week 4 - attention

Question 1

definition of attention

Answer 1

attention is the ways we select pen thing to be aware of out of many things
–> brain is bombarded with sensory stimuli
attention reduces this info into a conscious stream

Question 2

definition of attention
focused attention

Answer 2

a situation in which individuals try to attend to only one source of info while ignoring other stimuli (AKA selection attention)

Question 3

definition of attention
divided attention

Answer 3

a situation in which two tasks are performed at the same time (AKA multitasking)

Question 4

different approaches to study the limits of attention
inattentional blindness
what

Answer 4

we overestimate how much of the world are actually aware of
regularly miss important things because paying attention to something else

Question 5

different approaches to study the limits of attention
inattentional blindness
study

Answer 5

the original gorilla study (1999)
2 video styles
transparent (white and black teams superimposed)
opaque (all filmed at the same time)
2 counting conditions
easy ( no. of pases of team)
hard (arieral and bounce seperate)
did you spot the gorilla-

Question 6

different approaches to study the limits of attention
inattentional blindness
study findings

Answer 6

found that: inattentional blindness
can be induced easily in healthy participants
occurs more frequently if display transparaent
depends on difficulty of task

so attention is a limited resource that you distribute

Question 7

different approaches to study the limits of attention
central capacity

Answer 7

kehnewman 1973
a single central capacity that can be used flexibily
strictly limited resource
single pool shared between competing tasks
dual tasks costs will emerge when two tasks exceed that total resources available

Question 8

different approaches to study the limits of attention
central capacity
cognitive neuroscience evidence

Answer 8

ask participants to do dual tasks
event related potentions eliated by the onset of a pace cars brake light when on phone (dual) and when not on phone (single)

Question 9

different approaches to study the limits of attention
the attentional blink
what

Answer 9

can make something invisible by showing it quickly after something that is important to them

Question 10

different approaches to study the limits of attention
the attentional blink
study

Answer 10

raymond and shapiro
key conditions:
rapid visual stimuli (10Hz)
pariticpants asked to look for 2 objcts and report if they see the 2nd
T1 and T2
makes need to follow T1 and T2 for effect to work

Question 11

different approaches to study the limits of attention
the attentional blink
study findings

Answer 11

stream of letters move T2 relative to T1
if T2 presented 100ms after T1 50% of the time not seen / not reported

Question 12

different approaches to study the limits of attention
the attentional blink
explaintion

Answer 12

what causes this?
cognitive neuroscience
N400 - event related potential, seen when brain acesses meaning of a stimuli
if N400 is seen T2 is processed
luck 1999
T2 is processed although cannot report

Question 13

different approaches to study the limits of attention
the attentional blink
interference theory

Answer 13

shaprio 1994
T1, T2 and masks are all encoded into a temporal buffer (visual short term memory)
T2 is competing for retrival amoung these items
so although processed cannot retrieve T2
evidence: isaak 1999
with increased distractors AB increases

Question 14

different approaches to study the limits of attention
the attentional blink
a unified model

Answer 14

due to the masks following T1 increased attention needed to process T1
this leaves less attention to process T2
which leaves it vulnerable to decay
therefore cannot report

Question 15

theories of attention
the cocktail party problem

Answer 15

dichotic listening tasks (cherry 1953)
- unattended auditory info is processed to a lower level of complexity then attended info
–> different sounds played into each ear. ask participant to pay attention to one
–> 1/3 of participants report hearing their name in unattended channel (easier is voices are different - bottom up processing)
johnsrude 2013
a familiar voice is easier to pay attention to and easier to ignore
we use our own experiences of the world to help to solve cocktail party problem –> top down processing

Question 16

attention as early selection

Answer 16

broadbent’s (1958) theory
parallel input into sensory register
inputs are then filtered on the basis of its physical characteristics
- filtering prevents overloading of the limited capactity mechanism
- inputs remaining in the buffer after filter are avaliable for later (semantic) processing

Question 17

attention as early selection
strengths

Answer 17

accounts for cherry’s basic findings
- unattended stimuli undergo minimal processing before being filtered
accounts for findings from dichotic listening tasks
- filter selects an input on the basis of the most prominent physical characteristics distinguishing the inputs

Question 18

attention as early selection
weaknesses

Answer 18

at least some parts of the unattended stream are processed semantially
stimuli that people dont report, the experience can change their behaviour (eg. blindsight)
things that we dont pay attention to are processed to the same level of deep meanings

Question 19

attention as early selection
diagram

Answer 19

—-> sensory register —–> selective filter —-> STM—>
—->xxxxxxxxxxxxxx———>

Question 20

attention as late selection

Answer 20

deutsch and duetsch 1967
all stimuli fully analysed
bottleneck occurs late, before the response
the most relevent stimuli determines the response

Question 21

attention as late selection
weaknesses

Answer 21

early sensory event related potentials (100ms post stimulus) are smaller if unattented
- placed bottleneck much earlier during processing
results favour treismans’s perspective (leaky filter)

Question 22

attention as late selection
diagram

Answer 22

—->sensory register ——> STM—–>
—–>________________——->STM

Question 23

attention as flexible selection

Answer 23

treisman’s 1960 leaky filter
unattended info is attenuated/filtered after teh sensory register
- stimulus analysis proceeds through a heirarchy from physical characteristics of the stimulus up to its meaning and beyond
- when capacity is reached tests at the top of the heirarchy are precluded for all but the attended stimulus
-persice location of the bottleneck is more flexible than in broadbants
if reaches capacity early on –> attention applies early on

Question 24

attention as flexible selection
diagram

Answer 24

—>sensory register—>attenuator—–>limited capacity —>STM —>
idea of two inputs going into attenuator it reaches limited capacity so only on input comes out

Question 25

when is attention selection happening

Answer 25

probably flexible and infuenced by many top-down and bottom up processed

Question 26

evidence for topdown influences on attention selection

Answer 26

covert attention: The Posner Cueing Paradigm (1980)
sighted people can pay attention to a part of space that they arent directly looking at
- endogenous cues: top down, goal driven, choose to pay attention
- exogenous cues: bottom up, stimulus driven, makes you pay attention

so two different systems with different functions

Question 27

evidence for topdown influences on attention selection
exo or endo faster?

Answer 27

endo?
react faster

exo?
only faster if something happened quickly in the same space

Question 28

Posner’s attentional systems
endogenous

Answer 28

controlled by the individuals intentions and expectations
involved when central cues are presented
top down

Question 29

Posner’s attentional systems
exogenous

Answer 29

automatically shifts attention
involved when uniformative peripheral cues were presented
stimuli thjat are salient or that differ from other stimuli are most likely to be attended
bottom up

Question 30

Posner’s attentional systems
endogenous
parts of brain

Answer 30

dorsal parts of parietal lobe

Question 31

Posner’s attentional systems
exogenous
parts of brain

Answer 31

ventral regions of parietal lobe and moving into frontal lobe

Question 32

attention as a spotlight

Answer 32

posner 1980
endogenous attention is a limited resource that we distribute
–> this raises interesting qs
split?shape?continuous?jumps?what happens outside spotlight?how to we distribute?