MODULE 3 UNIT 2: ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS Flashcards
The concentration of mental energy that must be used to process incoming information
Attention
It is selective, limited, and both conscious and preconscious.
Attention
The state of being aware of things and events around us and includes both the feeling of awareness and the content of awareness, some of which may be under the focus of attention.
Consciousness
Four main functions of attention
- Signal detection and vigilance
- Search
- Selective attention
- Divided attention
A function of attention wherein individuals try to detect the appearance of a particular stimulus.
Signal detection and vigilance
A function of attention wherein individuals try to find a signal amidst distracters.
Search
A function of attention wherein individuals choose to attend to some stimuli and ignore others.
Selective attention
A function of attention wherein individuals prudently allocate their available attentional resources to coordinate their performance of more than one task at a time.
Divided attention
A framework that explains how people pick out the few important stimuli when they are embedded in a wealth of irrelevant, distracting stimuli.
Signal Detection
Target stimulus that is to be detected
Signal
The four possible outcomes in detecting signal (dependent on presence/absence of signal; and detection/no detection)
- Hit
- Miss
- False Alarm
- Correct Rejection
An outcome in detecting signal where signal is both present and detected.
Hit
An outcome in detecting signal where signal is present but not detected.
Miss
An outcome in detecting signal where signal is absent but detected.
False Alarm
An outcome in detecting signal where signal is both absent and not detected.
Correct Rejection
Identify if the statement below is an example of Hit, Miss, False Alarm, or Correct Rejection.
A trained security dog signals the presence of explosives in a package.
Hit
Identify if the statement below is an example of Hit, Miss, False Alarm, or Correct Rejection.
A trained security dog was unable to recognize the package where explosives were hidden.
Miss
Identify if the statement below is an example of Hit, Miss, False Alarm, or Correct Rejection.
A trained security dog signaled the presence of explosives in a package, but it turned out that there were none.
False Alarm
Identify if the statement below is an example of Hit, Miss, False Alarm, or Correct Rejection.
A trained security dog walked past a package where there are no explosives contained.
Correct Rejection
Concepts required by Signal Detection Theory (SDT)
- attention—paying enough attention to perceive objects that are there
- perception—perceiving faint signals that may or may not be beyond your perceptual range
- memory—indicating whether you have/have not been exposed to a stimulus before
Attending to a set of stimuli over a length of time in order to detect a target signal.
Vigilance
Decreases rapidly over time (fatigue), thus misses and false alarms increase.
Vigilance
The part of the brain that appears to be an important brain structure in the regulation of vigilance.
Amygdala
Refers to a scan of the environment for particular features—actively looking for something when you are not sure where it will appear
Search
These are non target stimuli that divert attention away from the target stimulus and make search more difficult.
Distracters
Two types of search
- Feature Search
- Conjunctive Search
A type of search where we simply scan the environment for that feature, and where distracters play little role in slowing our search.
Feature Search
A type of search where we look for a particular
combination of features.
Conjunctive Search
This theory offers a distinction between feature and conjunctive- searches. Feature search is defined by a single feature and no attention is required, while conjunctive search defined by two features: shape and color, thus, attention is required.
Treisman’s Feature Integration Theory (FIT)
This theory argues that similarity between targets and distracters is what is important, not the number of features to be combined. Thus, the more shared features among items in display, the more difficult to detect a particular target.
Similarity Theory
Two consecutive stages of Guided Search
- Parallel Stage
- Serial Stage
A stage in Guided Search where the individual simultaneously activates a mental representation of all the potential targets.
Parallel Stage
A stage in Guided Search where the individual sequentially evaluates each of the activated elements, according to the degree of activation.
Serial Stage
Theories of Selective Attention
- Broadbent’s Model
- Treisman’s Attenuation Model
- Late-Filter Mode
A theory of selective attention which suggests that stimuli is filtered at sensory level occurring after information goes through the sensory storage and that only one sensory channel is allowed to proceed to the working memory storage.
Broadbent’s Model
A theory of selective attention which suggests that at least some information about unattended signals is being analyzed. She proposed a theory of selective attention that involves a later filtering mechanism.
Treisman’s Attenuation Model
A theory of selective attention which suggests that the location of the filter is even later than Treisman’s Attenuation Model, and that stimuli are filtered out only after they have been analyzed for both their physical properties and their meaning. This later filtering would allow people to recognize information entering the unattended ear.
Late-Filter Model
The two processes that govern attention according to Ulric Neisser
- Preattentive Process
- Attentive, Controlled Process
A process governing attention where automatic processes are rapid and occur in parallel. They can be used to notice only physical sensory characteristics of the unattended message, but they do not discern meanings or relationships.
Preattentive Processes
A process governing attention where processes occur later. They are executed serially and consume time and attentional resources, such as working memory.
Attentive, Controlled Process
A type of simultaneous attention that allows us to process different information sources and successfully carry out multiple tasks at a time.
Divided Attention
A theory of Divided Attention where either a single pool or a multiplicity of modality-specific pools may be involved.
Attentional-Resources Theory
Four factors that influence ability to pay attention
- Anxiety (high anxiety = low attention)
- Arousal (tired or drowsy = low attention; excited or happy = high attention)
- Task Difficulty (influences performance during divided attention)
- Skills (more practiced or skilled = enhanced attention)
A condition which symptoms are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
A condition where there is an inability to detect changes in objects or scenes that are being viewed.
Change Blindness
A phenomenon where people are not able to see things that are actually there, purely as a result of a lack of attention rather than any visual defects or deficits.
Inattentional Blindness
A condition where there is lesion on one side of the brain, which causes a person to ignore half of their visual field that is contralateral to (on the opposite side of) the hemisphere of the brain that has a lesion. It is a result mainly of unilateral lesions in the parietal and frontal lobes, most often in the right hemisphere.
Spatial Neglect or Hemi-neglect
The concept of attention carries two processes, namely Automatic Processes and Controlled Processes. Which process requires NO conscious control?
Automatic Process
The concept of attention carries two processes, namely Automatic Processes and Controlled Processes. Which process requires conscious control?
Controlled Process
Comprises only the narrower range of info that the individual is aware of manipulating.
Consciousness
Which view of complex mental processes suggests that individuals have GOOD ACCESS to their complex mental processes (eg. chess, math computation problems)?
First View or Protocol Analysis
Which view of complex mental processes suggests that individuals DO NOT HAVE A GOOD ACCESS to their complex mental processes (eg. deciding which model of a car to buy)?
Second View
An example of preconscious processing where perception of targets stimuli is influenced or “primed” by previous stimuli.
Priming
An example of preconscious processing where an individual tries to remember something that is stored in memory but cannot readily be retrieved.
Tip of the Tongue
An example of preconscious processing where an individual cannot consciously see a certain portion of their visual field but still behave in some instances as if they can see it.
Blindsight
