Focussed attention

Question 1

Define focused and divided attention

Answer 1

Focussed attention/selective attention= an attempt to only attend to one source of information while ignoring other stimuli.

Divided attention = two streams of input are presented simultaneosly and individuals have to respond to all these inputs. (multi tasking)

Question 2

Posner (1980) argued that focused visual attention is like what?

Answer 2

A SPOTLIGHT

Question 3

How did Eriksen and St James (1986) modified the spotlight approach to focused visual attention

Answer 3

Zoom lens model, visual attention is more flexible, able to adjust, e.g driving a car and a hazard appears

Question 4

Describe the multiple spotlights / split attention view

Answer 4

our vision can be split into multiple spotlights which could save processing resources by avoiding irrelavant regions

Question 5

Discuss Muller et al.’s (2003) study’s findings that support Eriksen and St. James’ zoom lens model (1986)

Answer 5

ppts had accurate detection of objects when the attended region was large, and limited when the region was small

Question 6

Describe the evidence reported by La Berge (1983) that supports Eriksen and St. James’ zoom lens model (1986) theory

Answer 6

faster response times for 3rd letter of 5 letter word experiment in the narrow beam condition but no response time difference when beam was broader.

Question 7

Discuss the study by Awh and Pashler (2000) in supporting split attention

Answer 7

• digit presented between 2 cued locations
• zoom lens theory says how maximul attention will include the gap.
• results showed that the detection of the digit in the gap was very poor, while cued area was high, so supports split attention

Question 8

Explain how O’Craven et al. (1999) tested the hypothesis that attention is object-based

Answer 8

• fmri study
• shown photo of a face and photo of a house on top of each other
• supports object based attention because when told to focus on the house, they did and vice verca
• if location based assumption was correct then ppts would focus on both

Question 9

Describe Egly et al. (1994) popular task to examine whether attention is object- or location-based.

Answer 9

• a time response task to detect stimulus in 2 rectangles after cued of most likely position
• results show attention is partially object based as faster detection in same rectangle

Question 10

Describe Hollingworth et al (2012) experiment to test the hypothesis that attention can be both location-based as well as object-based.

Answer 10

• 3 within object cues varying in distance between the cue and the target
• location is important, and how far away it is

Question 11

What happens to unattended visual stimuli

Answer 11

unattended visual stimuli are processed less

Question 12

What were the two factors identified by Lavie (2005, 1010) that are thought to increase susceptibility to distraction?

Answer 12

• low perceptual load
• high cognitive load (how busy you are in your head)