Psychology and the Brain - 5. Attention

What are the 4 different studies of cognition?

1. Cognitive science = multidisciplinary study of the mind.

2. Cognitive neuroscience = operations of the brain.

3. Cognitive psychology = observable behaviour.

4. Cognitive neuropsychology = the impact of brain injury on behaviour.

What is dichotic listening?

It is a type of selective attention in which individuals listen to input from one ear (the attended channel) whilst ignoring input from the other (the unattended channel). Treisman (1964) found that recall of content/'shadowing' is almost perfect for the attended channel but almost non-existent for the unattended channel.

What is the 'cocktail party' effect?

The ability to recognise what one individual is saying when others are speaking at the same time.

What are the 4 core theories of selective attention?

What all the core theories of selective attention have in common is the concept of a filter in which some information goes through whilst other information is left behind.

1. Broadbent (1958), early selection:

- Claimed that a non-selective stage captures and processes all incoming sounds whilst the selective stage is limited in capacity and can only be concerned with distinct sounds.

- The filter regulates the selection of sound.

- Broadbent's argument implies that only the perceptual characteristics of an unattended message get processed.

2. Deutsch & Deutsch (1963), late selection:

- Argued that both the unattended and attended message gets processed including their perceptions and their features.

- But, only the attended message is later made available to conscious memory.

3. Treisman (1960, 1969), early attenuation:

- Compromises between early and late selection viewpoints.

- The unattended message gets processed to a lesser extent.

4. Lavie (1995, 2006), perceptual load theory:

- Visual selective attention theory.

- A nuanced approach to selective attention which takes context into account.

- Selective attention only occurs in the presence of perceptual overload in which a higher load = a higher likelihood to ignore distractors.

- This has reverse findings for a cognitive load in which a higher load = a reduced likelihood to ignore distractors.

What is the difference between an exogenous control of attention versus endogenous?

Exogenous selection = 'bottom up', a stimulus captures attention.

Endogenous selection = 'top down', your intentions/interests direct your attention.

What is the difference between inattentional blindness and change blindness?

Inattentional blindness = when asked to make a judgement about a shape, a large proportion of ps do not notice a change in the fixation cross (Mack & Rock, 1998). This is also applicable to sound (inattentional deafness) and touch (inattentional numbness).

Change blindness = two images flickering back and forth, disrupted by a black screen. We are often unable to recognise a change in an image or even a video even though it is right in front of us.

What is sustained attention?

A maintenance of vigilance. Often measured used the SART (sustained attention to response task):

- Ps are presented numbers 1-9, either sequentially or randomly.

- Ps should continuously press a button until the number 3 is present.

- Commission errors = the number of times erroneously responded to the number 3.

- Omission errors = the number of times not responded to a number that is not 3.

- Two versions of this task = fixed or random.

What is a study that investigated stimulus-driven/exogenous attention VS expectation-driven/endogenous attention?

Posner & Snyder (1975) used a 'priming' paradigm in which ps are presented with a prime which is either the same or similar to a target stimulus. Ps were asked to indicate whether the 2 letters were the same of different. Before seeing these letters, ps would see a warning just above where the letters would appear. There were 3 types of warning:

1. Neutral = a plus sign.

2. Prime = a letter which also appeared in the target pair.

3. Misleading = a letter not appearing in the target pair.

The prime warning was always associated with a quicker reaction time. However, only when the prime warning was reliable was the misleading warning significantly associated with the cost. The study demonstrated that merely being prepared to see a stimulus is enough to facilitate its potency.

What did Posner & Rothbart find to be the 3 main cognitive abilities involved in attention?

1. Maintaining - the alerting system:

- Fan, McCandliss, Fossella, Flombaum, & Posner (2005): Attention Network test.

- The areas associated with maintaining attention were hypothesised based on their association with the norepinephrine network which is implicated in the maintenance of an alert state.

2. Shifting - the shifting system:

- Involves the superior parietal region and temporoparietal junction due to their role in shifting attention.

- Activation is found predominantly in the right hemisphere.

3. Controlling - the executive system:

- Executive functions (as opposed to automatic behaviours) encompass the processes involved in the active control of attention.

What is visual-spatial neglect/unilateral neglect syndrome?

Visual-spatial neglect is an attention disorder. Research into this disorder includes:

1. Bisiach & Luzzatti (1978) had ps with damage to their right parietal cortex imagine they were standing on the Piazza del Duomo in Milan. Depending on the standpoint from which they were instructed to imagine themselves from, their narratives changed. Ps reported shops and cafes on their right-hand side demonstrating damage to the left visual field.

2. Behrmann & Tipper (1994) found ps with right parietal cortex damage took longer and made more errors when the stimulus was on the left-hand side of the barbell. But, when the barbell was rotated 180 degrees, the opposite effect was evident.

3. Volpe, Ledoux, & Gazzaniga (1979) found ps were able to name objects in both visual fields when no others objects were present. But, when 2 objects were present, ps were only able to name objects in the right visual field.

4. Marshall & Halligan (1988) simultaneously presented ps with 2 drawings of houses with one on fire and one not. Despite not being able to identify any differences between the drawings, when asked where they would prefer to live, ps chose the house not on fire.

5. Rees, Wojciulik, Clarke, Husan, Frith & Driver (2000) showed ps 2 images, one of a face and one of a house. Ps only reported seeing a house but areas of the brain associated with processing faces still activated.

These studies demonstrated that there is a difference between conscious awareness and unconscious processing in patients with right parietal cortex damage.

What can damage to the prefrontal cortex result in?

Associated with the executive system, damage to this area leads to problems in the control of attention such as goal neglect = an inability to make and follow through on plans. Executive function can be tested using a drawing copy test as well as the Wisconsin card sorting test:

- In the drawing test, when looking at the image to copy, ps do not plan how to approach the drawing such as by starting with the larger shapes but instead just attempt to copy using the smaller shapes.

- In the card sorting test, ps are asked to sort by the colour of one particular card. Firstly, they are asked to sort by the colour of the single card. Then, they are asked to sort by the shape instead. Ps with damage to the prefrontal cortex are unable to switch between tasks and continue to sort by colour.