Lecture 9 - Selection Attention Flashcards
What does the “cocktail party problem” refer to in auditory attention?
It refers to the difficulty of understanding or remembering two concurrent spoken messages, as we can only attend to one at a time.
In Cherry’s experiment, what did participants struggle with when trying to divide attention between two voices?
Participants struggled to understand the contents of two simultaneous messages, and the best they could do was alternate between attending to each speaker.
What is the difference between focused attention to one message and shadowing in selective listening experiments?
hadowing is successful when the messages differ in physical properties (e.g., location, voice), but not when they differ only in semantic content.
According to Broadbent’s (1958) filter model, how does attention operate in auditory processing?
A sensory filter processes speech sources in parallel and only allows one source to pass through for recognition, meaning activation, and representation in memory.
What is the main limitation of Broadbent’s filter model?
The filter is not all-or-none; some unattended information can still break through, as demonstrated by recognizing your name in an unattended message.
What does Treisman’s filter-attenuation theory suggest about unattended messages?
Unattended messages are not completely blocked but attenuated, meaning they are filtered but can still activate meanings if they are contextually relevant or salient.
What is the key assumption of “late selection” theories in auditory attention?
Both attended and unattended information are processed up to meaning, with relevance or salience determining which information is selected.
How does the “attentional spotlight” work in visual attention, according to Posner’s paradigm?
The attentional spotlight can be voluntarily directed to a specific location in the visual field, enhancing processing of stimuli in that area and suppressing stimuli outside of it.
What is the difference between endogenous and exogenous shifts of visual attention?
Endogenous shifts are voluntary and top-down (e.g., shifting attention based on expectation), while exogenous shifts are automatic and stimulus-driven (e.g., sudden onset of a new visual object).
What does the phenomenon of “inattentional blindness” demonstrate?
It demonstrates that highly salient events in the visual field can be missed if they occur in the unattended visual stream, even if they are in a region of the field that is fixated.
How does attention to a specific location in the visual field affect brain activity, according to Mangun et al. (1993)?
When attention is directed to a location, early components of the ERP (event-related potential) in the extra-striate visual cortex are modulated, indicating early selection of stimuli in the visual field.
What did the “flanker” task by Lavie (1995) suggest about visual attention?
The efficiency of early selection in visual attention depends on processing load; when there is a higher load, distractors (flankers) have a stronger impact on performance.
What is the concept of “zooming the spotlight” in visual attention?
The “zooming the spotlight” concept refers to the ability to vary the size of the attentional focus, selectively enhancing or suppressing a broader or narrower area of the visual field.
What are the limits to cognitive capacity when performing a single task?
All processes take time, there are limits to input any one process can handle, and representational/storage capacity is limited.
What happens when resources must be shared between tasks?
Capacity limits become more apparent, and we must either perform tasks simultaneously or switch between them.
Give some real-life examples of multitasking.
Cooking, ironing, baby-monitoring, answering the phone, or driving while managing other tasks.
What is dual-task interference?
Competition for shared resources when attempting to perform two tasks simultaneously.
What are some of the cognitive demands involved in multitasking?
Set-shifting, retrospective memory, prospective memory, executive control, planning, scheduling, and troubleshooting.
Why is multitasking not a single competence?
Executive control processes, such as planning and problem-solving, are critical in managing multiple tasks.
How does using a mobile phone while driving impact performance?
It results in slower reactions, impaired hazard detection, and an increased risk of accidents, similar to driving under the influence of alcohol.
What are the potential sources of dual-task interference?
Competition for domain-specific resources, general-purpose processing capacity, and executive control mechanisms.
How does competition for general-purpose processing capacity affect multitasking?
If the sum of capacity demands exceeds available resources, it leads to interference, and the difficulty of one task can reduce the capacity for another.
What does Kahneman’s resource pool theory suggest?
A pool of general-purpose resources (like attention and mental energy) is shared among tasks, and its capacity can vary depending on factors like alertness and emotional state.
How can practice affect multitasking performance?
Practicing one task can automate it, reducing the need for executive control and enabling better task integration.
What is the psychological refractory period (PRP)?
A phenomenon where response selection for one task is delayed if another task is being performed at the same time, leading to a bottleneck in processing.
What conclusion can be drawn about multitasking in real life?
True multitasking is rare; it’s more efficient to focus on one task at a time to avoid cognitive fatigue and resource depletion.
