Lecture 9 Flashcards
Attention & Performance: controlled processing
perfomance
the efficiency and effectiveness of behaviour
attention is selective
acts like a filter
acts like a spotlight
focused attention
when we are presented with two more stimuli, but we attend to or respond to only one of them
attention is a mental resource
is a single limited resource
is multiple resources
divided attention
multi-tasking, when we are presented with multiple stimuli we attend and respond to all of them, as long as we don’t exceed our available resources
resource theories
attention is a mental resource, we divide our energy to attend to different stimuli in the environment
multi-tasking
responding to all presented stimuli
e.g. driving a car, listening to the radio, changing gears, drinking a coffee and talking on the phone
controlled processing
tasks that require mental effort
such as reading
automatic processing
tasks don’t require much energy
such as eating
dual-tasks have costs
when doing more than one task, our mental resources are split
fewer resources are available meaning the tasks are performed slower and less efficiently
failure to allocate appropriate amounts of resources to a task can have serious consequences
80% of all crashes and 65% of all near crashes involved the driver looking away from the forward roadway
dual-tasks has benefits
allows us to get things done in a fairly coherent and uninterrupted way
studying dual-tasks in the lab
first participants perform a single task and they are measured on how well they do at it
then participants will perform a second task and they are measured on how well they perform
finally, participants perform both tasks at the same time and are measured on how well they do at it
typical findings of dual-task studies
decrease in performance between participants when they do the single task vs the dual task
this is known as dual-task cost
spoon theory
wake up with 12 spoons, each activity you complete you spend a spoon
you cant complete 2 tasks if mental resources have been exceeded
as a result the tasks will performed much slower
attention as a pool of capacity
we can do two things at once successfully, if the demands of the two tasks don’t exceed the capacity of the resource
if the two tasks are within the capacity limits, there is no performance decrease when doing the tasks at the same time
if the demands of the two tasks exceed the available capacity, interference between the tasks will occur as they battle for resources, leading to slower responding
central resource capacity theory
Kahneman 1973
there’s a single resource of attention with flexible capacity limits that all tasks compete for
arousal and motivation determine our capacity limits
difficult tasks use more of the attentional capacity that easy task, and create more interference
therefore difficulty effects dual-task performance
Bourke et al 1996 Method
participant undertook 4 tasks in different combinations, either as single or dual tasks
- tone discrimination
- random letter generation
- motor task
- visual recognition taks
Bourke et al 1996 Results
the tasks interfered with each other in differing degrees
- greatest interference was with the letter generation
- least interference was with the tone discrimination task
Multiple resource theory
Wickens 1992
there are many different resource pool, each having their own resource capacity
dual task performance is determined by similarity of the two tasks at different levels
- input modality similarity
- output modality similarity
- processing stage similarity
input modality similarity
both tasks require vision, or hearing
output modality similarity
both tasks require verbal response
processing stage similarity
both tasks require comprehension
evidence support for MRT
input modality similarity
Treinman and Davies 1973
participants monitored information coming from visual and/or auditory modalities
- a single stream
- two visual streams
- two auditory streams
- one visual and one auditory system
performance was best in single stream information and worse when information was monitored from the same input channels
evidence support for MRT
processing stage similarity
Brooks 1968
participants memorised a sentence
at the same time, they had to say whether a word heard from headphones was a noun, either by verbally responding or manually pointing
verbal responses were much harder, because holding a sentence in memory and making a verbal response both use verbal attention and tax the same task-specific resource
evidence support for MRT
output modality similarity
Mcleod 1977
participants carried out two task concurrently, a tracking and tone identification task
in one conditions the tasks requited manual responses and the other condition one task required manual and the other verbal response
performance was worse in the first condition, suggesting interferences only occur when the tasks share the same resource pools
evidence against MRT
cross-modal interference
different pools of attention aren’t completely separate
cross modal studies ask people to do two things at once, such as watching the road and following a conversation
Strayer and Johnston 2001
cross-modal interference
simulated a driving task with or without a mobile phone
difficult driving conditions with high density traffic
easy driving conditions with low density traffic
they measured the number of red lights missed and the breaking speed
participants missed more red lights when engaged in a mobile phone conversation
participants were slower to press the brake button when engaged in mobile phone conversations
Driver and Spence 1994
shadow words from one of the speakers
and
observe a person uttering the words
if in the same location performance was better
in different locations perforce was worse
even of there is some devision between modalities these results show that different pools of attention are not completely independent
central capacity theory evaluation
task difficulty influences dual task performance
there is a central resource that different tasks use and as long as they don’t exceed the capacity there will be no interference
but it cannot account for the effects of task similarity
some tasks can be done together and other cannot
multiple resource theory evaluation
accounts for many dual task findings
monitoring two visual inputs is more difficult that monitoring a visual and auditory input
however, cannot account of evidence that shows interference between tow task requiring different pools of resources
criticisms of he resource theories
theories of dual task performance not necessarily attention
poor control over timing of the tasks raises possibility that people switched their attention
possibility of too man and too specific resources
don’t explain the why, how and what of attentional selection
theories of performance rather than attention
attention is determined by
difficulty of one or both of the tasks
similarity between the two tasks at the level of input modality, output modality, processing style
the reason attention is difficult
we have a single limited pool of mental resources
or we have mulitoppe pools of mental resources that aren’t entirely independent but correspond to our senses
early theories
central resource pool
performance determined by task difficulty
attention is a single limited capacity resource
it can be divided and assigned arbitrarily to different task, depending on how much one needs
later theories
multiple resource pool
dual task performance is determined by task similarity
there are multiple task specific attentional capacities
latest theories
different resource pools not entirely independent
based of studies that looks at driving
perfomance in dual task codlins is determined by
task difficulty
task similarity
practise
and the type of processing
