Visual Attention

4 aspects of attention

1. selective
2. speeds up processing/responding
3. changes how we respond to the environment
4. leads to binding

dichotic listening task

a study done to test shadowing of the ears. it was found that memory was perfect in the shadowed ear, and the only thing remembered in the other was the gender of the speaker. If their name was called, they could also recall that, and the shadowing can be switched between ears

FIT

figure integration theory- object -> preattentive stage -> focused attention stage -> perception

task-irrelevant stimulus

well-practiced tasks cause more distractions

endogenous

conscious attentional process; voluntary control. AKA internal (top-down)

exogenous

sensory's have turned on and taken over. AKA reflexive, external (bottom-up)

overt attention

attentional focus matches visual fixation

covert attention

attentional focus does not match visual fixation

cocktail party effect

when you are at an event, like a cocktail party, there's people talking everywhere so you end up focusing on one conversation at a time

precueing

a study done with participants given directions to keep their eyes on the + and they had to see where the box was after given an arrow

Valid in preceuing

the arrow was pointing in the same direction as the box; faster respond time- aka benefit

neutral in precueing

there was a double arrow but only one box

invalid in precueing

the arrow pointed in opposite direction of box; slower response time aka cost

numbers and shapes in class

-overt attention and endogenous attention was directed at the numbers
-saccade (eye movement btw fixations) btw the numbers and over shapes

preattentive stage in FIT

you are available to sense but not yet attend (broken down into features)

focused attention in FIT

you consciously direct your attention (bind features together)

illusory conjunction

the brain incorrectly combines features to make objects

what was found with the eye tracker?

-our eyes don't move smoothly
- we make a fixation and then jump to another spot
-what attracts our attention in the environment

3 things attract our attention

1. visual salience: color, contract, orientation, and texture grab our attention
2. scene schema: the meaning associated with a scene
3. task-related knowledge: next step in a task

just-in-time strategy

we attract our attention right before we interact with it

inattential blindness

you fail to perceive a stimulus despite viewing it with the visual system; its as if the information never existed

change detection

we can struggle to identify changes if our attention is not drawn to them

change blindness

we fail to notice changes

continuity errors

examples in scenes/movies that we fail to notice

perceptual load

how much is a task taking up our attention? the more attention resources not being used, the more distracted we are

visual neglect

patients have damage to parietal lobe; they can sense something is there but they can't copy, perceive, or draw attention to it. Typically they can only see the right side of things