SENSATION, PERCEPTION, ATTENTION BLOCK 4: PART 1

what is attention? 1 pt

an umbrella term that has been used to refer to all those aspects of human cognition that the subject can control and to all aspects of cognition having to do with limited resources or capacity, and methods of dealing with such restraints

what is attention according to cognitivism? 1 pt

the process that allows the selection of relevant info

what is stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA)? 1 pt

the time interval between the onset of one stimulus and the onset of another

what is the psychological refractory period? 1 pt

the delay in response to the second stimulus in the short SOA condition because you are still processing the first stimulus

what is attention as a quality of perception? 1 pt

a neurocognitive function that consists of the aility of the individual to select actively and voluntarily and to focus passively and non-voluntarily on the sensory info coming from the outside and inside worlds choosing what is most relevant to later relate with prior knowledge

attention: mechanism of limited capacity? 1 pt

it is responsibble for controlling anf organizing cognitive activity and sensory motor coordination

how do we measure attention? 7 pts

A. inner phsyiological activity

1. cortical activity- EEG, event related potentials

2. peripheral activity- electroderman activity

3. heart rate

4. pupil dilation

B. external and motor activity

1. most frequenct bodily changes e.g. inhibition of other motor activities, eye movements

C. cognitive/mental activity

1. different tasks e.g. reaction times, recall, recognition, visual searches

D. subjective experience

1. inner feeling of being related to the level of mental effort that we make when focusing on a demanding task

types of attention? 5 pts

1. internal/external attention- depends on whether the attentional focus is directed towards our mental processes or interoceptive stimulation or towards the stimuli that comes from the outside

2. voluntarily/involuntary attention- voluntary attention demands the conscious effort on our part e.g. solving a math equation while involuntary attention is arounsed without any conscious effort e.g. loud sounds

3. overt/covert attention- overt attention is the act of directing sense organs towards the stimulus source and is mentally focusing on one of several possible sensory stimuli accompanied by a series of motor and physiological responses that produce postural changes in the subject

4. divided/selective/focused attention- in divided attention several stimuli or situations enter the attention field while in selective attention the effort is directed towards a specific stimulus

5. visual/auditory attention- visual attention is more related to spatial concepts while auditory attention is related to temporal parameters

selective attention: factors related to selective attention? 6 pts

1. size- larger objects capture our attention faster

2. intensity- brighter color attract attention more

3. duration/repetition- persisting stimuli capture our attention more but excessive repetition will divert our attention

4. emotional content- a stimulus that carries emotional tone will catch our attention

5. contrasting stimuli will attract attention more than similar stimuli

6. attentional capture- something in motion will attract our attention more

slective attention: broadbent’s filter model? 4 pts

1. broadbent filter is a central and limited capacity structure that allows certain stimuli to pass through for further processing while unattended stimuli is filtered out

2. this filter focuses on one sensory system/item at a time

3. this filter works using serial procesing and is needed to deal with the overwhelming amount of info entering the channels

4. filter selects info based on a physical analysis of the sensory info e.g. high voice over lower voice

selective attention: limitations of broadbent’s filter model? 2 pts

1. doesn’t explain the cocktail party phenomenon whereby an individual who is focused on one thing can pick up sounds from another area nearby

2. meaning of messages was proven to be relevant to each ear for selection

selective attention: what does the trainman attentuated filter model state? 1 pt

our channel is selected based on its physical properties but the filter does not entirely block the unselected messages it only weakens them

selective attention: limitations of the treisman attenuated filter? 2 pts

1. it is not clear what attenuated mean

2. recognizing the meaning of a word requires extensive processing

selective attention: pertinence/late filter model of selective attention? 4 pts

1. deutsch and deutsch proposed this theory stating the filter is placed closer to the output of processing systems

2. all info is initially analysed for relevance then passed on to a filter if found pertinent

3. selection occurs at a much later stage of processing and involves much more complex categories than physical stimulus porperties

4. the filter comes after meaning is ful yprocessed for both channels and info makes it to the detection/processing of meaning stage and passed on to STM for further processing and perhaps eventually to LTM

selective attention: limitations of the deustch and deustch model? 1 pt

it is a very uneconomical use of resources as it involves processing a large amount of material that is not going to be used

selective attention: comparison of the three models? 3 pts

1. broadbent filter model:

input→ detection→ filter→ recognition

2. treisman attenuation model:

input→ detection→ attenuator→ recognition

3. late filtering model:

input→ detection→ recognition→ filter

selective attention: features shared by attentional blindness tasks? 5 pts

1. the participant is engaged in some attention-demanding task (primary task)

2. the primary task can be anything as long as it demands focused attention

3. each task involves an unexpected event that occurs while the observer carries out the primary task

4. the unexpected event should be obvious to people who are not engaged in the primary attention task and it must be unusual so people are likely to report it

5. the critical event must be unexpected

what is change blindness? 1 pt

a phenomenon that occurs when a change is introduced in the visual stimulus and the observer does not notice it

selective attention: research on change blindness? 3 pts

1. flicker paradigm- original and changed imaes alternate back and forth separated by a brief blank screen; people often need multiple alterations to localize the change

2. motion-picture perception- in teh 90s studies created a set of simple films with intentional editing mistakes and showed participants failed to notice major changes

3. real world studies- a researcher asked a pedestrian for directions and uring the conversation, two confederates carrying a door walk between the pedestrian and the researcher. One of the workers switches places with the researcher. 50% participants do not know their conversation partner had changed.

selective attention: requirements of change detection? 5 pts

1. direct attention to the changing location

2. encode into memory the target location before the change

3. encode what is at the target location after the change

4. compare what you represented from the target before and after the change

5. recognize the discrepancy

selective attention: similarities between inattentional blindness and change blindness? 3 pts

1. both research appeared in 1990s

2. both refer to a failure to perceive events that appear in plain sight

3. both phenomena involve a failure to report events that are easily seen once noticed

selective attention: differences between inattentional blindness and change blindness? 4 pts

1. inattentional blindness occurs for unexpected objects that become transparent once we know we have to look for them while change blindness persists through active search for the target

2. change blindness requires memory while inattentional blindness does not

3. change blindness requires before and after images (2) while inattentional blindness requires only one

4. change blindness shows attention is necessary but not sufficient for visual awareness while inattentional blindness shows that attention can work as a filter for irrelevant info (distinctive but unexpected events do not attract our attention

how do we measure divided attention? 1 pt

with dual task experiments where participants perform multiple tasks and the effects of these dual tasks on their performance is evaluated

when is divided attention hard? 3 pts

when tasks are:

1. very similar

2. difficult

3. require conscious attention

when is divided attention easier? 4 pts

when tasks are:

1. very different

2. simple

3. when one task does not require conscious attention

4. have been practiced before

divided attention: automatic processing vs controlled processing? 8 pts

A. automatic processing

1. fast and efficient

2. unavailable to consciousness

3. unintentional

4. familiar straightforward tasks

B. controlled processing

1. slow and less efficient

2. available to consciousness

3. controllable

4. intentional

5. complex unfamiliar tasks

divided attention: feature integration theory treisman? 3 pts

1. pre-attentive processing- the individual scans and registers features right across the visual field using parallel processing

2. focused attention- the individual identifies objects one at a time by serial processing

3. feature search tasks can be done pre attentively but conjuction searcher require conscious attention

divided attention: limited capacity-cognitive paradigm? 5 pts

1. attention is more like resources

2. factors determining allocation are required mental effort and a person’s level of arousal

3. when a particular tasks demands lots of processing resources other tasks get fewer resources

4. attention works felxibly because it requires limited mental effort that must be distributed among different aspects

5. more capacity is available when arousal levels are high

divided attention: what does arousal depend on? 4 pts

1. the overall level of stimulation

2. a personal natural disposition

3. circadian rhythms

4. momentary intentions and enduring dispositions

sustained attention vs selective attention? 2 pts

1. sustained attention- we attend to a constant stimulus for a long period of time in the hope of being able to detect any relevant changes

2. selective attention- the stimulus has changed or is changing in some way that requires our attention

sustained attention: three tasks used to examine performance decrement? 3 pts

1. radar test- participatns watched a radar screen for periodic signals presented against a background of visual noise

2. auditory listening task- participants listed sound tones presented every 18 seconds

3. clock test- participants observe a clock with a pointer which moves at regular intervals but often makes a double jump

sustained attention: performance is affected by? 5 pts

1. aspects of the signal- performance is better if there is an increase in the signal’s intensity, frequency, and duration

2. knowledge of results- performance decrement decreases if participants get feedback

3. stimulation- being stimulated/being witg others improves performance

4. stimulant substances reduce performance decrement

5. personality- highly introverted participants show almost no performance decrement

sustained attention: endogenous and exogenous factors influencing arousal?

A. endogenous

1. personality

2. circadian rhythms

B. exogenous

1. drives and incentives

2. environmental circumstances

3. surprising or novel events

4. drugs

5. difficulty of task