Chp 4 - Attention Flashcards
Attention (1+3)
The mental energy or resource necessary for completing mental processes; the mental process of concentrating effort on a stimulus or a mental event.
- Characteristics of attention:
→ Limited capacity
→ Flexible
→ Can be voluntarily controlled
What captures our attention?
- Novelty
- Change/Difference
- Social Cues based on personal importance
Alertness
degree to which we are awake, responsive, and able to monitor/interact with our environment
Vigilance + brain regions (5)
maintenance of attention (i.e., alertness) over long periods of time in order to monitor for the presence of a stimulus/event
→ involves coordination of many brain regions including parts of the:
- frontal
- prefrontal,
- inferior parietal,
- superior temporal cortices
- cingulate gyrus
What are various factors seem to affect our ability to stay vigilant? (3+2)
→ Neurological/physiological state (e.g., fatigue, etc.)
→ Frequency of target stimulus appearance
→ “Busyness” of surrounding environment
Need a certain amount of arousal to be focused
- Alert, mind not wandering
- Over the needed amount: shaking, fast heartbeat
e.g. performance anxiety
* The longer we are asked to stay vigilant, the more our task performance suffers! (many things fighting for your attention)
Difference in Stress and Anxiety
Stress: long periods of high arousal, long periods of anxiety
Anxiety: momentary experience
Orienting reflex/response
The reflexive redirection of
attention/focus to an unexpected event
Kids and fetuses in utero can do so
Attention capture
redirection of attention to stimuli based on physical characteristics. Frequently driven by:
→ Novelty
→ Change/difference
→ Social cues
bottom-up processing
Habituation
responses diminish once events are
no longer unexpected
- top-down
Goal-driven attention
the individual has a goal, and guides the attentional processes in service of that goal
→ example of top-down processing
→ space-based attention (“spotlight”)
Stimulus-driven attention
attention is guided by the stimuli themselves rather than observer goals
→ example of bottom-up processing
→ Much research has studied attention capture in visual contexts
Feature search
participants instructed to search for a single feature (e.g., the letter S)
Every day: looking for keys: visual search
Pop-out effect
occurs when the target is highly discriminable
from the distractor items
Present even if there are more symbols, not dependent on the amount of distractors
Conjunction search
participants instructed to search for two features in combination (e.g., letter F in bold type)
Not parallel processing,
Processing one at a time
Inhibition of return
places already searched are marked as no return
Feature Integration Theory (3)
Proposes that visual searching is a two stage process
→ Stage 1: Basic perceptual features are registered quickly and efficiently (pre-attentive processing) (feature search)
→ Stage 2: Attention must be focused on items individually (post-attentive processing)
When the target item that has sth extra, rt is faster than when target item doesnt have sth
Limits to visual attention: Wolfe et al. (2005) experiment
Low target prevalence:
Participants asked to press onebutton if the target was present, another if it was absent
→ High-prevalence condition: target
present in 50% of trials
→ Medium-prevalence condition:
target present in 10% of trials
→ Low prevalence: target present in 1% of the trials
Results:
→ Compared with high and medium prevalence conditions, number of trials in which the target was missed was much higher in the low-prevalence condition
→ Expectation that the target will be absent?
- Due to the fact that low prev: no response is almost always correct
Limits to visual attention (5)
- low target prevalence
- searching for multiple targets
- the attentional blink
- inattentional blindness
- change blindness
Attentional blink
suggests that successful attentional deployment needs recovery time
The difficulty in perceiving and responding to the second of two target stimuli amid a RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation) stream of distracting stimuli.
The second target is often missed if it appears within 200 to 500 ms of the first target.
- Attention to the first target prevents awareness of the second. This deficit is so powerful that subjects cannot even report a very salient target stimulus, such as a uniquely oriented item, that would otherwise support a rapid and efficient ‘feature pop-out’ search.
Inattentional blindness (3)
- Situations in which aspects of the visual scene go unnoticed because attention is focused somewhere else
- Probability of noticing the unattended stimulus impacted by:
1) demands of the task
2) Visual similarity
Change Blindness
a failure to detect changes in the presence, identity or location of objects in scenes, is also strongest when subjects do not expect changes to occur.
Demonstrates limited capacity to take in all aspects of a scene at the same time
- For example, over half of real-world observers failed to note a change in the identity of a person that they were conversing with, when the change was made during a brief occlusion (such as workers carrying a door between the conversing people)
- Unlike inattentional blindness paradigms, however, visually salient changes can be difficult to detect even when the observer expects and actively searches for such changes.
Selective attention tasks: dichotic listening task
Early researchers used dichotic listening tasks to examine auditory attention
- attention controlled through the use of speech shadowing, in which the participants repeat the message they hear in one ear or the other
Ignored (unattended) information:
1.Still shows evidence of priming
2.Can enter conscious awareness if highly salient
Suggests that strict early selection models are incorrect
Selection theories
Stages of processing
- Early selection
- Late selection
Early selection
is the idea that a stimulus can be selected for further processing or be tossed out as irrelevant before perceptual analysis of the stimulus is complete.
Late selection
hypothesize that the perceptual system first processes all inputs equally, and then selection takes place at higher stages of information processing that determine whether the stimuli gain access to awareness, are encoded in memory, or initiate a response.
Load theory (Lavie & colleagues) (3)
suggests that how we process task-irrelevant information depends on the perceptual demands placed on us by the primary task
- task has low perceptual load= open to distraction
- task has high perceptual load= no resources left for other things
Johnson & Heinz (1978); speech shadowing task
- Participants asked to shadow a word list and press a button when they saw a signal (i.e., a light)
- the higher the perceptual load of the speech shadowing task, the slower people’s RTs were
Mindwandering
brain not engaged in particular tasks
Found that certain parts of brain more active during rest conditions
- Look at brain activity dur mindwandering
There’s always baseline activity, brain is never quiet
The default mode network (structures) (3+3)
- includes structures like the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate, and the angular gyrus
- activity in these regions appears to be negatively correlated with activity in attention networks (e.g. the anterior cingulate, the insula, and other parts of the frontal and parietal lobes)
- When the activity is high in these structures, they were low in the structures related to the default network
Where do people’s minds go when they wander?
- thoughts about the self
- thoughts about others
- remembering the past
- planning for the future
Inner speech, self-talk
- Out loud when is a child
- Has to do with working memory, so we can process them
Davey, Pujol, & Harrison (2016) fMRI on DMN
- fMRI study looking for connections between self-related processes and DMN
- found significant overlaps in activation during the rest and self-referential conditions - much less overlap between these conditions and the no self-referential condition
Spreng & Grady (2010) pics and DMN
- fMRI study - all participants were shown phots of scenarios from everyday life
(self-referential, other-referential(family), prospection (future planning), control) - results: in all 3 experimental conditions, the DMN was highly active, much more so than in the control condition
- activation patterns of these 3 conditions overlapped significantly
Experience-sampling methodology (pros + cons)
- Research method whereby people systematically report on their experiences and how they are thinking about/ feeling about these experiences
- Pros: high ecological validity, can observe patterns in people’s behaviours/thoughts/emotions over time
- Cons: self-reported method, can be onerous for participants,
Rumination
- Form of repetitive thought in which we dwell on negative thoughts, feelings, memories, etc.
- Many see it as a way to “work through” things but no adaptive problem-solving takes place
- Particularly common when people are in a negative mood, and can worsen said mood
- People with significant ruminative tendencies have higher incidence of depression, anxiety, substance abuse problems, and other issues
Automaticty
- We are capable of engaging in some activities with little conscious attention (i.e., they become automatic). This is especially true of
mundane daily or highly practiced tasks
Stroop Task
Test on automaticity
The idea of once we are able to read, we automatically read
- Makes it difficult to break a habit
- Related to priming,
Reading activates the memory related to the word, what the colour look like
What happens when a process that was
once controlled becomes automatic? (2+2)
- Quantitative account: Schneider & Schiffrin (1977)
→ Suggests that when processes become automatic, it is because component processes get faster with practice - Qualitative account: Logan (1988)
→ Instance-based view: there is a fundamental change in the way tasks are performed when they become automatic
Tronsky (2005) multiplication problems
Had participants compute 60 different multiplication problems
(e.g., 9 x 17) 120 times each!
→ Periodically had participants report the strategies they were using to solve the calculation
→ Results: In early trials, participants reported formulaic/algorithmic strategies for multiplication.
Later trials involved retrieving previous solutions from memory
Consistent with qualitative account by Logan
Costs of automaticity
Mistakes can and do happen often when people are engaged in automatic tasks/processes
→ Referred to as action slips
Why do action slips happen? (Cost of Automaticity)
Suggestions built on idea that these activities are controlled by memory structures called schemas (i.e., “parent” schemas and “child” schemas)
Parent schema: going to school
Child schema: e.g. locking the door
Once action become highly skilled, only parent schema become activated
Types of action slips (5)
- One type of slip may occur when the next schema in the sequence fails to activate completely
→ Loss-of-activation error
→ Description error - Another type of slip may occur when an inappropriate schema is activated
→ Data-driven error
→ Capture error
→ Associative activation error
Loss-of-activation error
failure to initiate the next action in a sequence
(i.e., failure to activate the next child schema). Involves temporarily forgetting the goal of the activity
→ Walking into the next room and forgetting why you’re there
Description error
involves the incomplete activation of a new child schema.
Involves carrying out the correct action but on the wrong object
→ Putting things in the wrong places
→ Wanting to maximize your browser window but accidentally closing it instead
Data-driven error
Involves external interferences producing the activation of an inappropriate child schema
→ Accidentally typing out song lyrics when trying to do homework and listen to music at the same time
→ Stroop task
Capture error
When the intended action is similar to a highly practiced action, that highly-practiced schema is activated instead of the one that was intended
→ Forgetting to stop at 12 (i.e., going on to 13) when marking time
→ Music performance: memory slips that occur because a passage is similar to a highly practiced section of a different piece
e.g. on ice skate good at stopping, use the the same method in rollerskates
Associative activation error
A similar but inappropriate schema is activated. Similar to the capture error, but less personal, involves a related schema but not necessarily a more practiced one
→ Responding “You too!” when someone wishes you a Happy Birthday (even though it is not their birthday)
Action Slips
- One theory of action slips suggests that they tend to occur at “decision points” – the point in the overall parent schema where a new “child” schema must be initiated
- Can involve loss of activation in part or entirely, or the activation of an inappropriate child schema
Voice messaging while driving: Effects on driving performance
Monzer, Ali, Abou-Zeid, & Moacdieh (2022)
Purpose of the present study: To examine the impact of voice messaging while driving on driver performance and attentional allocation
→Hypothesis: The authors hypothesized that voice messaging while driving would be as detrimental as talking on the phone while driving, but not quite as detrimental as texting while driving
- Method
→Participants: 26 students (age 18-24)
→Driving simulator which recorded various performance metrics
→Eye tracker to record times when participant was looking at or away from the road
→Within subjects design – all participants performed in all four conditions (counterbalanced across participants) - Participants were required to respond to various arithmetic tasks either in a call, a text message, or a voice message (fourth condition: no messaging
– control) - Dependent variables:
→ Driving performance
→ Secondary task performance (i.e., addition)
→ Eye-tracking (how much time spent looking at the road)
→ Subjective measures (i.e., the NASA-TXL)
Results of Voice messaging while driving: Effects on driving performance
Monzer, Ali, Abou-Zeid, & Moacdieh (2022)
Results
→Non-parametric tests used!
Driving performance: no significance
Secondary task performance:
Arithmetic error rate –difference between text & call and text & voice, text having the lowest errors
Eye tracking measures:
Fraction of time looking at the road –difference between control & text, text & call, text & voice, text having lowest fraction of looking time
Number of fixations on road/minute –difference between control & text, text & call, call & voice, with text having lowest average fixations
Mean fixation duration on the road – text lowest mean fixation
Voice messaging is at least as bad as calling in terms of mental load
Texting had highest overall load
Drivers are unaware of the impact of voice messaging
→Effects on subjective perceptions of demand, effort, and frustration
Limitations of Voice messaging while driving: Effects on driving performance
Monzer, Ali, Abou-Zeid, & Moacdieh (2022)
The eye tracker only tracked when participants were looking out the front windshield but didn’t take into consideration when the participants could have been looking at the side mirrors
Not a realistic situation because it lacked an emotional component
Limited to young drivers which are typically higher in risk-taking than older populations
The type of phone given to participants may not have been familiar to them
Disproportionate number of male participants in this study (male drivers are typically higher in risk-taking behavior)
Is action video gaming related to sustained attention of adolescents?
Trisoloini, Petilli and Dani (2018)
Research Question: Is video gaming related to the sustained attention of adolescents?
Hypothesized that people who play action video games are accustomed to having so much stimuli at once that they would not have as much sustained attention for more tedious tasks
Participants: Adolescents, 45 participants (30 in non-action group and 15 in action group)
Gender: NAVGPs – 26 males and 4 females, AVGPs – 2 males and 13 females
Method:
Recruitment and pre-screening: Asked how many hours per week they play which video games. (Action video games vs non-action video games)
Responses put them into 2 groups: NAVGPs and AVGPs.
- NAVGPs = less than 1 hr/wk playing action video games over past 6 months (does not specify whether they spent time playing other types of videogames, unlike prior studies),
- AVGPs = over 7 hrs/wk playing action video games over last 6 months
Tasks: Visual enumeration task to find “accuracy breakpoint”, and jumping square task to assess response time
Visual enumeration task
task of spatial attention
- designed to find “accuracy breakpoint” (point at which participants switch from subitizing and counting
Subitize: to identify the number of things in a set simply by quickly looking at them—not by counting them one by one
Jumping square task
task of sustained attention
- Records number of “hits” (target correctly identified within 1s of presentation), “false alarm” , response time
Results of Is action video gaming related to sustained attention of adolescents?
Trisoloini, Petilli and Dani (2018)
AVGP outperformed NAVGP in terms of number of items they were able to subitize.
- Found results that were in line with previous research that video gaming is related to sustained attention.
- playing action video games has a positive effect on short-term visual capacity and -rehearsal processes
Limitations of Is action video gaming related to sustained attention of adolescents?
Trisoloini, Petilli and Dani (2018)
- The distribution of male and female participants were not balanced (between groups, more males in action group and more females in non-action)
- participant groups were not balanced (large discrepancy), no causation established due to research design (non-experimental)
- self-report questionnaires were used for pre-screening (may not be accurate)
Effect of focused attention and open monitoring meditation on attention network function in healthy volunteers
Ainsworth et al. (2013)
Research Question:
This study looked to directly compared the effects of Focused Attention (FA) and Open-Monitoring (OM) meditation on alerting, orienting and executive attention network function
Hypothesis:
- predicted that Focused Attention and Open Monitoring mindfulness practice would increase executive control (but not alerting/orienting) from baseline to follow-up compared to a relaxation control group (which would show no change)
- predicted greater improvement following focused attention given its emphasis on attentional acuity and efficient disengagement from distractor stimuli (such as flankers in the ANT)
Participants:
- 10 males and 66 females
- all naïve university students (university of Southampton)
- no experience in mindfulness meditation
Method
Pre/post test design :
Standardised questions of state and trait anxiety
attention control
Trait mindfulness
Did a flanker task too
After meditation re-did flanker as well as anxiety tests
In the focused attention meditation condition, participants were asked to focus their awareness on one particular place and maintain that focus.
In the open monitoring meditation condition, participants were asked to imagine their bodily sensations expanding, and generally trying to be aware of most if not everything in their immediate environment.
Results: Effect of focused attention and open monitoring meditation on attention network function in healthy volunteers
Ainsworth et al. (2013)
Evidence that integrated mindfulness-based interventions can improve executive control as measured by ANT
Focused attention and open monitoring meditation practice improves executive attention, selective rather than global effects
There was no change in self reports of mood and anxiety
Some are characterized by deficits in executive function
Limitations: Effect of focused attention and open monitoring meditation on attention network function in healthy volunteers
Ainsworth et al. (2013)
- Their control condition may not have been a proper control condition, as there could have been many possible confounds in the neural data (for example, visual sensory data). The authors recommend newer blinding procedures to guarantee proper data collection.
- `Possible that the extended emotional variant was not optimized to detect differences in FA and OM on orienting over time
Corrow et al. (2019) congenital amusia
Research Question/Hypothesis: whether
(tone deaf) occurred more frequently than expected by chance in developmental prosopagnosia, indicating an association between two seemingly independent deficits in different sensory modalities.
Participants
12 subjects (mean age 44.67) were recruited from www.faceblind.org without inquiry about their musical or voice processing abilities
25 subjects in the control group
Method
- 20-item Prosopagnosia Index (lifelong difficulty in face recognition)
- Cambridge Face Memory Test (Self-report)
- Famous and old/new test of familiarity for recently viewed faces
- All subjects not in the control group had best corrected visual acuity of 20/60 (normal visual fields) and they were determined to have normal general memory abilities as determined by 4 subtests of the Weschler Memory Scale-III (Objective), they also scored less than 32 on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (Self-report)
- Participants in the control group had to affirm before testing that they did not believe that they had any issues recognizing faces
- Voice-perception tests - 73 control subjects (50 female, mean age 33.6, range 19-70)
- Subjects were excluded if they had history of a neurological disorder or a visual acuity worse than 20/60
Results of Corrow et al. (2019): Prosopagnosia and amusia
Results: Generally, people with prosopagnosia had more trouble with music related perception.
- Rhythmic and pitch-related discrimination specifically were noted as areas of underperformance
- Tone-deafness occurred at a higher rate in prosopagnosia participants, important to keep in mind the small sample size
– Lowest amount of musical training in three main prosopagnosia participants that underperformed - Theories that perceptual issues connected to amusia, and prosopagnosia are related to a “clustering of perceptual disorders…” that are primarily located in the right hemisphere
- Confirmed double dissociation between pitch processing and voice recognition in two participants with prosopagnosia
Limitations of Corrow et al. (2019) (amusia)
- Group of interest was very small, main three subjects that displayed deficits related to amusia also had the lowest amount of musical training
- Control group was not subjected to the same level of assessment compared to Prosopagnosia group
