Lecture 8 Flashcards
what is the experiment for Attentional blink
Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) presentation
¤ Continuous & rapid presentation of stimuli in the same location on a screen
¤ Stimuli includes targets and distractors
what is Attentional blink
If two targets are presented within a short time interval (500 ms), there is a reduced ability to identify the second target
Attention takes up resources that need to be replenished ¤ This means attention is limited by processing time
Frontal lobe regions help do what
¤ focus and hold information in our minds
is attention processing divided int he brain
yes
what are the two divisions of attentional processing
¤ Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC
¤ Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
what is ¤ Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) good for
¤ Focusing attention
¤ Response selection
what is Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)
Selecting task relevant information
what is Inattentional blindness a consequence of
selective attention
what is Inattentional blindness
Failure to attend to new events in our environment that we ‘should’ see
¤ “Looking without seeing”
is Inattentional blindness the same as change blindeness
Similar but not exactly change blindness
¤ Change in a stimulus that was there before versus missing a new stimuli
what are the Four characteristics of inattentional blindness
¤ People fail to notice an event/object ¤ The object/event is fully-visible
¤ It can been seen
¤ The inability to notice the object/event is because of attention and not because of visual features
of the input
¤ The object/event is unexpected
¤ The effect is not due to being distracted or not engaging attention
explain An inattentional blindness task
¤ Two main features of this task
¤ Participants aren’t expecting a target but are looking
in the general area
¤ Participants are using attention resources for some task
Over a series of experimental trials:
¤ A cross with vertical and horizontal ‘arms’ of different lengths are presented very quickly that is followed by a mask
¤ Respond with which arm of the cross was longer (vertical or horizontal)
¤ Critical Trial: A small black square in introduced
¤ Later, participants are asked if they saw this black square
do people notice the square in the attentional blindness task
People don’t notice the small square
¤ An inability to perceive unexpected information
what is Déjà vu
The impression of having experienced a situation even thought it is a new situation
¤ 2 out of every 3 people report at least one déjà vu experience
who s Déjà vu more common in
¤ More common in:
¤ People with higher education ¤ People who are more travelled ¤ With age
¤ Can be associated with some brain diseases
¤ Epilepsy
what is the The inattentional blindness explanation of deja vu
¤ The result of implicit priming + inattentional blindness
¤ A new location is ‘perceived’ under distraction (inattentional
blindness)
¤ The next time that location is encountered, it is consciously registered as new, but is familiar due to implicit priming
¤ First, you see it, aren’t aware of it but still ‘register it’
¤ Next, you see it again, now you are aware of it and it feels oddly familiar
what parts of the brain are activated with deja vu
¤ Induced déjà vu in the lab (modified a false memory task) and monitored brain activity
¤ Reports of déjà vu was NOT associated with activity in memory areas but with brain regions involved in resolving conflict
¤ Déjà vu is not a false memory by activating conflict resolution processes between information learned during a period of inattention and a period of conscious attention
what is Attentional capture
¤ This can be thought of as the opposite of inattentional blindness
¤ A new stimuli is so powerful that it is noticed, even when attention is focused elsewhere
is Attentional capture bottom up or top dowm
¤ These are bottom-up cues from the environment
¤ Automatic, reflexive
¤ Physical properties of some stimuli grab our attention
¤ The sound of a car crashing; sirens; seeing a mouse scurry in the corner of a room
what is ‘Meaningful’ attentional capture
¤ Attentional capture directs us to information important for survival
¤ This means it is determined by the importance of stimuli
¤ There are specific types of stimuli that are more important than others. ¤ These stimuli have functionally specialized processes
¤ Typically, they are biologically and/or socially important (help us survive)
explain the Attentional capture measured with a go no-go task and how it proves that Faces are a type of stimuli that automatically captures our attention
¤ A ‘signal’ (circle) is superimposed on different types of visual stimuli (faces, objects, nothing)
¤ Go Trial: When the signal is green, indicate which side the vertical line is on
¤ No-go Trial: When the signal is red, press a task neutral button
Faces slowed down the ability of participants to apply attentional processes to other tasks (react on the go/no-go task) because they capture attention
how to Measuring visual attention (via tasks and theories)
¤Posner spatial cuing task
¤Spotlight theory of attention
¤Visual search tasks
¤Feature integration theory of attention
¤Eye-tracking – overt visual attention
¤An embodied cognition approachwhat is the Spotlight theory of attention
¤ Location based view of attention
¤ Posner’s (1980) attentional spotlight theory
¤ Focus on a central view and ignore what is located ‘outside’ of the spotlight
¤ When moving our spotlight
¤ Attention will be disengaged from where it is currently focused
¤ It is physically shifted to another location and focus is centered there
explain Posner cuing task
- Fixation display: Fixate on the center a screen
- Cue Display: A ‘space’ cue directs attention to an area (left or right)
- Target Display: A target is presented and reaction time to detect it is measured
(valid trial—- Target appears in the SAME location as the cue
invalid trial– Target appears in a DIFFERENT location as the cue)
what is the result of Posner cuing task
Attention effect:
Reaction times to valid trials area FASTER than to invalid trials
Target appears in a DIFFERENT location as the cue
Duration between the cue and target is critical! This is the effects of varying the SOA – stimuli onset asynchrony
• Short time interval (SOA) < 200 ms
• Long time interval (SOA) ~ 300 ms
what is Inhibition of return (IOR) and how was it found
found from Posner cuing task
¤ Attention is inhibited in returning to a recently attended location after
a longer duration between cue and target
what is the point of inhibition of return (IOR)
¤ Novelty seeking: Helps us search our environment efficiently
is estrogen related to IOR
Estrogen is related to IOR (Inhibition of Return) effect
how is estrogen related to IOR
¤ Participants performed a cued target-detection task that measured inhibition of return (IOR) at
different stages of menstrual cycle (different estrogen levels)
¤ Greater IOR effects were related to higher estrogen levels
¤ A bias to take in new information
what is Feature integration theory of attention
Focuses on how we analyze visual scenes ¤ Object based attention
¤ Objects are collected of features and we pay attention to this feature differently for phases of attention
what are the different phases of attention in the Feature integration theory of attention
Pre-attention
Focused attention
what is Pre-attention
Different visual features are coded in parallel in separate feature maps automatically
what is Focused attention:
Features are integrated together to guide a search, which is done in a serial order
what are the two Visual search tasks
Feature Search
Conjunction Search
what is Feature Search
¤ Search for an object that is different from the distractors based on one feature
is Feature Search top down or bottom up
¤ Bottom up ; Exogenous; Reflexive
what attention phase is Feature Search
¤ Pre-attention phase
what is Conjunction Search
Search for an object that is different from the distractors on a many features
is Conjunction Search top down or bottom up
Top down ; Endogenous ; Voluntary
what attention phase is Conjunction Search
Focused attention phase
Cognition – including attention is limited by what
the constraints of our physical body
what are the 2 Eye-tracking tools to measure visual attention
Our eyes determine what visual information is attended
- Overt visual attention
- Covert visual
what is Overt visual attention:
Attending to something with your eye movements
what is ¤ Covert visual attention:
Attending to something without eye movements
further explain Overt visual attention and what people fixate their eyes on typically
¤People fixate mainly on eyes and mouth when viewing faces
¤People fixate on faces in a scene first, followed by the form of one figure in the scene
are there Cultural differences in visual attentional processing
¤ Measured eye movements measured as two groups (Western, East Asian) attended to complex images with a central object and background
¤ Suggests that cultural differences can affects attentional processing
what are the Other varieties of attention
Sustained attention
Divided attention
what is Sustained attention
¤The ability to focus cognitive activity on one task ¤Vigilance or concentration
¤Baggage scanners
what is ¤Divided attention
¤The ability to ‘attend’ to more than one thing at a time ¤Restaurant servers
A common task to measures sustained attention is what
the sustained attentional response task (SART)
what is the sustained attentional response task (SART)
A series of numbers is presented with th e task of responding to EVERY number except a given target (e.g., 4)
what is Vigilance decrement
a decrease in performance as a function of time
explain the experiment of Vigilance decrement
¤ Participants: 60 undergraduates
¤ Task Watch one-hour videos of lectures
¤ At various points, a screen would appear asking if they were mind wandering (not paying attention)
¤ Tested on lecture material
what are the 2 views that came from the Vigilance decrement experiment
¤ Overload:
¤ Underload:
what is the overload view
high attentional demands over time
what is the underload view
boredom–> mind-wandering –> divided attention
explain Divided Attention: Task switching
¤ Changing from working on one task to working on an another task ¤ Involves switching between specific mental sets
is Divided Attention: Task switching top down or bottom up
Top-down method of organizing information based on the goals of a task
what is the Task switching paradigm (explain with experiment)
¤ Over a series of trials, stimuli (e.g., numbers or digit) is presented and people switch the task they must do on the stimuli
¤ Changing the task associated with the stimuli comes with a switch cost
¤ A performance decline immediately following a switch between tasks
¤ This is because ‘cognitive system’ has to be ‘re-set’ to engage the correct behavior
explain Divided Attention: Mind wandering
¤ Can act like a ‘dual task’ situation
¤ A shift in mental resources away from a primary task and toward internal thoughts ¤ We are not often aware of mind wandering
¤ Action slips
what are the Benefits of mind wandering
Future thinking: As we mind wander, we can simulate our plans and possible outcomes
¤ Creative thinking: generate new solutions to old problems
¤ Think of as many uses for a brick
¤ After mind wandering, people generate more creative responses
¤ Relief from boredom: Mind-wandering may “speed up” how we perceive time during boring activities
summarize Inattentional Blindness
¤ Looking without seeing
¤ Can be thought of as a consequence of selective attention
summarize ¤ Attentional Capture
¤ Bottom up information that necessarily grabs our focus
summarize ¤ Spotlight versus search approaches to studying visual attention
¤ Trying to figure out how we move our attention in the world
summarize ¤ Sustained Attention
¤ Attention may wane over time
summarize ¤ Task Switching
¤ The attentional cost of multitasking
summarize ¤ Mind wandering
¤ Maybe it has a bad reputation
