Midterm (Ch. 3 - Attention & Performance) Flashcards
Describe Cherry’s auditory shadowing task experiment to explain selective auditory attention
Participants are presented with two messages simultaneously (a dichotic listening task), one to each ear, and are instructed to repeat back the words from only one of them, whilst ignoring the other (Cherry)
In Cherry’s auditory shadowing task, what did subjects notice?
Gross physical changes e.g., change from voice to tones, loudness, gender
In Cherry’s auditory shadowing task, what did subjects NOT notice?
Change in topic, change in language, change from forward to backward speech and word repetition.
What is Broadbent’s filter (early selection) theory?
Early selection theory = sensory information is registered and only one of the inputs are allowed through the filter based on physical characteristics. The selective filter then determines which stimuli are further processed semantically. Unfiltered input remains in sensory register briefly then decays.
Name a problem from Broadbent’s filter (early selection) theory?
The cocktail party effect = people notice their own name at parties. Some semantic processing occurs in unattended ear.
What is Treisman’s attenuation theory?
Messages are attenuated but not filtered by physical characteristics. Semantic criteria can apply to all messages. Filter weakens the strength of unattended information
What is Deutsch & Deutsch’s ‘Late Selection’ Theory?
All stimuli are processed to the level of meaning; relevance determines further processing and action.
Describe Marcel’s “Unconscious Priming” Experiment 1?
Participants were required to make 3 types of judgements (detection, graphic similarity, semantic similarity) about masked words that oftentimes the subjects thought they had not seen.
Name a finding from Marcel’s Experiment 1 for Unconscious Priming.
The first thing we pick up is meaning, the second is what it looks like (shape information) and the last is whether we have detected it or not.
What are the findings from Marcel’s backward masking experiment 2?
- Unmasked condition: positive priming effect
- Centrally masked condition: positive priming effect (no difference in the amount of priming of when you do or don’t see the first word)
- Peripherally masked: no priming (manipulation wiped out info before its processed deeply)
What are the findings from Dehaene’s unconscious priming experiment that extends from Marcel’s original one?
A stream of perceptual, semantic, and motor processes can occur without awareness.
Describe Treisman’s Feature Integration Theory of attention.
Feature maps are free floating in the brain until the spotlight of attention localises something in your perceptual environment through object perception and recognition, which brings the features and information together appropriately.
Describe the Feature Search aspect from Treisman’s FIT?
When the target is only defined by a single feature, it should not demand attention and the target should pop out. It doesn’t matter how many distractions there are as you process everything at once.
Describe the Conjunction Search aspect from Treisman’s FIT?
When the target is defined by multiple features, target detection involves binding features, so it demands attention and judgement takes longer.
What is the finding for serial processing from Treisman’s FIT?
For serial processing, the amount of time to locate a target should increase in direct proportion to the number of distractors.
