Determinants of Selective Attention ***

Question 1

What determines what we pay attention to?

Answer 1

Top-down goals
‘Bottom-up properties of stimuli
Value-Selection History

Question 2

What is Biased Competition Theory

Answer 2

Desimone & Duncan (1995)

Top-down attentional control mechanisms (what you’re trying to focus on)
↓
competition among multiple stimuli for representation -> output to response and memory systems
↑
Bottom-up sensory driven mechanism sensitive to stimulus salient (what everything else is in attention grabbing)

Question 3

What kind of stimuli can ‘capture’ our attention?

Answer 3

• Stimuli of high salience
• Movement/ ‘abrupt onset’
• Things that are relevant to us/relate to our values

Question 4

What is Salient colour singletons (“odd one out”)

Answer 4

Things that different in one dimension = salience

Theeuwes (1992) = Singleton Attentional Capture Task.
- colour = irrelevant to shape-based search task
- top-down mechanisms = should be able to focus only shapes
- results = no, singleton increases reaction time = complete top-down selectivity is not possible

Question 5

What is Theeuwes (1992) Stimulus-driven selection model?

Answer 5

Based on Drawing on traditional two-stage approach proposed by Broadbent, 1968; Treisman and Gelade, 1980

Suggests bottom-up before top-down. Different to other models = suggest same time. Can’t ignore override salient bc top-down later.

First stage =Initial sweep across visual field, entirely bottom-up + calculation of local salience (how much does everything differ from the image?)

Second stage = is this salient item what I’m looking for? If not, top-down suppress it

Question 6

What is the Saliency map?

Answer 6

Koch & Ullman, 1985
Makes a map of what is there and decided what is different
Surf line well-represented as it contrasts = intensity, orientation, colour

Question 7

What does Theeuwes (1992) Stimulus-driven selection model look like?

Answer 7

Top-down modulation
↓↓↓
Calculation of Most salient Is this what I (YES) = output to
local –> item –> was looking –> response +
salience selected for? memory systems

↑↑↑ ↓↓↓ (NO)
Bottom-up input <–

Question 8

What is the role of the ‘attentional window’?

Answer 8

Stimulus-driven selection = within attentional window

Spatial cues can vary size of attentional window

Singletons outside cued location do not capture attention (e.g. Theeuwes, 1991)

Question 9

What is Contigent capture?

Answer 9

Folk and Remington (1992)

Attentional capture NOT stimulus-driven (radical departure)
Attention = only captured by stimuli relevant to our goals

(Although in some case = this relevance of attention may be less obvious)

Question 10

How did Folk and Remington (1992) test contingent capture?

Answer 10

Task to look for a target, = and X
Target = unique onset or colour (appeared when there something wasn’t there)
Cue = either onset or colour

Question 11

What was the result of continent capture?

Answer 11

Invalid cues produced slower RTs ( attentional capture)

BUT contingent on relation to task:
– Colour cues capture attention when target was defined on
colour
– Onset cues captures attention when target was defined on
onset
– But not vice versa….

Suggests attentional capture dependent on task goals

Question 12

What Theeuwes’ respond to Folk and Remington’s about colour singleton?

Answer 12

It was irrelevant to task = to do with the goals
Target was defined by shape – therefore colour should be irrelevant

Question 13

What are the criticisms of the continent theory?

Answer 13

Bacon & Egeth (1994) = earch for singleton shape –> singleton detection search strategy = i.e. “spot the odd one out”

Therefore, singleton colour IS relevant to top down goals

Expt: Shape target no longer singleton

Result: Colour singleton no longer interferes

Question 14

What did Theeuwes (2004) respond to Bacon and Egeth (1994)

Answer 14

Bacon & Egeth’s task reduced local salience of singleton = bottom-up properties aren’t the same

Colour singleton DOES interfere when target non-singleton IF local salience is maintained

Question 15

What is abrupt onsets?

Answer 15

Something which suddenly appears

Another theory: Only abrupt onsets can produce stimulus driven capture

Should be irrelevant to top-down goals

Question 16

what are the results of abrupt onsets?

Answer 16

Jonides & Yantis, 1988.
Singleton = not predictive of target location
Targets = offsets

Found abrupt onsets = attentional capture in a new location + colour singleton didn’t

Popular theory + strongest evidence = evolutionary perspective says for predators

Question 17

What does Gibson & Kelsey, 1998 show?

Answer 17

Attention tasks = begin w/ some kind of change to display = Task stimuli onset, or offset, or change colour etc

This induce general “display-wide” settings for waiting for dynamic changes + including onsets

Hard to think of any experimental task not involving any change to the display

Question 18

Can attentional capture occur without physical salience?

Answer 18

Yes - meaning/ personal relevence can cause attentional capture
Purvis, Lester and Field (2011) = spider-phobics showed attentional by spiders vs Doctor Who fans showed attentional capture Doctor Who images

Question 19

How does familiarity/ expertise influence attention?

Answer 19

Experts in American football faster to notice changes in football-related images (Werner & Thies, 2010)

Expert musicians are more distracted by musical instruments (Ro, Friggel & Lavie, 2009)

More recent theories highlight the role of ‘selection history’ or reward associations.

Question 20

How is stimuli associated with value capture selection?

Answer 20

Training people to associate a reward with a colour
Colour = capture attention

Question 21

Compare the different attentional capture?

Answer 21

Initial selection is entirely bottom-up
– Only abrupt onsets can produce bottom-up attentional capture
– Attentional capture is entirely contingent on top-down settings