaction time to the target was significantly faster on valid trials as shown by the red bar in other words the study revealed that attention to a location can speed responding to that same location

Question 28

outcomes of attention

same-object advantage:

Answer 28

same-object advantage: cueing attention to part of an object facilitates responding to all parts of that object

ex: study conducted by Egly et al. (1994)

Same object advantafe is the facilitated Responding to all parts of an object when attention was previously directed to a part of that object

in egly and others 1994 study, one of four locations on an object was queued

Question 29

outcomes of attention

Egly and coworkers (1994)

Answer 29

procedure:

• cue one of 4 locations
• button press response

results:

• faster responding to cued location
• faster responding to location on the cued object compared to uncuded object

notes:

during the pre cue trial a location is cued. in this example the upper part of the right rectangle is queued to simplify our understanding of the procedure your textbook labeled the locations with letters CDA&B so location A queued then the queue disappears

next participants are required to press a button it the target appeared anywhere on the bars and participants were fast to respond to a location that was previously queued for instance if location A was queued and the target appeared at location a they were quick to detect the target however what’s interesting is that they were fast to detect a target if it was anywhere on that rectangle

so you will notice that if the target appeared at location B response times were 358 milliseconds which is still faster than if the target appeared at location C which is a different rectangular bar. so there was the same object advantage

Question 30

outcomes of attention

datta and deyoe (2009)

Answer 30

procedure:

• fixate eyes on center of a stimulus disc
• attend to areas of this disc

*record fMRI of brain activity

results:

• collection of brain activation areas -> created attention map for participant
• a participant’s “secret place” was identified based on their attention map

Question 31

divided attention

schneider and shiffrin (1977)

Answer 31

schneider and shiffrin (1977) : practice improves divided attention

procedure:

see figure

results:

after many trials, the detection of the target became an AUTOMATIC PROCESS (without intention or cost to cognitive resource)

Question 32

divided attention

Answer 32

divided attention possible for well-practiced easy tasks but not for difficult tasks (ex: driving through heavy traffic)

participants on cell phone missed twice as many red lights and took longer to apply the brakes (strayer & Johnston, 2011)

Question 33

distractions

Answer 33

mind wandering: thoughts from within/ daydreaming happens frequently

• can distract you from a tasl (ex: mindless/zoned out reading) and impair performance

distractionL stimulus that interferes with the processing of another stimulus

Question 34

what happens when we don’t attend

Answer 34

inattentional blindness: stimulus that is not perceived even if a person might be looking at it

Question 35

what happens when we don’t attend

Answer 35

cartwright-finch & lavie (2007)

o 6 Trials

o Indicate which line is longer
(horizontal or vertical)

o Trial 6, a small square appears

o Participants do not notice the square

Question 36

What Happens When We Don’t Attend

inattentional deafness:

Answer 36

Inattentional Deafness: impaired hearing when focused on a difficult
visual task.

Task = detect “X”
Tone presented during the task

Low detectability of the tone on
hard trials

Question 37

What Happens When We Don’t Attend

change detection:

Answer 37

Change Detection: if shown two versions of a picture, differences
between them are not immediately apparent (called continuity errors in
films).

Question 38

Experiencing a Coherent World

binding

Answer 38

binding: the process by which features are combined to create our perception of an object

ex: any stimulus, even one as simple as rolling ball, activates a number of different areas of the cortex

• rolling ball
• location, depth, motion, color, shape

binding is the process by which these seperated signals are combined to create a unified percept

Question 39

Experiencing a Coherent World

binding problem:

Answer 39

binding problem: how do features (colour, form, motion, location) combine for object perception

Question 40

Experiencing a Coherent World

feature integration theory

Answer 40

treisman

1) preattentive stage: each feature processed in seperate areas of brain

2) focused attention stageL features combined

see figure

Question 41

“free floating” features

Answer 41

see figure

Question 42

illusory conjunctions

Answer 42

Illusory Conjunctions: inappropriately combining features of different objects.

Triesman and Schmidt (1982)

Step 1: Report the digits (to reduce attention
to the shapes).

Step 2: Report the shapes
Results: illusory conjunction on 1/5th of trials

o Illusory conjunctions more likely to occur if there is parietal lobe
damage (e.g., Balint’s Syndrome)

o Illusory Conjunctions are less likely to occur with top-down
knowledge of how features should be combined.

Question 43

Experiencing a Coherent World

Answer 43

feature search: search for a single object based on a single feature (ex: horizontal line)

conjunction search: search for an object based on two or more of its features (ex: horizontal line that is green)

see image

Question 44

reflection questions

Answer 44

1.Describe what a dichotic listening task is and its purpose.

2.What is the association between a scene schema and attention?

3.Explain the feature integration theory.

Question 45

When a precue location is congruent with the target location, Posner called this a __________ trial.

Answer 45

valid

Question 46

Cartwright-Finch and Lavie (2007) presented 6 trials with a horizontal line that intersected a vertical line (making the figure of a cross). The authors found:

Answer 46

inattentional blindness on trial 6

Question 47

The “Dear Aunt Jane” study conducted by Gray and Wedderburn(1960) revealed:

Answer 47

some of the to-be-ignored information is processed