Week 3 Attention Flashcards
attention
the ability to focus on specific stimuli or locations
selective attention
attending to one thing while ignoring others - have to select relevant info
distraction
one stimulus interfering with the processing of another stimulus
attentional capture
a rapid shifting of attention usually caused by a stimulus such as a loud noise, bright light or sudden movement
divided attention
paying attention to more than one thing at a time
interference depends on how practiced the tasks are (automaticity)
automaticity vs controlled
automaticity: practice leads to stored information that takes away mental effort
-without intention
-doesnt give rise to conscious awareness
-doesnt interfere with other mental activities
controlled: deliberate and voluntary allocation of mental effort - sometimes can become automatic
describe Broadbents early filter model of attention
Sensory memory holds all info, filter identifies attended message by physical characteristics and lets that through/filters out other stuff, the detector then processes it -> output is STM
give an example that was against broadbent
Moray’s dichotic listening, could pick up words with meaning in the unattended ear (Dear Aunt Jane) -> used top-down processing and knowledge of meaning to switch between ears
Treisman’s attenuation model
Intermediate-selection model
attended message selected early
filter is replaced with attenuator that analyzes messages physically AND meaningfully
attenuator will amplify the attended message, the other message gets through but weaker
sends info to the dictionary unit that stores info to memory for better retrieval next time
the idea behind late filters is that
filtration happens after recognition (sense->interpret-> filter)
attentional capacity depends on the ___ and ___ of the person
alertness, automatic/effortful task they are doing
describe the dictionary unit in Treismans model
contains words that has thresholds for activation - important/common have low thresholds
what are the two general definitions of attention
it is a mental process (concentrating effort), and it is a limited mental resource
why was there a shift to capacity models?
filter models are hard to distinguish and dont cover all cases
if distractors have overlapping features with the target, identifying the target becomes
harder
disadvantage of automaticity
hard to override and undo
can lead to errors
what is choking under pressure
When someone is expected to do really well, but when they go to perform they don’t do as well
Practice until automatic, but pressure makes brain take over with controlled processes - not as efficient
Load theory of attention
proposes that ability to ignore distractors depends on the perceptual load of the task because that affects their processing capacity
ability to ignore distractor stimulus also depends on how powerful the stimulus is
Stroop effect
task-irrelevant stimuli are hard to ignore
is scanning based on cognitive factors top-down or bottom up
top-down, our scanning is influenced my knowledge and preferences a person brings to the situation
- scene schemas
what are some ways we can redirect our attention
scanning a scene with eye movements (make many fixations of clear vision/attention)
scanning based on stimulus salience
scanning based on cognitive factors
scanning based on task demands (order of actions like making a sandwich)
what is stimulus salience
The physical properties of a stimulus (color, contrast, movement)
bottom up processing
what is overt attention
Shifting attention from one place to another by moving our eyes
what is covert attention
shifting attention while keeping the eyes still (within the mind or without the inference of eye movements)
what is controlled attention and what is it for
mental effort, limited
When you’re doing a task to you have to take different skills into account and different priorities
- This is where attention comes in
○ Waxes and wanes
§ More resources if well rested, fewer if you’re tired
More difficult the task, the more resources you need
it is for perception
in a visual search what is easier, feature or conjunction search
feature
what is the feature integration theory
perception occurs in two stages
- preattentive (get physical features)
- Attention processes (glue features together)
info coming in from world is processed independently and then combined by attention
feature/salience map
involved in feature integration theory
neurons respond to things differently and with different complexity
By seeing simple stimuli, brain can establish where different features are in a ‘map’ like way
- Features live in different ‘sections’
○ When we combine info across features is when we need attention
Attention is the spotlight, and features that correspond to that are brought together
- Attention brings together these pieces for us to see a whole object
describe rapid parallel and serial processing of feature integration theory
Predicts rapid parallel processing
- Just use a feature map and whatever is different is easily identified
Predicts when we combine features, we do it in a serial way
- More complex, more steps to go through
- features combined by focused attention
error that can occur with focused attention
conjunction errors (accidentally combine wrong features)
Vigilance is
the ability to maintain a focused state of attention over time
what is the opposite of controlled attention
automaticity
inattentional blindness
when controlled/conscious attention takes away from noticing other things in the environment
what is one way to measure divided attention
Dual-task procedure
- have someone do two tasks and measure performance on secondary task to measure influence of the primary
subtraction
Strayer and Jonston’s pursuit tracting task
joystick to keep cursor on moving target, and respond to red or green light
dual task paradign
difference of talking on cell in car vs talking to a person
Talking on cell phone while driving is really bad
- Lots of mental resources
Having someone else in the car is not as bad
- Person in the car is more aware of their surroundings
Person next to you will help navigate or know to be quiet
what is the psychological refractory period
period of time where a new process cannot be initiated due to the continued processing of choosing a response to another stimulus
- response selection for 1 must be complete before you can begin selection for 2
a response selection bottleneck
decision making: cannot distinguish between at the same time
sports fakeouts
Attentional neglect
where one side is affected but not completely gone - stuff on the side of neglect may just not be noticed
Posner’s attentional cueing paradigm
investigated attention by cuing participants correctly or incorrectly to see how they would respond (moving attention independently of eyes)
when incorrect would add processing to redirect and therefore took longer
how do we move our attention around
disengage
move
enhance (process)
why do illusory conjunctions occur
the preattentive stage has each feature existing independently, so they can be miscombined
what are the dorsal and ventral attentional networks
Ventral attention network: controls attention based on salience
Dorsal attention network: controls attention based on top-down processes
