Unit 8; Attention Flashcards
James’ definition of attention
“Withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, as opposed to several objects / trains of thought and a dazed state.”
Attention
Our ability to selectively focus on the most relevant aspects of our environment
Selection
Attending to an object to select it apart from the unattended objects.
How do we get distracted
Irrelevant information overwhelms us.
Automatic Processes of attention
- involuntarily capture your attention
- fast, efficient, obligatory
Controlled processes of attention
- conscious attention
- slow and effortful
Salient info
+ what does it do
Automatically captures your attention
Attention spotlight
- focus like a spotlight
- faster reaction time
- higher accuracy
Cueing paradigms
Attentional spotlight is automatically attracted to cues
Spotlights vs filters
Spotlights enhance stimulus
Filters suppress surrounding “noise”
Single filter model + who + explains what?
+ unattended info is …
Only info that passes through PHYSICAL filter is processed further + deeper
- Unattended info is eliminated
Broadbent
Explains cocktail party
Dual filter model + who + explains what?
+ unattended info is…
Attenuation of info that passes through the physical filter, then through the semantic filter
- Unattended info is attenuated
Treisman
Explains cocktail party + breakthrough
The stroop task
Say the colour the word is written in
either:
congruent match
or
incongruent mismatch
demonstrates that attention is facilitated by stimulus relevance
Proportion congruent manipulation
Change in ratio of congruent to incongruent trials
High congruency
task rel/irrel
Bias attention to task-irrelevant info
Increased stroop
Low congruency
when + effect on stroop
Bias attention to task-relevant info
Decreased stroop
Evidence for automatic processes
in stroop
Word reading influences performance even when the word is to be ignored
Evidence for controlled processes
People can adopt consciously controlled world reading strategies that manipulate the stroop effect
Visual search tasks
model what
Model real tasks such as searching for a friend in the crowd, looking for keys, etc.
Set size
of items to search through
Set size effect
Set size increase = more difficult to find
Pop-out effect
When the object of a visual search is easily found regardless of set size.
- easily influenced by colour
Conjunction searches
Use 2+ features to create a more difficult search
- as opposed to a single feature search
Flashbulb memories
A highly detailed and vivid ‘snapshot’ of a moment. Typically occurs at a time when an important piece of news is heard / seen as it is salient/emotional info.
- Not always accurate as they rely on both attention and memory
