Lecture 6 - Attention Flashcards
What does it mean to pay attention
to pay attention means to focus or to concentrate (consciousness
what is attention
attention is a process of directing and focussing psychological resources (usually voluntarily) to enhance information processing, performance, and mental experience
the searchlight hypothesis
people can attend to only one region of space at a time
People can shift their spotlight of attention from location to location, independent of eye position, and adjust the size of the attended region like a zoom lens
the processes of attention are…
serial in nature and therefore subject to interference
and associated with properties of (psychological) effort and arousal
relate attention and information processing for high level skilled performers
- > there is typically a lot of information/input from the surroundings
- > some of information is more important/relevant to the task being performed
- > the performer must therefore shift their attention amongst the relevant sources of info and prioritize/select which information to focus on
the capacity for attention, and the attention capacity for information processing of the primary task are both _______
limited, attention available for the secondary task will always be less than 100%
what are the two different types of interferences that affect the information processing requirements
Capacity interference and structural interference
Capacity interference vs Structural interference
Capacity Interferences
- > occurs because of the limits of central resources
Structural interferences
- > occurs when two physical (and neural) structures are required for different tasks
what is serial processing
one bit of information is processed before the next bit (i.e. Hicks Law, Fitts’ law)
one stage of information processing is completed before the next stage begins
one task is processed before the next task
characteristics of serial processes
Serial processes
- > are attention demanding
- > produce interference
*interference results in increases in time and/or increases in error
parallel processing
- > with parallel processes, two or more bits of information/tasks are processes at the same time
- > PP are not attention demanding and do not produce interference
serial vs parallel processes
stroop effect
The interference between the different information your brain receives causes a problem.
- > the meaning/association of the word interferes with identifying and naming the colour
- > the information processing of the relevant form occurs in series and the information processing of the irrelevant form occurs in parallel
cocktail/house party effect
the meaning of the stimulus grabs and redirects attention to the new stimulus
- > you’re talking to someone and you hear your name so your attention is redirected to the other convo instead of the one you’re having
selective attention allows for ____
allows attention to be drawn to “wanted” sources of information and prevents attention from being drawn to “unwanted” sources of information
- > attention may be voluntary or involuntary
controlled vs automatic information processing and response selection
double stimulation paradigm (psychological refractory period
the double stimulation paradigm involves presenting two different stimuli in brief succession of each other
- > each stimulus requires a different response (S1-R1 and S2-R2)
- > after the second stimulus is presented, the delay associated with responding to the second stimulus is known as the psychological refractory period
