Week 3 Slides Flashcards
Features of Attention
- Our Sensory Systems are sensitive to very small energy
- They are also flexible
- Under optimum conditions we can detect a candle 30 miles away
- Attention gives us the ability to focus on specific stimuli
Define Attention
Being able to focus on a specific stimuli or location in our environment
Define Attending
- How much a stimulus affects behaviour can demonstrate how much attention we pay to it
- Varied stimulus around a dimension (colour) and how we respond to that dimension
Lee, Hayes & Lovibond 2018
- Trained people to associate a snack was available from a vending machine when a blueish green light was presented
- People were shown 11 different colours and asked to say how sure they were a snack would arrive
- People were sure at S6 but less sure the further away the colours were
*
Drawbacks of Attending & Generalisation
Maladaptive Generalisation has been identified in clinical disorders
- Panic Disorder (lissek et al. 2010)
- PTSD (Grillon & Morgan, 1999; Morey et al.,)
- Generalised Anxiety Disorder (Lissek et al. 2014)
All these condition relate to attention
Morey et al 2015
- Used fear conditioning model to assess the generalisation of conditioned fear
- Found PTSD patients misidentified S5 as the CS more often and remembered S5 more often
- PTSD Symptom are more likely to be triggered by threat curs
- These cues are very different to the original trauma
- Resemblance and symbols can still be triggers
Mary Cover Jones
- Used Little Albert case to develop the first behaviour therapies
- Albert’s case shows that fears can generalise from the Initial event
- Exposure Therapy Associative Learning appear helpful to treat Phobia and PTSD
- Salience = Attention
- CS is the key part of Associative Learning
- If a person is not attending to CS there will be no learning
Two Theories about how Attention can Influence Salience
- Mackintosh 1975 - Salience is higher when it accurately predicts US
- Pearce-Hall 1980 - CS will be attended to more if the prediction of the US is uncertain
- Very different to being a poor predictor
- This is partial vs continuous reinforcement
These two theories may partly account for how the environment can capture our attention
Animal Attention to Stimuli
- Animals attend to stimuli when the environment is less predictable
- This helps avoid dangers and threats
- Also helps discover new opportunities
Mackintosh 1975 vs Pearce-Hall 1980
- Which theory is right?
- Haselgrove et al., says both occur simultaneously
- Showed when stimuli trained separately then brought together attention will be biased towards the unpredictable stimuli
- When trained together attention is biased to the predictable stimuli
Summary of Attention
- Attention is how well we focus on certain stimuli or locations in the environment
- Generalisation Gradient tell us how we attend to stimulus
- Maladaptive Generalisation is connected to clinical disorders like PTSD
Summary of Associative Learning
- Attention being paid to the CS is measured by salience.
- Mackintosh (1975) - Attention is paid to more predictable
outcomes - Pearce Hall (1980) - Attention is paid to more unpredictable outcomes.
- Both appear to occur simultaneously.
Selective Attention
The ability to focus on one message while ignoring others
Distraction
One Stimulus interfering with the process of another stimulus
Divided Attention
Paying attention to more than one thing at a time
Attentional Capture
A quick shift of attention usually caused by loud, sudden noise, bright light or event
Dichotic Listening Procedure
- Presenting different stimuli to each ear
- Participant attends to one message by copying it
- Participants could not say what the information in the other ear was
- Some stimulus was processed because they could identify change in gender and tone of the message
Cocktail Party Effect
- Moray 1959
- people could not detect a word repeated 35 times
- But ⅓ people noticed when their name was used
- This is bottom up selectivity to a single stimulus
The Attentional Filter
- Is there a way to filter out information so we can only focus on information that is important
- Early vs Late processing gives different predictions
Broadbent’s Filter Model
Early Selection Model has 4 Key Components
- Sensory Memory
- Filter
- Detector
- Short-term Memory
Broadbent’s Filter Model - Sensory Memory
Holds all incoming information for a fraction of a second the transfers it to the next stage: The Filter
Broadbent’s Filter Model - Filter
Identifies attended messages based on physical characteristics and only attended message is passed on to the next stage: Detector
Broadbent’s Filter Model - Detector
Processes all information to determine higher level characteristics of the message
Broadbent’s Filter Model - Short-term Memory
Receives output of detector. Holds information for 10-15 seconds and may transfer it to long-term memory
- Attended message is separated from the incoming signal early in the analysis of the signal
- It filters a message before incoming information is analyzed for meaning.
- This would imply that incoming signals that are not of interest never make it to the analysis stage.
- This explains the results from the basic dichotic listening procedure.
- However, Broadbent’s filter model cannot account for the cocktail party effect
- People do in fact process things that they do not attend
to, such as their own name.
Criticism of Early Selection Model
- Gray & Wedderburn’s (1960) Dear Aunt Jane experiment.
- Participants can incorporate information from both streams if it makes more sense.
Attenuation Model of Selective Attention
- Leaky Filter Model
- Triesman `1964
- Selection occurs in two stages
- Attenuator: - Mechanism that analyzes incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning.
- Dictionary Unit: Contains words, each of which has a threshold for being activated.
- Leaky Filter Model
- Triesman `1964
- Selection occurs in two stages
- Attenuator: - Mechanism that analyzes incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning.
- Dictionary Unit: Contains words, each of which has a threshold for being activated.
Leaky Filter Graph
- Shows thresholds that may exist for words
- Own name has low threshold so is easily detected
- Other words are higher because they are used less
- They may also be less important to listener
Evidence against Leaky Filter Model
- Mackay (1973)
- Asked participants whether the meaning of the attended sentence was:
- ‘They were throwing stones at the side of the river’ or
- ‘They were throwing stones at the savings and loan association’
- Moray (1969) paired electric shocks with words.
- Participants showed galvanic skin response (GSR)
- Indicates emotional arousal when these
words were then presented to the unattended ear.
Late Selection Models
- Deutsch & Deutsch 1963. 1967
- Selection doesn’t happen until the full meaning is processed
- All stimulus is analysed and important stimulus determine response
- MacKay 1973 - Attended ear people heard ambiguous sentences and heard biased words
- They saw two unambiguous sentences and chose the intended meaning of the message
- Definition of the bias word affected people’s choice even when they were not aware of the word
Load Theory of Attention
- Lavie 1995, 2000
- How do people ignore distracting stimuli when trying to focus their attention
- Process Capacity - How much information a person can handle in a moment
- Perceptual Load - The difficulty of a given task
Load Theory of Attention - Processing Capacity
How much information a person can handle at any given moment.
Load Theory of Attention - Perceptual Load
The difficulty of a given task
Load Theory of Attention - Visual Search
- Hard tasks result in longer reaction times
- If task-irrelevant stimuli is introduced with easy tasks responses are slower than for hard tasks
- Distraction is less likely for high load tasks because no capacity remains for the potential distracting stimulus
Drawbacks of Attentional Capture
- Sometimes we can’t control if we get distracted or not
- Stroop Effect demonstrates powerful task irrelevant stimulus can capture attention
Stroop Effect - Attentional Capture
- Hard to read the name of the colour because the dimension colour is too distracting
- Reading is automatic and you cannot avoid paying attention to both meanings of the word
Value-Driven Attentional Capture (VDAC)
- Anderson, Laurent & Yantis 2011
- Visual search for a target is slower in the when accompanied by a task-irrelevant item similar to a target that was rewarded earlier
- Value Driven Attentional Capture
- Anderson, Laurent & Yantis 2011
- Visual search for a target is slower in the when accompanied by a task-irrelevant item similar to a target that was rewarded earlier
Anderson, Laurent & Yantis 2011
- Value Driven Attentional Capture
- Participants were significantly slower to respond to diamond when distractor was present
- Responding disrupted by high reward distractors
- Value of distractors learned in training was able to Capture Attention
- Captured attention due to their Learned Reinforcement Value
Dichotic Listening Procedure
- We can selectively attend to stimuli and ignore unattended stimuli
- Cocktail Party Effect
- Attention Filter
Broadbent Early Selection Model
- Proposes 4 Key Components
- Sensory memory
- Filter
- Detector
- Short term memory
Treisman’s Attenuation Model
Selection occurs in two stages
- Attenuator
- Dictionary Unit
Early Prediction Models of Attention
- Fail to account for results that show unattended stimuli are processed
- Later models propose that Selection doesn’t occur until messages are processed enough to distinguish their importance
Lavie’s Load Theory of Attenuation
Focuses on two Important Factors:
- Processing Capacity
- Perceptual Load
- Attentional capture describes how attention can be manipulated by other stimuli in the environment
- Stroop Effect shows how powerful task-irrelevant stimuli can capture attention
- Value-driven attentional capture experiments show that reinforcement value can influence the extent to which a stimulus captures attention
Visual Attention
- Attention can be used to select between things we are interested in processing
- There is a strong link between eye movements , attention and perception
Determinants of Eye Movment
- Bottom up and Top Down Processes
- Stimulus Salience
- Scene Schema
Eye Movement - Bottom Up Processes
- Stimulus Salience
- Areas that stand out and capture attention
Eye Movement - Top Down Processes
- Scene Schema
- Knowledge about what is contained in typical scenes
Visual Attention and Task Focus
- Eye movements are determined by the task at hand
- Timing of when people look at specific places is determined by a sequence of actions involved in a task
Covert Attention
- Shifting attention without making eye movements
- Visual attention can be sent to focus on different places in a scene with out eye movements
- Evident in sports people
Do we direct attention to Places or objects?
- Posner 1980
- Attentional Spotlight - “Everything within a small region of the visual field can be seen clearly, but it is much harder to see anything not falling within the attentional spotlight beam.”
- Eriksen & St James 1986
- Zoom Lens Model - “Attention directed to a given region
- of the visual field; this area can increase or decrease with task demands.”*
Do we direct attention to places or Objects?
- Eriksen & St James 1986
- Zoom Lens Model
Attention to a Location
- People respond faster to a target that is in the same place than at an unexpected location
- Even when their eyes were fixed and did not move
Criticism of Location Based Attention
- Attention can be given to two figures that are in the same spatial location
- Optical Illusions
Attention to an Object
- Egly et al. 1994
- Participants saw tow side by side rectangles and a target cue.
- Reaction time was fasted when target appeared in the cue space
- Reaction time was faster when the target was in the same rectangle
- Enhancing effect of attention spreads throughout the object
- Same-Object Advantage
Attention to Location or Object
- Research is not conclusive
- Mozer & Sitton 1998
- Object-based selection operates either before or at the same time as location-based selection
Can we attend to more than one thing at a time?
Divided Attention
- Schneider and Shiffrin 1977
- Divide attention between remembering target and monitoring rapidly presented stimuli
- Practice helps to simultaneously do two things that were difficult at first
Automatic Processing - Divided Attention
- Schneider & Schiffrin 1997
- Arrow Indicates point when participants reported the task became automatic
- Automatic Processing happens without intention
- Only uses some of our cognitive resources
- BUT! Only true for simple tasks
- As difficulty increases our ability to attain automaticity decreases
Learning to Divide Attention
- Shahan & Podlesnik 2006
- Matching to Sample - X was varied between 0.1 to 0.9
- Relative Accuracy varied according to matching law
- This means that the attention being given to either dimension in the sample depended on the relative probability of reinforcement.
100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study
- Dingus 2006
- Studied Distracted Driving - Video recorders placed in 100 cars. Recorded 82 crashes and 771 near crashes in 2 million miles of driving.
- 82% of crashes & 67% near crashes driver was inattentive in the 3 seconds prior.
- Accident risk is 4X higher when using a cell phone.
Distracted Driving
- Strayer & Johnston 2001
- Participants on phone missed twice as many red lights and took longer to apply brakes
- Hands Free had the same result
- Strayer et al. 2017
- Using Google Now, Siri and Cortana for music, calls and texting still impairs performance
Overt Attention
- Shifting attention by making eye movements
- Strong link between eye movement, attention and perception
Stimulus Salience
Determined by bottom up eye movement
Scene Schema
Determined by top down eye movement
Covert Attention
Shifting attention without making eye movements
Task Determination
Eye movements also determine by task focus
Attention based on Location or Objects
- There is evidence that we can direct our attention based on both factors
- Practice can help people to simultaneously do two things at once.
- Divided Attention depends on reinforcement associated with that stimulus
What Stimuli determines Behaviour in Social Interactions
- Words
- Body Language
- Tone & Pitch of Voice
- Gestures
- Facial Expressions
- Environment Context
- Who you’re talking to
Selective Stimulus Control
- Stimulus Overselectivity
- Occurs when only one, or a small subset of, stimuli
controls behaviour
Restricted Stimulus Control
- Stimulus Overselectivity
- Occurs when only one, or a small subset of, stimuli
controls behaviour
Stimulus Overselectivity
Occurs when only one, or a small subset of, stimuli
controls behaviour
Lovas et al 1971
Stimulus Overselectivity is prevalent in individuals with autism spectrum disorder
Rincover and Koegal 1975
- Overselectivity leads to difficulties with acquisition, maintenance and generalisation
Implications of Stimulus Overselectivity
- Poses a challenge for behavioural interventions
- Particularly prominent in people with clinical disorders
- Can underpin deficits in developmental domains such as:
- Social
- Language (reading, writing, verbal
- Academic
- Emotional
Factors that Impact Overselectivity
- Individuals with ASD are more likely to display this behaviour
- Stimulus Salience
- Reinforcement History
Stimulus Salience - Leader et al. 2009
- Tested children with and without ASD
- Compound stimuli comprised of two coloured circles side by side
- Varied Salience and Saturation of Stimuli
Stimulus Salience Results - Leader et al. 2009
- Overall ASD Children had weaker salience
- Large difference in control for ASD Kids in unequal salience condition
- differences were similar across groups with ASD Kids more likely to overselect
- Stimulus that is more salient are more likely to gain control
Reinforcement History
- Dube & McIlvane 1997
- 3 individuals with developmental disabilities
- Delayed Matching to Sample (DTMS) procedure in which participants matched one element of a compound sample
- Each element was associated with a high or low reinforcer rate prior to DMTS Training
- More accurate performance with elements previously associated with a higher reinforcer rate
Two Theories on why Overselectivity occurs
- Attention-Deficit Theories
- Comparator Performance Theories
Attention-Deficit Theories
- Dube 2009; Dube & McIlvane 1999; Lovaas et al. 1971
- Subjects do not observe or attend to stimuli during training
- As a result the stimuli does not control behaviour
Comparator Performance Theories
- Reed 2011; Reed et al 299, 2012; Reynolds & Reed 2018
- People can attend and learn about all stimuli
- Learning is not expressed in behaviour
- A Comparator Mechanism compares stimuli when it happens
- Mechanism selects most appropriate stimulus to control stimuli
Evidence for Attention-Deficit Theories
- Dube et al. 2010
- 4 neurotypical adults, 10 individuals with intellectual disability
- Used eye-tracking technology to measure observing
- Reinforcers were tokens
Evidence for Attention-Deficit Theories - Results
- 6 participants with ID had medium accuracy which indicates stimulus overselectivity
- Suggests failure to observe or attend may underlie overselectivity
- When wrong were very wrong, when correct were very correct
Evidence for Comparator Learning Theories
- Reed et al 2012
- Attention is paid to all stimuli but only some control behaviour
- Overselected stimuli extinguished after learning
- Can lead to revaluation of the underselected stimuli
- Attending must have occurred at some stage for revaluation to occur
- Perhaps control of the underselected stimulus emerges because of changes in relative reinforcer rates (Shahan & Podlesnik, 2006)?
Stimulus Overselectively can negatively impact Behaviour
- This is because underselected stimulus are not learned without attention
- Poses a challenge for behaviour interventions
Overselectivity is high in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Is affected by variables such as Salience and Reinforcement History
Reinforcement History
A consequence that follows an operant response that increases the likelihood of that response occurring in the future.
Summary so far:
- Overselectivity may occur because subjects fail to attend to all of the relevant stimuli, or because only some of the stimuli are imbued with reinforcement value.
- Interventions targeting attention and observing appear to reduce or prevent overselectivity
- Stimulus overselectivity is just one example of why it is important to understand what controls attention.
Inattentional Blindness
- Stimulus that is not attended to is not perceived
- Even when we might be looking straight at it
Change Blindness
- If shown two versions of a picture, Differences are not apparent
- People say they “would” have detected the change
Change Blindness in a Naturalistic Setting
- Simons & Levin’s 1998 were the first to demonstrate change blindness in the lab
- 50% of participants could not detect change
- More likely to notice change if they were in the same age group
- Performance dropped when they changed experimenter to a young construction worker
- Suggests group in/out bias
Binding
- Features like colour, form, motion combine to create our perception of a coherent object
- Binding allows integration of different kinds of information related to one thing.
Treisman’s Feature Integration Theory
- Preattentive stage is automatic and needs no effort
- People are unaware it’s happening
- Object is perceived into features during the Focused Attention Stage
Object ⇒ Preattentive Stage (analyse) ⇒ Focused Attention (perception) Stage ⇒ Perception
- Treisman’s Feature Integration Theory
- Preattentive stage is automatic and needs no effort
- People are unaware it’s happening
- Object is perceived into features during the Focused Attention Stage
Treisman & Schmidt 1982 Experiment
- Subjects report combination features from different stimuli
- May report a red circle but there is no red circle
- These are called Illusory Conjunction
- These happen because features are “free floating”
Illusory Conjunction
Mistakenly perceiving features of one stimulus as belonging to another nearby stimulus.
Feature Integration Theory
- Attention is the “Perceptual Glue”
- Features are combined in the Focused Attention Stage
- People correctly pair shapes and colours when they are told to ignore black numbers and focus on objects
Failure to Bind
- RM was patient with Balint’s Syndrome
- People with Balint’s syndrome have an inability to focus attention on individual objects.
- RM had a high number of illusory conjunctions reported.
- This is a problem in the Focused Attention Stage of Feature Integration theory
Balint’s Syndrome
- People with Balint’s syndrome have an inability to focus attention on individual objects.
- Cannot find target when there is a conjunction present
- Can find targets with only one target required
Types of Searches - Feature Integration Theory
- Feature Search - Looking for a single feature e.g. horizontal line
- Conjunction Search - Looking for two or more features in combination
What does Inattentional Blindness refer to?
- Observation that stimulus is not attended to is not perceived
- This even happens when people look straight at it
What is Change Blindness?
If we are shown two versions of a scenario we do not immediately perceive differences if we are not focusing on the changes
What is Binding?
Process an object by it’s features in combination to correctly perceive a coherent object
Summarise Treisman’s Feature Integration Theory?
- Objects are analysed into free floating features in preattentive stage
- Features are combined into coherent perception in the focused attention stage
- People with Balint’s Syndrome have difficulty combining features
- This is because of trouble in the focused attention stage
- May result in high number of illusory conjunctions
