Week 7 Audition Flashcards
Describe attention
We are continuously exposed to more information that is possible to process simultaneously, so we utilise our resources and selectively focus on important pieces of information. This selection is called attention.
When does selection occur?
During pathway from sensation to action, there is a point at which a person cannot process all the stimuli in parallel - attentional bottleneck.
Describe the early selection theory #1 Filter Theory
Only some information is selected for further processing
2 different auditory tracks in each ear, only speak one message, unattended message ignored, however some non-semantic-information retained
Cocktail party effect - you can hear your name mentioned at a party, but not all the conversations. CONTRARY EVIDENCE
Explain the early selection theory #2 Salience of attention theory
Early partial filter to unimportant messages, not all information is filtered out entirely, aka not a complete filter
Explain late selection theory
The filter occurs after the information has undergone screening for semantic information. Target will be equally detected in both ears
Which theory is generally accepted, late or early selection theories?
Early is accepted, attentional selection is early!
Top-down, goal driven attention is
voluntary
Bottom-up, stimulus driven is
reflexive
Describe object based attention
Quicker detection quicker when object is located in same object
Describe Posner’s cueing paradigm
Either a valid, non-valid or no cue was given. Unexpected stimuli gave the slowest reaction time, then no-expectation, then expected was the fastest. Key remark - participants eyes not moving. Conclusions - attention is changing independent of eye movement.
Describe reflexive attention
Similar protocole to Posners, but time delay in between cue and response stimuli. Response time slower in response to ‘helping flash’. Conclusions - reflexive attention prevents attention from being ‘stuck’ at reflexive point for too long.
Describe object-based attention
Quicker reaction times to cued objects, same spatial difference apart, but difference is belonging to either ‘object’, same flashes in the same object elicit quicker reaction times.
Describe attentional aspects of visual search
Finding a target is more difficult when the aspects of the scene are comprised of the same aspects as the target stimuli. e.g. horizontal bars e.t.c.. Array size of stimuli increases RT in difficult condition, but not in easy condition.
Describe feature integration theory
people most focus attention on a stimuli before they can integrate the features into a pattern , without focussed attention. the individual aspects of the stimuli are noticed, but not integrated accurately
Describe the Stroop effect
3 words, in different colours, trouble reading the words which juxtapose the colours. RT increases massively
