Lecture 4 - Attention Mechanisms and Processes Flashcards
What is inattentional blindness?
Failure to notice a change in the env that is in PLAIN SIGHT
because of a lack of attention
(not a problem w the visual system)
Police & follow the runner but did you see any fights (during night and day) example
Where we direct our attention directly informs our :
perceptions, memories, problem solving abilities, ability to efficiently communicate
What are the 3 theories of attention?
Attention is -
A filter
A spotlight
A feature binder
Attention as a filter
Im hungry - you see food shops whilst walking down street and not clothes shops
Attention becomes a filter related to our goals, info filters out
Attention is limited by the amount of information we can focus on at a particular time
How does Attention act as a filter? (Broadbent’s model)
Attention enters a Sensory Buffer Store
One of these inputs are selected further for further processing based on its physical characteristics - done thru the Selective Filter
The info passing thru the filter goes to higher level processing and meaning is extracted from the input ie what does this smell mean?
Then info goes to working memory to go thru further processing and will affect our behaviour
What is the Selective Filter?
Bottleneck)
Unattended info cant pass thru filter
Inputs not selected by the filter remain in the store and decay rapidly
Info that passes thru filter reaches higher level processing where meaning is extracted from that input and all other inputs are completely ignored after this point
What does the Sensory Buffer Store do?
(identifies physical characteristics eg loudness)
has unlimited capacity
What does the Higher Level processing do?
Extracts meaning from the input ie what does this sound/image/smell mean?
What evidence supports Broadbents Selective Filter Model?
Shadowing tasks = we dont process unattended information
Different auditory stimulus is played in each ear
Participants only report the information they hear in one ear
Ps struggle to recall the message played in the unattended ear
Treisman’s attenuation theory of attention
Selective Filter is replaced by Attenuating Filter where filters inputs for further processing based on their physical characteristics
The Bottleneck is unattended inputs still pass thru but weakly
Higher level processing is replaced by Dictionary Unit where Higher level processing based on meaning/language/ physical characteristics
What is the Dictionary Unit?
Inputs are given a threshold value, low thresholds are more likely to capture attention even if they aren’t being attended to
eg hearing your name called from another room
What is the difference between the Treisman’s model and Broadbent’s model?
Broadbent’s model > Inputs ignored based on physical characteristics and no meaning is given to ignored inputs
(Selective Filter, Higher Level Processing)
Treisman’s model > replace selective filter w Attenuating filter, and replace higher level processing with dictionary unit
Inputs attenuated based on physical characteristics
ALL inputs that make it through the filter are given a threshold value = determines if they capture attention
What is the cocktail party effect?
If someone calls ur name from across the room youll hear them
Filter out extraneous noises to focus on conversations with your friends
Some inputs make it through the filter even if we’re not attending to them
What is attentional spotlight?
Talk ab intentional spotlight we move to focus on something
Target detection study (Laberge)
an example of attention as a spotlight
more attentional resources to the centre and more diffuse attentional processing to the periphery
What might shift our attention spotlight?
Environmental cues
2 types
What are the two types of environmental cues?
Endogenous Cues
Exogenous Cueing
What are endogenous cues?
Cues that shift our attention spotlight
Symbolic of a target location
^Indicates where a target may appear
Can voluntarily follow the cue, w the help of endogenous symbol cueing attention (cat)
Centrally presented
What is exogenous cueing?
Automatically captures attention
Appears in the location of a target
Peripherally presented
Differences between endogenous and exogenous cues?
Endogenous - Voluntary, Slow, Driven by internal goals
Exogenous - Automatic, Rapid, Driven by external events in the environment
What is a valid endogenous cue?
Valid cue = indicates where the target will appear
What is a valid exogenous cue?
Indicates where the target will appear (flash, then cat) appears in location of object
same location
What is Inhibition of Return?
Inhibition of return delays attention returning to previous locations
bc of the long delay, move our attention away from the target location
slower to detect targets at the cued location
Important to explore the entirety of your environment
What is feature integration theory?
You have your environment
Separate features identified based on physical characteristics eg clour, shape, sound.
Attention combines these features to create meaning
What is stroop task?
Naming colours even tho difficulty to suppress automatic tendency to read
What is a visual search task?
Parallel search task as an example - searching for one feature
What is a parallel search task?
Can quickly and accurately identify objects based on one feature
What is conjunction search?
Searching for more than one feature
What is the Pop Out effect?
We are faster to find an object if it has features different to the rest of the scene
What is Local processing?
Focus on
Small, fine details
Narrow attentional spotlight
What is Global Processing?
Focus on
Large scale, big picture
Broaden your attentional spotlight
Local/global processing task?
Navon task
What areas of the brain play an important role in directing attention between local and global information?
Right posterior parietal cortex
