Week 6

Question 1

Moray (1970) did an experiment that looked at the cost of divided attention, comparing the accuracy of detecting beep volumes in three attention conditions:

1. Selective
2. Exclusive OR (attend to both channels, with loud beeps on each NEVER co-occurring)
3. Inclusive OR aka AND (attend to both channels with loud beeps sometimes co-occurring)

What were the results? Which condition had the most accurate beep detection rate?

Answer 1

Most accurate: Selective

Next most accurate: Exclusive OR

Least accurate: Inclusive OR

And the last was dramatically less accurate

Question 2

Moray’s (1970) divided attention task measured the participant perceptive accuracy in various attention scenarios. The findings were:

1. EXCLUSIVE OR is worse that SELECTIVE

and

2. INCLUSIVE OR aka AND is worse that EXCLUSIVE OR

How does EARLY selection theories handle these findings?

Answer 2

The first finding IS predicted by EARLY selection

because it predicts that dividing attention will attenuate attention (I think because both channels essentially become ‘unattended’??)

However the SECOND finding is NOT

because the level of attenuation shouldn’t depend on the identify/content of the stimulus, (yet in the attenuation was greater when both stimuli were target stimuli - ie loud beeps)

Question 3

Moray’s (1970) divided attention task measured the participant perceptive accuracy in various attention scenarios. The findings were:

1. EXCLUSIVE OR is worse that SELECTIVE

and

2. INCLUSIVE OR aka AND is worse that EXCLUSIVE OR

How does LATE selection theories handle these findings?

Answer 3

The first finding is NOT predicted by LATE selection

because n the absence of a second target there shouldn’t be any attentional competition (and therefore no degradation of accuracy

But it DOES predict the second finding

because two simultaneous targets will both activate the ‘pertinence’ button, thereby compete to get through the filter (think two big blokes walking through a door together)

Question 4

Stepping back, what are the two main ways of classifying theories of attention?

Answer 4

1. Structural (bottleneck) theories

2. Capacity (resource) theories

Question 5

What’s the main difference between structural theories and capacity theories?

Answer 5

In capacity theory, capacity can be allocated FLEXIBLY to simultaneous tasks

As opposed to one or other

Question 6

What is the experiment by Li et al (2002) that demonstrates the capacity theory approach to attention using a ‘gist task’

Answer 6

The Dual Task Performance experiment, in which participants had a central task and one of two peripheral tasks, one being easy and the other being hard.

Participants performed more poorly on the harder (more attentionally demanding) task

Question 7

What was the experiment that demonstrated capacity theory by showing that different types of task (ie different attentional difficulty) have different ‘trade off functions’?

Answer 7

The multi-modality one buy Bonnel and Hafter (1998) - Auditory and Visual Dual Tasks

Think the curve one

Question 8

What is the main shortcoming of capacity theory and what is its key value?

Answer 8

Shortcoming = vagueness

Value = new experiments it led to, particularly on the divided attention flexibility

Question 9

Turning to visual attention, what is the experimental paradigm developed by Posner for studying the ‘spotlight of attention’?

Answer 9

The Spatial Cuing Paradigm

Question 10

In Posner’s Spatial Cuing Paradigm, the participant’s attention it directed to a given box on the screen, and then there is a delay before the stimulus appears. What is the jargon name for that delay?

Answer 10

Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA)

Typically between 100ms up to 300-500ms

Question 11

What was the main finding of Posner’s Spatial Cuing Paradigm, and why was it controversial?

Answer 11

That the cuing affected response time

This was controversial because people didn’t expect cuing to have an impact on what was basically the simplest possible visual task

Shouldn’t get ‘attentional effects’

Question 12

What are the two accounts/explanations for the causes of cuing effects in Posner’s Spatial Cuing Paradigm?

Answer 12

1. Switching Time

2. Unequal Capacity Allocation (jam on toast)

Question 13

What are the two systems for orienting visual attention?

Answer 13

1. Top down - volitional - ENDOGENOUS
2. Bottom up - something captures our attention - EXOGENOUS

We need both to function

Question 14

What are the two forms of evidence for there being two separate attentional control systems?

Answer 14

1. The cuing effect curve is different for endogenous (slow, constant) and exogenous (faster, ephemeral) cues
2. The endogenous attention system is impacted by additional attentional demands (capacity theory) but the exogenous one is not
3. INHIBITION OF RETURN whoa