module 5 part 1 Flashcards
how is attention best understood?
In terms of what it does - that is, it allows us to focus and tune out distractions
spatial (unilateral) neglect
damage to parietal lobes, which direct attention
results in an inability to notice information in the space contralateral to the damage (contralesional space) - for example, damage to the the parietal lobe in the right hemisphere would result in neglect of left sensory modalitites - vision, hearing etc
how does attentional processing take place in the brain
attentional processing is a brain mechanisms - emerges from activation in difference networks of parietal cortical regions and prefrontal cortex - different areas get activated depending on the form of attention
top down attention
voluntary, intentional attention
- activates the intraparietal sulcus and the frontal eye fields
bottom up attention
unintentional, automatic attentional capture
- activates the temporal parietal junctional and the ventral frontal cortex
what are the three types of attentional processes
top down - observer guided, intentional, uses frontal parietal brain regions
bottom up-
stimulus guided, reflexive uses temporal parietal junction and ventral frontal cortex
arousal -
general alertness/awareness, being physically present, uses reticular activating system
what are the three types of top down attention?
sustained attention:
- maintaining focus on one input for a long period of time
- vigilance
- example watching for a lion on safari
divided attention:
-Shifting attentional focus between tasks
-multitasking
-looking at phone and watching a lecture
selective attention
- focusing on one input and ignoring other information
- ignoring distractions nearby and focusing on watching tv
why do we need selective attention
- we have limited resources
-must prioritize what we process in order to act effectively
spatial attention
selective attention on a specific space
- in attention tests it corresponds to cues like above or below
feature attention
selective attention on specific features of the environment
-in attention tests it corresponds to cues like black, red, dog, cat
congruent trials vs inconvenient trials
in tests that measure stimuli detection - congruent trials are when the stimulus matches the cue and inconvenient trials are when the stimulus doesn’t - we are faster at detecting stimuli in congruent trials
change blindness
failure to detect changes in stimuli in an attended zone
flicker technique paradigm
a way to measure change blindness
two very similar visual images are presented with an interstimulus mask (grey screen) so that they flicker - sometimes there are small changes in the images
most people are often unable to notivce the changes
early selection model (broadbent’s filter model)
we can’t pay attention to all the information we receive, so we filter out information early on in the processing process
all information enters a sensory buffer and is then filtered out at the level of perception, before it is processed for meaning (semantic analysis) - goes througha. ‘detector’ that processes meaning
the information that makes its way through is then processed for meaning, enters awareness, and leads to a response
filtered out information quickly decays in the sensory buffer
dichotic listening tasks
two simultaneous messages presented to each ear - people are better at recalling information ear by ear - trying to remember all the information that was presented in order, rather than remembering the simultaneous message - this is because accessing the simultaneous message requires accessing the sensory buffers in each ear one after the other in order to retrieve each piece of information - switching between the two takes longer and information decays
shows that information is selected for attention, at perception
shadowing tasks
two simultaneous messages in each ear, but people are only asked to attend to one ear
people cannot remember the content of the unattended ear, but can notice sensory features, like gender of speaker, new noises
shows that unattended info is not processed for meaning
critiques of early selection filter models
un attended info can break through
studies have shown that parts of us still attend to the unattended ear - skin conductance goes up in ps who hear words they associate with a painful shock in their unattended ear
treisman’s attenuator model
not all information gets filtered out, the influence of unattended information is just dialed down - some aspects of unattended information are still processed for meaning
late selection filter models
we process input at the level of meaning, and then select what we want to process further - means that both attended and unattended info is processed
stroop task
it is more difficult to name the color of the ink a color name is written in when the name of the color does not line up with the ink that it is written in
suggests that we process both the written color name(unattended - not the goal) and the ink color(attended) and that these two pieces of information confuse us, and impair our performance
controlled vs automatic tasks
controlled - tasks that require effort and voluntary top down attention - naming the color of the ink
automatic - highly familiar and well practiced tasks that do not require voluntary top down attention - reading color names
support for late selection filter models
english speakers were hypnotized to think that the color names in the stroop test were in a language they didn’t speak - when tested, they had no trouble identifying ink colors - means that automatic processing removed, and interference effect gone
load theory
attentional filtering occurs at different points depending on how much we need to pay attention to the task at hand
low load task
a task that is easy and doesn’t require a lot of resources - means that we can process non attended information at a later stage - to the level of meaning
high load task
a task that is difficult and requires a lot of attentional resources - non attended information gets processed out at early stages in the pipeline - level of perception
central resource capacity definition of load
we have one resource pool from which all attention resources (across sensory modalities) are stored
- explains why things like auditory distractions (radio) can distract from visual tasks (driving)
multiple resource capacity view
we have different resource pools for every sensory modality - the load depends on whether the relevant and irrelevant information from the same pool (sensory modality)
why reading directions (visual) is more distracting than hearing directions while driving (visual)
inattentional blindness
inability to perceive information outside of the attentional spotlight - what we are focusing on
bottleneck problem of attention
we receive too much information, so the brain has to choose what to focus on
cocktail party effect
ability to pay attention to a conversation in a loud and crowded environment
Erikson Flanker task
when trying to search for a target letter among distractors, the difficulty varies by what is flanking, or distracting, for the target item - irrelevant distractors make the task easier, whereas, congruent distractors (similar) make the task harder
evidence for late processing/attentional load- ps can’t help but process the flankers, and when they are similar to what they are searching for, it makes the task more difficult
load version of the flanker task
incompatible flankers only caused a slower reaction time - distraction in lower load conditions of a task because there is left over attention to spend whereas in the high load task, ps have to be more focused and are less easily distracted
attention span in gamers
gamers are able to better distribute their attention out a central task, and process flankers in both low and high load conditions
