Lecture 7 Flashcards
what is Apophenia
Seeing meaning in the meaningless
explain Top-down processing
¤Expectations based on the context in which you are perceiving
¤ The letter in context effect
¤We can still read wrods that aren’t spelled corectly in sentences
¤The color in context effect
¤ We see colors differently depending on the condition (e.g. lighting)
can emotion affect visual perception
yes– an example of top down processing
what was the experiment done with emotions impacting visual perception
¤ The perception of visual angles changes with fear
¤ Participants stood at the top of a hill on a skateboard
¤ They estimated the slant of the hill
¤ Those who were scared judged (perceived) the hill as steeper
can perception of colour change with emotion
yes
Being in sad mood makes it more difficult to perceive blue than when in a happy mood
in short, what is the difference between top down and bottom up processing
¤Top-down processing
¤ You let your model of the world influence your perception
¤Bottom-up processig
¤ You build perception into a model of the the world
What is them most used definition of attention?
Processes we use to monitor information
What are some characteristics of attention?
¤ Flexible ¤ Voluntary ¤ Limited
Why is there is not a clear consensus about the definition (or existence) of attention?
¤ Attention acts in concert with other cognitive processes (it coincides with other things that are happening; such as perceiving something) attention is not a stand-alone
¤ We must study something else (e.g., perception) to study attention
what are the Components of attention
top-down attentional modulation
bottom-up attention competition
arousal mechanicsm
what is top-down attentional modulation essentially
Observer guides attention -controlled attention (like when you want to pay attention in class, you have a GOAL and a MOTIVATION to do so)
what is arousal mechanisms essentially
Alerting attention -awareness (like amount of stress– too much and too little is bad but there is a happy medium that is optimal)
what is this lecture going to focus on with regard to attention (which component)
top-down attentional modulation
what are the 3 types of Top-down attention
¤ Selective attention
¤ Sustained attention
¤ Divided attention
what is Selective attention
¤ Attending to one thing while ignoring everything else (irrelevant information)
(choosing to only focus on lecture)
what is Sustained attention
¤ Maintaining focus on a particular task or stimuli
¤ Vigilance
(security at airports have to maintain for long periods of time)
what is Divided attention
¤ Shifting attentional focus between tasks
¤ Effectively multi-tasking
(watching movie and eating popcorn)
define selective attention
Attending to relevant information and ignoring irrelevant (distracting) information
why is selective attention a necessary function
A necessary function because we have a limited amount of processing ability ¤ We need to select what is important for further processing
this is a bottle neck approach– we get a LOT of info, but focus only on the important things
what are the Problems with selective attention
Focusing on one task causes filtering out of other information
Inattentional blindness
what is Inattentional blindness
the failure to notice a fully-visible object because your attention is engaged somewhere else
what is Another way to view selective attention
Not processing what is considered distracting information
what is Space-based attention
“The spotlight of attention” metaphor
¤ Attention zeroes in on a particular region in space
(like a spotlight, we focus on one thing and ignore the rest)
what is the criticism of Space-based attention
we don’t always attend to information along a path
¤ We can move attention from object to object
¤ Attention ‘jumps’ in space
(if this was true, then we should be have attention all the way to the next thing we focus on but it is not that case)
what are other names for Spatial neglect
Also called hemispatial or unilateral neglect
what causes Spatial neglect
Damage to higher order visual areas in the
parietal lobes
¤ Integrates of sensory information
¤ Top down processing of spatial information
¤ Directs spatial attention (this is all damaged)
what is Spatial neglect
There is a neglect or inattention to spatial information in ‘contralesional’ space
Spatial neglect when what side of the brain is damaged
Neglect is more severe following right hemisphere damage ¤ Right hemisphere is specialized for spatial processing
Spatial neglect impacts what sensory modality
It can occur across sensory modalities (not just vision) (this is why it is thought to be an attention deficit)
is Spatial neglect due to impairments in lower-level visual processing
It is NOT due to impairments in lower-level visual processing
Symptoms and internal representations of spatial neglect
¤ Left side of the world does not exist
¤ Read only part of a word that is on the
right side
¤ Eat from one side of the plate
¤ There is a bias in description of imaginations and memories
¤ Pointing out deficits doesn’t fix it
what is object based attention theory
move attention based on objects/features (the WHAT)
what does the spotlight theory focus on
move attention based on spaces (the WHERE)
what does Object based attention theory tell us about how the brain processes information/attention
¤ Face-selective cortical processing when attention directed to faces
¤ Place-selective cortical processing when attention directed to houses
what is the basic idea of all filter models of attention
¤ There is a filter in our information-processing pipeline ¤ Prevents us from becoming overloaded
what is the main difference between filter models of attention
¤ Where does attention ‘act’ along the processing pipeline? ¤ Where is this filter?
what is the agreed upon flow of attention to the brain (that all filter models work around)
stimuli– registration– perceptual analysis– semantic analysis– response
who came up with the Early Selection model
Broadbent
what is the early selection model (broadbent)
You don’t interpret what is not being attended
the filter is on ‘perceptual analysis’
what experiment went with broadbent’s early selection model
Dichotic listening tasks
explain Dichotic listening tasks
¤ Present participants with 2 simultaneous messages – one to each ear
¤ E.g., pairs in digits
¤ Participants are better able to recall digits
ear by ear compared to pair by pair
¤ Better at remembering 2,5,6 and 8,4,1 than the pairs 2,8 then 5,4 then 6,1
what was the result of Dichotic listening tasks
¤ This is evidence that information is selected at the physical level (the ear)
¤ Filtering occurs early on in processing
what was the experiment that did a version of the dichotic listing tasks and further provided evidence for the early filter model
same thing but they used actual sentences instead and told people to listen to only one ear and identify what was said
what was the result of the shadowing tasks (the spin off of dichotic listening tasks)
¤ People do not remember the content of the unattended message
¤ They don’t notice if that unattended message was in a foreign language
¤ But they notice perceptual features of the unattended message
¤ They notice if there was a new noise; They are able to identify the sex of the speaker
¤ This is evidence that unattended information is not processed for meaning (semantics)
what is some Evidence against the early filter
¤We seem to process the meaning of unattended information in certain situations
¤At a party, you can attend to one conversation and hear your name from a non-attended-to conversation
¤The meaning of unattended information (your name) is analyzed for meaning and not just for perceptual features
what was the experiment done to provide evidence against the early filter model
¤Von Wright et al (1975)
¤ Phase one: participants were presented with a word (e.g., apple) + electric shock
¤ Phase two: A shadowing task with the ‘shocked’ word in the unattended message
¤ Participants had increased skin conductance – indicating arousal - when the ‘shocked’ word was presented in the unattended ear
what is Treisman’s Attenuation Theory
¤ An early filter model that states that the the filter attenuates (turns down) unattended information (not an on or off version)
aka information passes but some of it is weaker
what does Attenuation Theory explain
Can explain why some unattended material can be processing for meaning ¤ What is important
what is the idea of Late selection filter models
We process relevant (attended) and irrelevant (non-attended) information and select what we want to attend to at the level of the meaning
Filter is placed on ‘semantic analysis’ (the 4th step in the chart)
where is the filter located in Attenuation Theory explain
between short term story and the analysis
what is the Stroop Task
Naming the COLOR (not the word printed) – a conflict resolution task
what is the is the stroop task used to prove
Late selection filter models
what are the different types of processes
controlled and automatic
what is controlled processes and how does it relate to the troop task
Controlled processing: Activities we must effortfully attend to consciously
¤ Stroop: naming the color ink (top down)
what is automatic process and how does it relate to the stoop task
Automatic processing: Activities that do not require conscious attention to run smoothly
¤ Stroop: reading the name of the color
(bottom up)
what experiment tested Controlled and automatic processes
¤ Raz et al. 2003
¤ Used hypnosis to get people to think color words were
meaningless
¤ Hypnotized to believe the text was in a different language so the meaning of the words (i.e., color) would not be automatically processed
¤ This eliminated the Stroop effect
¤ Automatic processing of the meaning of the distracting information (color word) did not interfere with naming the color ink
¤ Also shows that automatic processes can be affected by top-down processes
what theory Resolves the ‘filter’ debate
The load theory
what is The load theory
Filtering will occur at different points in the processing pipeline depending on the task demands
¤Perception and attention have a limited capacity but we process to capacity
¤ We want to use up all our resources during a task
¤Task difficulty determines how and when we select our attention to reach this capacity
¤ Perceptual load
according to The load theory, explain what a difficult task with a high load means
¤ Processing all information (relevant and irrelevant) perceptually will exceed capacity
¤ Attention is selected early
¤ Focused attention
¤ E.g., The perceptually demanding task during the ‘Gorilla video’ is why you don’t see the Gorilla
according to The load theory, explain what an easier task with a low load means
¤ Processing all information (relevant and irrelevant) perceptually is within capacity ¤ Attention is selected later
¤ Process irrelevant information
¤ Unfocused attention
what does the load theory say about demand
¤Perceptually demanding tasks
¤ We aren’t distracted by other information because our processes are ’used-up’
¤ Like a early selection filter
¤Perceptually non-demanding tasks
¤ We are open to distraction and will process task-irrelevant information
¤ Like a late selection filter
explain how demand works according to the load theory with the example of ‘there is a fly buzzing around the room’
¤ Perceptually demanding task
¤ In a lecture where it is hard to hear the professor
¤ Attention is used up for listening to the lecture
¤ You won’t hear that fly
¤ Perceptually non-demanding task
¤ In a lecture where it is extremely easy to hear the professor
¤ There are some attentional resources remaining
¤ You hear that fly
Increasing the perceptual load of relevant information may prevent what (according to load theory)
processing distracting information
Increasing the perceptual load of relevant information may prevent processing distracting information, This information could be used to improve attention in who
groups that are prone to distraction (schizophrenia, ADHD)
what experiment proved ‘Increasing the perceptual load of relevant information may prevent processing distracting information’
people asked to look at screen and identify a letter among many…. the more letter sheer were the FASTER people could find the letter they were looking for!
Capacity models of load theory: what are the Two views
Central resource capacity and Multiple resource capacity
what is Central resource capacity
¤ One resource pool from which all attention resources are allocated ¤ The same pool for visual, auditory, taste, etc. attentional tasks
¤ Attention is like cognitive effort
what is Multiple resource capacity
¤ Multiple resources from which attention resources are allocated
¤ Different attentional resources for vision, auditory, etc.
¤ Attentional limits depend on the similarity of the modality of relevant and irrelevant information
¤ E.g., attention capacity is reached sooner if relevant and irrelevant information is from the same modality
what is Some support for central resource capacity (what experiment was done)
¤ Driving simulator task (a visual task) under two conditions ¤ Low (auditory) load – no radio
¤ High (auditory) load - listen to the radio
¤ Test the awareness of a visually unexpected object
found that it was easer to seen un expected object when there was a low load (no radio)
what is some Support for a multiple resource capacity
¤ In a brain scanner, participants heard words under two conditions
¤ Low auditory load – detect a louder voice
¤ High auditory load – detect a two syllable word
¤ During both conditions, participants saw irrelevant visual motion
¤ Told to ignore this visual information
¤ Visual areas of the brain were active at the same level for both conditions
¤ Visual information processing isn’t affected by attentional demands of an auditory task
