Simon and Chabris - Background & Theory Flashcards

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1
Q

What is visual perception?

A

a cognitive process in which an individual interprets, organises, and elaborates on information that enters the brain via the eyes

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2
Q

How does the brain perceive or interpret visual information?

A

via the optic nerve

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3
Q

Why is visual perception often criticised?

A
  • too much information to process
  • selective nature
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4
Q

How is the brain selective with information?

A

it filters out what is relevant and essential & omits what is not

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5
Q

What highly influences what people see?

A

the brain as it subjectively decides what to focus on

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6
Q

What is in-attentional blindness?

A

refers to not noticing something because attention is focused on something else

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7
Q

What does this study show?

A

that if someone is focused on a particular task (involving visual perception) other events (even unusual or unexpected) go unnoticed

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8
Q

What are the main types of theory for this study?

A
  • Focused Visual Attention
  • Change Blindness
  • In-attentional Blindness
  • Divided attention
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9
Q

What does the theory of focused visual attention say about our environment?

A

there is too much going on in every day life simultaneously than can be perceived at any one time

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10
Q

What are the mechanisms of attention meant to do?

A

select objects of interest for further processing

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11
Q

What does vision do as a mechanism of attention?

A
  • provided by eye movements
  • fixate on particular regions so they benefit from the greater activity of the fovea
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12
Q

What is the fovea?

A

region at the back of the eye responsible for central and sharp vision

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13
Q

What does vision allow?

A

us to fixate on things of importance in our environment

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14
Q

Why is attention necessary?

A

to detect environmental change

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15
Q

What does the change blindness theory suggest about people?

A

that individuals do not detect large and obvious changes in the environment when they are not in the scene of centre interest

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16
Q

What do people remember and perceive according to the change blindness theory?

A

only objects and details that receive focused attention

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17
Q

Why do people have in-attentional blindness even when fixated on something?

A

because a visually demanding task ‘loads’ the brains attention so an individual becomes blind to distractions and performance improves

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18
Q

What is a result of not paying attention to distractions?

A

improved performance

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19
Q

What is Kahneman’s theory about divided attention?

A

limited capacity theory

20
Q

What is the limited capacity theory?

A
  • limited amount of attention is allocated
  • attention has a capacity
  • capacity of attention is task dependent
21
Q

What is Allport, Eysenck, and Baddley’s theory of divided attention?

A

multi-channel theory

22
Q

What is the multi-channel theory?

A
  • there are multiple modules for processing
  • different modules for different tasks
  • easy to divide between modules
23
Q

What is Schneider and Shiffin’s theory of divided attention?

A

the automaticity model

24
Q

What is the automaticity model?

A
  • that automaticity develops with practice
  • consistent mappings between stimuli and response
  • action and reaction are consistent
  • varied mappings = same action diff reaction
25
Q

What is an example of the automaticity model?

A

tennis and badminton
- same action
- different reaction
tennis allows ball to hit the floor badminton does not

26
Q

What is Norman and Shallice’s theory of divided attention?

A

SAS - Supervisory Attentional System

27
Q

What is SAS?

A
  • schemas
  • activated or repressed
  • influence of environmental conditions
  • every stimulus condition turns on the activation of a response
  • contention scheduling = control over behaviour and thoughts
  • SAS controls schema activation
28
Q

What do previous studies of attention show?

A

increasing interest in the issue of the precision of visual representations

29
Q

What is the typical format of previous research?

A
  • a continuous task
  • requires to focus on one aspect of dynamic visual scenes whilst ignoring others
  • an unexpected event
30
Q

What are the results of previous research?

A
  • majority of observers did not report seeing the unexpected event even though it was clearly visible
31
Q

What issues did previous researchers encounter?

A

implications for the understanding of perception with and without attention

32
Q

What approach which fell out of use did Sperry wish to revive?

A

empirical approach

33
Q

Which researchers formed the basis of this study?

A

Becklen, Cervone, Stoffregen

34
Q

What is Becklen and Stoffregen’s study about?

A

dual attention in dynamically structured naturalistic events

35
Q

What are the key points of the dual attention - Becklen and Stoffregen study?

A
  • videotapes of two naturalistic events
  • basketball game and a vocalising face
36
Q

Who are the key figures for previous research into in-attentional blindness?

A

Mack and Rock (1998)

37
Q

What did Mack and Rock do?

A

ask participants to judge which of the two arms of a cross were longer

38
Q

What are the key points of Mack and Rock’s study?

A
  • 4th trial - unexpected object appeared
  • told on some trials that something would appear (demand characteristics)
  • 25% in-attentionally blind when cross was presented at fixation and object parafoveally
  • 75% in-attentionally blind when cross parafoveally and unexpected object fixation
  • observers typically notice an unexpected object if it is their own name or a smiley face
39
Q

What is object parafoveally?

A

when the object is not fully in sight and blurred into the background

40
Q

What did Rubin and Hua find?

A

that observers do not tend to notice their own name if a letter is changed

41
Q

What was Becklen and Neisser’s previous research into selective looking?

A
  • two overlapping simultaneous events
  • hand slapping game
  • people passing a basketball
42
Q

What did Becklen and Neisser’s procedure look like?

A

had to press a button every time they saw a slap or a pass

43
Q

What was Becklen, Neisser, and Littman’s previous research into selective looking?

A
  • two ball games
  • black shirts vs. white shirts
  • a transparent woman with an umbrella = unexpected event
44
Q

What was Becklen and Cervone’s previous research into selective looking?

A
  • investigating the effect of eliminating the delay between umbrella woman’s appearance and the questioning of subjects
  • found no difference
45
Q

What was Stoffregen’s previous research into selective looking?

A
  • a single video camera
  • no superimposing where the umbrella woman occlued (obstructed) the players
  • only had 12 passes
  • umbrella woman was noticeable for longer (12 seconds)
  • people smaller on screen
  • 3/20 reported seeing unexpected object