Cognitive Psychology Lecture 11-12 Flashcards
What is the psychological function of spatial attention?
To assign limited capacity resources to locate stimuli among distractors
What is the difference between “pop-out” effect and “non pop-out” effect?
“pop-out” effect = Parallel search, Mean RT does not increase with display size, when 1 feature is enough to identify object
“non pop-out” effect = Serial search, Mean RT increases proportional to display size increase, more than 1 feature needed to identify stimulus, requires attention.
Slope for target absent (search all targets then come to conclusion) steeper than slope for target present (search about 1/2 of targets before finding).
2:1 Slope ratio
What is Feature Intergration theory? + Person
Treisman & Gelade (1980)
- Role of attention is to bind perceptual features into perceptual compounds that function as w whole rather than its individual parts
- Illusory conjunction: prone to saying something is 2 things even if we don’t know if there is such a thing
- Feature targets: don’t need binding, don’t need focused attention (Parallel search)
- Conjunction targets: need feature binding, so need focused attention (Serial Search)
What is the difference between Conjuction targets and Feature targets?
Conjunction targets = serial search, require cognition, need feature binding
Feature targets = Parallel search, don’t require cognition, don’t need feature binding
Name one problem with Feature integration theory. + Person
Sometimes pop-out is depedent on complex object properties, not just simple ones
Enns & Rensink (1990): pop out effect for 3D boxes but not the 2D features.
not cf with FIT
Describe Guided Search Theory + Person
Wolfe (1989): uses 2 stages - parallel search (for candidate list) - then non pop-out Serial search (search the candidate list). - Similar targets – inefficient search. - Dissimilar targets- efficient search
What experiment shows the failure of focused attention? (Hint: Colour)
Stroop task
percieve both colour and word, slows people down when asked to do task that only requires telling colour of ink.
Eriksen Flanker task
What is the Stroop effect?
- Slow when doing Stroop task b/c Word processing is faster/automatic/does not require capacity than colour processing.
- Read word instead of colour of ink.
- Word reading (faster) inhibits colour identification (slower)
Explain what Shriffen & Schneider did to understand Automatic vs Controlled processing.
- Could not make automatic if targets kept changing (used letters)
- Varied mapping (VM) - targets on some trials were distractors on others. effortful
- Consistent mapping (CM) - became automatic regardless of memory set and display size
Describe the Eriksen Flanker Task and it’s findings.
Identify middle letter under compatible, neutral and incompatible trials
RT (Compatible) < RT (neutral) < RT (Incompatible)
Incompatible slowest (E E E E E E E)
Implies parallel processing of conjunction stimuli
this phenomemnon decrease with spatial seperation of ~1-1.5 degrees. (out of spotlight, if within spotlight, processed automatically and better)
What is the phenomenon described as “The Attentional Blink”?
Decline in performance for T2 because of T1
T1- white letter
T2- X
Asked to report the white letter, then asked if there was the letter ‘X’ present.
100ms exposure per item
if T1 is ignore, then there is no “attentional blink”
Worst performance not immediately after T1 but some time later, effect takes time to build up and lasts 600ms
According to Welford’s (1952,1967) Single Channel Theory, what effect does decision making impose on attention and performance?
- Decision making requires time,
- Imposes bottleneck on performance
- Makes us temporarily insensitive to other targets
What is negative priming? + Person + Findings + Implication
Tipper (1985)
- Being forced to ignore something but later having to identify it as the target.
- RT slower if negatively primed.
- showed that ignored object must have been perceived and stored (cf with late selection!
What evidence is there that attention is object based? + Person
- Rock & Guttman (1981):
- overlapping pictures (Trumpet/kite & Anchor/Trumpet)
- rate aesthetic appeal of one object and ignore other
- memory only for rated object and no memory for ignored object.
- SHOWED: attention is object based, not spatial - Duncan (1984):
- Stimuli differs on 4 attributes (box size, gap size, line slant, dotted or dashed line)
- more accurate in reporting when same object, stimuli occupy same region of space - Cuing object-based attention (Egly, Driver & Rafal, 1994)
- mean RT to miscued stimuli in same object faster than if out of object (even though distance from cue is equal) - Effects of Occluding bar (Moore, Yantis & Vaughan, 1998)
- occluding bar: still find same object advantage with mean RT to miscued stimuli - Neuroimaging of faces & Houses
- overlaying images of house + face
- Fusiform (faces) more active when concentrating on faces
- Parahippocampal (houses) more active when concentrating on houses
Which area of the brain is implicated during spatial neglect?
Right Parietal lobe - “where” pathway
Results in left visual neglect
can't do cancellation task on left side can't draw clock & house details on left failure to dress left side of body failure to shave left side of face failure to disengage and shift (reorient) attention (voluntarily)
