PSYCH 213: attention

top-down attention w/ example

using deliberate, conscious decision to pay attention to something

• observer guided, endogenous attention

• include switch costs for tasks bc of assumption of information processing

“I want to eat a burrito” “I want to study for this test”

types of top-down attention

sustained attention/vigilance: focusing on one thing for entire duration

divided attention: multi-tasking, proven to not work well

• drop in performance after switching tasks

selective attention: focus on one input while ignoring other attention

• have limited info processing resources, must prioritize what to process

bottom-up attention w/ example & significance

stimuli-guided automatic attention— exogenous attention

ex: ambulance down the street

significance: important for survival, many cues have specialized processing regions in brain

• fearful stimuli, our name, addictive stimuli

Inverted U: Yerkes Dodson Law

optimal arousal for best attention is medium level

• depicts U in graph: when too little arousal (bored), too much (stressed)

  • perfect balance in between where still being challenged

  • optimal levels of norepinephrine

spatial neglect definition & example

damage to R hemisphere, causes deficits in spatial attention & cannot attend to info in opposite side of lesion (L side)

• ex: woman only drawing right side of daisies— no attention to left-sided details bc she can’t see left visual field so it doesn’t matter to her

affects all senses, not just vision: left side of world out of awareness (half of imaginations, memories, eats from one side of plate, reads only words on right side)

broadbent’s early selection filter model & dichotic listening tasks

filter info at level of perception, before info is processed for meaning

• filter between sensory info (u can hear it) & semantic meaning processed

• dichotic listening tasks:

  • ppl played 2 messages at same time in both ears, only have to recite from one ear (one left unattended)

    • don’t remember content of message they don’t have to recite bc they filter out sensory info before meaning processed

    • only remember minute details like gender of unattended info— details that don’t require deep processing

evidence against early selection filter model

unattended info can break thru certain situations

• ex: cocktail party, u hear ur name thru dialogue of another party

  • filtering unattended info out for meaning at that point

• ex: shocked/shadowing tasks— participants get shocked pairing w/ certain names in unattended ear that they aren’t supposed to listen to

  • when name that was paired w/ shocked plays their skin conductance increases — processed for meaning

attenuator model

early filter attenuates/reduces rather than blocks unattended material, filter moves depending on info importance

• meaningful info will not get blocked & make it thru— like hearing ur name in other conversation

• helps explain cocktail party example

late selection filter models & example

we process input at the level of meaning, then select what we want to process for attention

• seen thru stroop tasks

  • controlled tasks— naming color of ink, mismatched (incongruent trial)

  • automatic tasks— reading color names, striaghtforward (congruent trial)

• people slower in incongruent trial than congruent trials bc meaning of words is processed automatically, supporting late selection filter model

load theory & examples

attentional filtering/selection can occur at diff points of processing

• where filter is depends on how much of ur resources are being taken up

  • easy task, low load: you select ur attention at later level, (late selection filter model), process all info (unattended & attended) at same level of meaning

  • hard task, heavy load: you select ur attention at early level, filter out irrelevant info at level of perception so u retain ur needed resources for important attention

central resource capacity view & applied example

there’s one resource pool where all attention resources are allocated, doesn’t matter how distracting task is/from what senses the task pulls

• ex: driving simulation: either listened to radio (using diff sense) or no radio

  • would be equally distracted by audio & visual distraction

    • ex 2: listening to audio book & solving complex math problem difficult task

multiple resource capacity view & example applied

attentional load depends on match between relevant & irrelevant (distracting) info

• if pulling from same sense: will be more taxing on senses & will be more distracted

• if pulling from diff senses: will be less taxing & have minimal effects on loads— makes multi-tasking hypothetically possible

  • ex: listen to people speaking in scanner

    • low load: note if its quiet or loud voice speaking

    • high load: point out 2 syllable words in mono & trisyllabic word list spoken

  • had visual distraction— visual distraction had no effect on either performance because its from diff sense & doesn’t change for amount of loads

change blindness & example

failure to notice changes in scenes when change occurs during brief disruption

• ex: door study— person asks for directions then switches, half of ppl don’t notice diff person

• ex 2: continuity errors in old tv (Wizard of Oz)

• ex 3: flicker technique paradigm— repeated alteration of 2 images, most ppl dont notice difference

inattentional blindness & example

failing to notice smthing new/unexpected in environment you’re attending to

• ex: moon walking bear video

• deer jumps in front of car but you don’t notice even though you’re looking at road

activating attention

attention selectively focus on specific space region— like spotlight

• shifting attention involves disengaging & reorienting to another space

posner cueing task— explain SOA phenomena & inhibition of return

SOA: time btwn start of cue & start of target

• short SOA: faster valid trials, attention is already there

• longer SOA: longer valid trials, you look away from that spot & are looking other places alr (inhibition of return)

IOR: demonstrates that at longer delays of space btwn target & cue— attention is inhibited from going to recently attended space if nothing is showing up there

• we will move our eyes away to look for possible new areas

• ex: helps for looking for candy bar in aisle— we won’t will easily scan to evade checking the same place twice

definition of pre attention phase & what ideas r encapsulated in this for integrating features

bottom-up, automatic processing of features

• explains pop-out effect— time taken to find feature that is distinct by one feature is independent of # of items there, only for features processed automatically in v1

  • it just pops out 😂

• feature search: search for object that differs by 1 feature is automatic & requires bottom-up

focused attention phase definition & ideas encapsulated

object features integrated to guide search thru top-down, voluntary feature search

• conjunction search: search for object that differs from distractors based on many features

  • as # of distractors increase— reaction time is longer

    • ex: where’s Waldo

overt visual attention

attending to smthing w/ eye movement

covert visual attention

attending to smthing w/o eye movement

cultural differences relating to attention in East Asian students vs Western students looking at image

east asian: pay more attention to details

western: pay more attention to center objects

why is multi-tasking/divided attention proven to not fully work

divided attention requires switching tasks, a process that isn’t automatic

• task switching → drop in performance, mental sets(way of thinking) need to change