Multitasking Flashcards
Dichotic listening experiment.
Broadbent’s filter model proposes that the attended message is separated from the incoming signal early in the analysis of the signal.
Listeners can focus on one message at a time.
Early selection model
Because the filter is active at an early stage of the process
Treisman
Replaced the filter concept with the attenuator- language and meaning can be used to separate messages.
Aka the leaky filter.
Selective attention
Selective attention, the ability to focus on one message while ignoring all others, has been demonstrated using the dichotic listening procedure.
Attenuator
1) physical characteristics
2) language
3) meaning
Dictionary unit: words with high meaning for the listener have a low threshold of detection. Even if the signal is week the listen is sensitive to that signal - eg. Their name.
A late selection model
Most incoming information is processed to the level of meaning before the message to be further processed is selected.
Broadbent’s model of attention
1) sensory memory
2) the filter- identifies the message based on physical characteristics - tone of voice, pitch, speed of talking, accent.
3) the detector- determines the meaning. Only important attended info makes it to the detector.
4) into STM and also transfers to LTM
Mackay
Biasing words in the unattended ear influenced the interpretation of ambiguous sentences made in the attended ear.
Processing capacity
The amount of information people can handle and the limit on their ability to process incoming information.
Perceptual load
Related to the difficulty of the task.
High-load tasks: use up more of a persons processing capacity (full circle)
Low-load tasks: use a small amount of a persons processing capacity.
The greater capacity the task takes up the less room there is for attending to other information.
The stroop effect
Finding it harder to name the colors of the words than the colors of the shapes, experiencing the Stroop effect, which was first described by J. R. Stroop in 1935. This effect occurs because the names of the words cause a competing response and therefore slow responding to the target—the color of the ink. In the Stroop effect, the task- irrelevant stimuli are extremely powerful, because reading words is highly practiced and has become so automatic that it is difficult not to read them (Stroop, 1935).
Processing Capac
Divided attention
Paying attention to more than one thing at a time.
Becomes harder when the tasks become harder.
Controlled processing - conscious attention - one thing at a time
Automatic processing - practice makes the task automatic - no attention
The harder the task the lower the performance.
Eg. Driving and having a conversation in light traffic is easy, but once the traffic or road conditions become worse the task is harder and requires more controlled processing.
Dingus - 100- car naturalistic driving study. 4x more risk of accident when using phone.
Automatic processing
Without attention
At low cost to other cognitive resources.
Memory
The process involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas and skills after the original information is no longer present.
STM and WM
Both retain information for a short period of time (10-15 sec)
