Lecture 4 - Attention & Performance

Question 1

What is attention?

Answer 1

• A resource (or pool of resources) that is available & that can be used for various purposes
• The ways in which attentional resources are allocated define how we use attention
• Consider the limitations in doing two things at the same time

Question 2

What is limitations in stimulus identification?

Answer 2

• In the stimulus identification stage, some sensory information can be processed in parallel & without interference
• Different aspects of the visual display (Stroop effect)
• Different auditory information (“Cocktail party” effect)

Question 3

What are 4 limitations in stimulus identification?

Answer 3

• strop effect
• cocktail-part effect
• inattentional blindness
• sustained attention

Question 4

How does the stroop effect limit stimulus identification?

Answer 4

• Asked to respond as quickly as possible by naming the font colour in which words are printed
• Defining that it requires more time to name the colours when there is a conflicting relationship
• Due to the competition between the name of font colour and the name of the word in the list
• Performance is slowed because the 2 stimuli will compete for different responses

Question 5

How does the cocktail-part effect limit stimulus identification?

Answer 5

• different auditory information
• illustrates that even some unattended features of sensory processing are processed in parallel with other attended information in the early stages of sensory processing

Question 6

How does inattentional blindness limit stimulus identification?

Answer 6

• We can miss seemingly obvious features in our environment when we are engaged in a goal-directed, attentive visual search
• A number of automobile accidents seem linked to this phenomenon (e.g., “looked-but-failed-to-see” accidents)

Question 7

How does sustained attention limit stimulus identification ?

Answer 7

• After a period of time, the task of concentrating on a single target of our attention becomes progressively more difficult
• Motivation, arousal, fatigue, and environmental factors affect vigilance

Question 8

What are 3 factors in limitations in response selection ?

Answer 8

• controlled processing
• automatic processing
• distracted driving

Question 9

How does controlled processing limit response selection?

Answer 9

• Slow, attention demanding, serially organized, and volitional
• Effortful & a large part of conscious information-processing activities
• Performing two information-processing tasks together can disrupt one or both tasks

Question 10

How does automatic processing limit response selection?

Answer 10

• Fast, not attention demanding, Does not generate much interference with other tasks
• Organized in parallel, Involuntary and often unavoidable, The result of a lot of practice
• effective when the environment is stable and predictable
• Can lead to terrible errors when the environment changes suddenly

Question 11

How does distracted driving limit response selection?

Answer 11

• Hands-free versus manual handling of a cell phone
• Assumption: hand operation of a cell phone interferes with the operation of a motor vehicle (movement programming limitation)
• Actual source of the problem lies in the capacity demanded by the phone conversation

Question 12

What are 3 limitations in movement programming?

Answer 12

• psychological refractory period (PRP)
• double stimulation paradigm
• the probe-task technique

Question 13

How does the psychological refractory period limit movement programming?

Answer 13

• The motor system processes the first of two closely spaced stimuli & generates the first response
• If the second stimulus is presented during processing of the first stimulus & its response, the onset of the second response can be delayed

Question 14

How does the double stimulation paradigm limit movement programming?

Answer 14

• The participant is required to respond, with separate responses, to each of two stimuli presented very closely together in time
• Delays in responding occur because of the interference in programming the first and second movements as rapidly as possible

Question 15

How does the probe-task technique limit movement programming?

Answer 15

• The participant performs one task, called the primary task
• At a strategic point during performance of the primary task, the attention demanded in the main task is probed by presenting a secondary task
• Use the RT to the probe as a measure of the attention demanded by the primary task