Module 04: Attention Flashcards
selective attention
focus attention on one or more events at a given time
what does attention involve
selecting relevant info and ignoring irrelevant info
divided attention
attention freed up to do another task simultaneously with the automatic task
spatial attention
attention focused on objects and events of interest in environment to aid in ability to recognize them amongst other objects
what is the diachotic listening task and the findings from it
listen to recording using headphones
different messages simultaneously in each ear
person shadows one of them
CAN REPORT ON SOUND, TONE, AND PITCH OF UNATTENDED MATERIAL
what is Broadbent’s filter theory
people have attentional filters: some info goes through, rest is blocked
the filter is based on the physical aspect – location pitch, loudness, etc
selection is early (before meaning)
should not be possible to recall ANY meaning from unattended message
what is the cocktail party effect
shadowing performance disrupted when one’s own name in attended OR unattended message
this contradicts filter theory
33% of people noticed their own names
people who detect their names have a lower WM span (conway)
what is Treisman’s attenuation theory
volume is turned down for unattended message
message subjected to 3 analyses:
- physical properties
- linguistic (syllables and words)
- semantic
process for meaning more effortful, only done when necessary
what did Treisman find in her experiment that led to attenuation theory
2 distinct messages in each ear, but switch ears halfway through
immediately after switch, people reported a couple words from the “unattended ear”
attenuation theory explains why people switched ears
primed: ready to be recognized
late selection theory/ deutch norman model of attention
all messages processed for at least some aspects of meaning
attentional selection occurs after routine processing
bottleneck occurs later in processing
info judged as important (depends on context, personal significance, observer’s alertness) is elaborated more fully
what is the bottleneck metaphor
the wider the bottleneck, the more info that spills through for processing
how did daniel kahneman describe attention
attention as a set of cognitive processes for categorizing and recognizing stimuli
more complex => harder processing => more attentional resources required
what affects how much attention we are using at a given time
availability of mental resources: depends on state of alertness
allocation policy: affected by one’s dispositions, intentions, evaluation of demands of capacity
mental effort: the greater the mental effort, the more attention we are using
quality of data
what affects the capacity that a task requires
difficulty
familiarity
what is the stroop effect
colours in words
say the colour
response automatic, hard to inhibit (in this case reading the actual word was automatic for adults)
what are the 3 criteria for automatic processing proposed by posner and snyder
- occur without intention
- occur without conscious awareness
- does not interfere with other mental activity
what were the 2 conditions (and results) from the study where you searched for targets in an array of the same or different type
varied mapping: targets in one trial can become a distraction in another, more capacity required – performance depended on all variables
consistent mapping: targets in one trial were never distractors in another, less capacity required – performance varied only with frame time
describe controlled processing
- used for difficult tasks and ones that involve unfamiliar processes
- operates serially
- requires attention
- capacity limited
- under conscious control
what are the possible theories that explain the dual task performance study
- alternating attention
(note that a later study indicated that people did not alternate attention between the two tasks) - one task was performed automatically
- learn to combine two different tasks with practice
what is the psychology refractory period
waiting time
slowed response time to 2nd stimulus
ATM analogy: bottleneck limiting factor in speed in which the 2nd task processed
what is the attention hypothesis of automation
attention needed during practice phase of a task determines what gets learned during practice
attention determines what will be remembered from the practice
STUDY:
2 word displays, detect target words
participants in consistent pairing condition were unlikely to learn which words were paired if they had no reason to pay attention to the distractor words
what did strayer and johnson find with cell phone use while driving
talking on the cell phone distracts a driver, while radio or talking to a passenger does not
what is it called when something directs a person’s attention to a particular area in space
spatial cue
what does the spotlight metaphor say
affects ease with which stimuli can be brought into system for processing
characterizes input attention
what did anne triesman find in her visual search study
the detection of individual features are automatic
(told participants to search for a particular object, found that if item differed from background then item popped out regardless of the # of background items)
feature integration theory
perceive objects in 2 stages
1) automatic – register features of object (colour, shape, etc) and identify on a basis of single feature
2) attention glues features into unified object – integration of features requires mental capacity
illusory conjunctions
‘glueing’ errors that occur when one’s attention is diverted or overloaded
inattentional blindness
not perceiving a stimulus right in front of you unless you pay attention to it
how was inattentional blindness shown in a study
basketball where person in gorilla costume walked through the frame
daniel simons showed that 46% of people failed to notice gorilla person
what is it called when someone ignores or neglects sensory info in visual field opposite damaged hemisphere
hemispatial or sensory neglect
(ATTENTIONAL)
what happens when someone engages in a cuing task
- disengage attention from wherever it was previously (activity in posterior parietal lobe)
- attention refocused on spacial location of new stimulus (superior colliculus)
- neural processing of new location enhanced (thalamus)
describe the three attentional networks
alerting network – achieving and maintaining an alert state (frontal and parietal regions of right hemisphere)
orientating network – selects info from sensory input (parietal and frontal lobes)
executive control network – resolves conflicts among different responses (frontal lobes)
what operation is the inability to inhibit an ongoing response a part of
enhance operation
amplitude of waveforms are —– for attended than for unattended stimulus
larger
