Factors impacting Attention Flashcards
Attention
Characteristics associated with consciousness, awareness, and cognitive effort as they relate to the performance of skills, with particular reference to limitations associated with these characteristics on the simultaneous performance of multiple skills, and the detection of relevant information in the environment
Attention
What we are thinking about, or what we are not thinking about
What are we aware of, or what are we not aware of when performing a motor task
Amount of cognitive effort we put into performing activities
How much attention is available?
Limited capacity
When we go above our limited capacity there is..
interference
Theories of attention -
Central Resource Capacity Theories
Multiple Resource Theories
Central Resource Capacity Theories
One pool of attention
Kahneman’s attention theory
Multiple Resource Theories
Multiple pools of attention
Wicken’s Theory
Difference btw the theories of attention
Where the resource limit exists
Kahneman’s Theory
Older theory
One big central reserve for attention where all activities compete but it is flexible and depends on level of arousal
Kahnemans theory - what gets the attention from the central pool reserve
- Involuntary (naturally attract attention) Novel, visual, or auditory
- Momentary intentions (persons specific intentions or therapists)
- Demands of the task
Wickens
There is not one resource, there are multiple
Input can be visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory
You can multitask as long as the two tasks are from different channels
Wickens Theory - Multiple Resources (MRT) - Input/Output modalities
Visual, auditory, tactile, stimuli
Output - motor/body, speech
Wckens Theory - Multiple Resources (MRT) - Stages of information processing
Stimulus of identification/perception
Response selection/memory encoding
Wickens Theory - Interference depends on
Whether the tasks demand attention from a common resource or from different resources
Wickens Theory - when 2 tasks share a common resource and must be performed simultaneously
They are performed less well than if they 2 tasks were from different resources
Wickens vs Kahneman
Wickens = currently accepted, consistent with neuro evidence Kahneman = adds flexible capacity based on arousal
Both of the theories
Multiple pools of attention, each pool affected by arousal level
Focusing attention
directing resources to specific aspects of performance or the environment
Attentional focus has to do with what
Width and direction
Width - attentional focus
Amount of information and size of perceptual field
Can be broad or narrow
Broad width
Where the performer needs to attend to a large quantity of information
Scanning field for someone to pass to
Narrow width
Attention is directed to 1 or 2 locations or cues
The person you are going to pass it to
Direction - attentional focus
Direction
External or Internal
External Direction
Attends to information in the environment
Walking in the community
Internal Direction
Internal thoughts, feelings
Who has disadvantage with attentional switching
patients, OA, kids
Is it better to focus pts attention to their own movements (internal) or on the effect of their movement (external)
The effect of their movement
External
The goal - always cue for the goal and for the intended movement
Attention Effect Hypothesis
Actions are best planned and controlled by their intended effects
Attention Effect Hypothesis - Effects include
the goal
where you are wanting to throw something, dance…
How to direct their attention to movement outcome?
Discovery learning or Metaphoric imagery
Discovery learning
Give the goal, let them experiment, trial and error to get the goal
The more info they get about their movement, the worse
Metaphoric imagery
giving metaphoric imagery as cues
Which has better outcomes? discovery or metaphoric
discovery
When a skill is automatic there is
less demands on attentional capacity
Automated through practice
Neurologically - automated through practice
Motor control shifts from cerebral cortex to basal ganglia and cerebellum so frees up frontal cortex for something else
Attention in children - Attentional Capcity
Decreased
Attn in children - selective attention
infants prefer faces, sharp contrasts, colors
Attention in children 2 to 5 yrs
Narrow - they exclude info
Attention in children 6-11 yrs
Too broad - they take in too much
Dont knwo relevant from irrelevant
Too musch info to process
Attention in older adults -
More interference in dual tasks
Dec capacity and Dec # of brain cells
Less automated - lack of use
Attention and older adults - selective attention
Dec dividing attn btw multiple display items
Dec inhibition of distractors
Dec switching btw situations
Dec exec processing (prefrontal lobe)
