attention

attention

• incoming input we focus on

• unconscious decides to process on a deeper level

external attention

attending to objects in the environment or to specific features of those objects

internal attention

regulating our internal mental states

negative impact of overload

• role performance

• the evolution of social norms

• cognitive functioning

how do you mitigate overload?

• spending less time on each input

• disregarding low-priority inputs

• completely blocking off some sensory inputs

bottleneck theories

explains filter process when many stimuli need to be reduced

capacity theories

explain ability to perform taks based on amount of mental effort (selection)

broadbent (1954)

three pairs of digits were played via headphones with separate audio input and simultaneously

broadbent implications

• sensory channels can receive more than one stimulus simultaneously

• channels are specific and defined by the physical characteristics of the stimuli

• only one channel at a time reaches pattern recognition stage

• switching between channels requires both time and effort

treisman (1960)

contradicted broadbent’s filter model; participants will combine information coming from the input they were supposed to ignore and the input they were supposed to shadow

late-selection models

reported selection occurred after pattern recognition

capacity theory

concerned with the amount of mental effort required to perform a task

• proposes that interference occurs when the demands of two activities exceed available capacity, not because two tasks are using the same mechanism

kahneman (1973)

suggested there is a limit on a person’s capacity to perform mental work

subsidiary task

typically measures how quickly people can react to a target stimulus to evaluate the capacity demands of the primary task

multimode theory

as the perceptual processing system changes from an early to a late mode of selection, it collects more information about the secondary message, but this reduces the capacity to comprehend the primary message

stroop (1935)

addresses if cut conscious intentions and strategies are fullu driving the way we process information