L4: Attention Flashcards
What are the two types of attention?
Selective: attending to one thing while ignoring others.
Divided: paying attention to more than one thing at a time
What is dichotic listening?
Research method.
One message is presented to the left ear and another to the right ear (shadowing / dichotic listening).
Participant “shadows” one message to ensure he is attending to that message (selective listening + repeating attended message).
What are the results of the dichotic listening research method?
Participants cannot report the content of the message in unattended ear BUT:
Knew that there was a message
Knew the gender of the speaker.
Hence, the unattended ear is being processed at some level:
Cocktail party effect
Change in voice is noticed.
Change to a tone is noticed.
What are the 3 models of selective attention?
Early selection model
Intermediate selection model
Late selection model
Give an example of an early selection model (selective attention)
Broadbent’s filter model
Give an example of the intermediate selection model (selective attention)
Treisman’s attenuation model
Give an example of the late selection model (selective attention)
MacKay (1973)
Explain Broadbent’s Filter Model.
Early selection model:
Filters message before incoming information is analyzed for meaning.
What are the 4 steps of Broadbent’s Filter Model
1.Sensory memory
Holds all incoming information for a fraction of a second
Transfers all information to next stage
2.Filter
Identifies attended message based on physical characteristics
Only attended message is passed on to the next stage
- Detector
Processes all information to determine higher-level characteristics of the message. - Detector
Processes all information to determine higher-level characteristics of the message.
What are the limitations of Broadbent’s model?
It cannot explain the cocktail party phenomenon: the ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out others.
Cannot explain why ppts can shadow meaningful messages that switch from one ear to another.
Explain Treisman’s attenuation model
Attended messages can be separated from unattended messages early in the information-processing system.
Selection can also occur later.
Introduction of the Attenuator to replace Broadbent’s filter.
Analyzes incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning.
Attended message is let through the attenuator at full strength.
What is treisman’s dictionary unit?
Contains words, each of which has a threshold for being activated.
Words that are common or important have low thresholds.
Uncommon words have high thresholds.
Explain MacKay’s (1973) late selection model
In attended ear, participants heard ambiguous sentences. (e.g.: “They were throwing stones at the bank.”). In unattended ear, participants heard either “river” or “money.”
Participants chose which was closest to the meaning of attended message:
“They threw stones toward the side of the river yesterday.”
“They threw stones at the savings and loan association yesterday.”
The meaning of the biasing word affected participants’ choice, while participants were unaware of the presentation of the biasing words.
What is the load theory of attention?
Processing capacity: how much information a person can handle
Perceptual load (difficulty of task)
What is the stroop test?
Stroop effect
Name of the word interferes with the ability to name the ink color.
Cannot avoid paying attention to the meanings of the words.
This is because reading is highly trained and automatized!
What is meant by inattentional blindness?
Stimuli that are not attended are not perceived, even though a person might be looking directly at it
What is Balint’s syndrome?
Bilateral parietal lesions.
Patients fail to comprehend all but one of simultaneously presented objects at the same location.
Condition is object-based, not location-based.
