Selective Attention 2

What does selective attention bias?

perceptual and post-perceptual processing at cued locations

How can attention be oriented?

exogenous - bottom up

endogenous - top down

a combo of both effects

What is object based attention? (2)

refers to how attention can focus on indv aspects of an object sa color, shape and motion

attention can also operate at the level of whole objects rather than just isolated features

What does the spotlight model attention suggest?

attention acts like a spotlight, focusing on a specific area and enhancing perception within that area while ignoring surroundings

What is the feature integration theory?

explains how diff fts sa colour and shape are integrated into a cohesive perception of objects, requiring focused attention for this process

What is the integrated competition hypothesis?

suggests that attention arises from a competitive process where multiple stimuli in env vie for limited processing resources and attention prioritises certain stimuli over others

What did Egly et al.’s experiment illustrate?

concept of object based attention, examining how attention is allocated within and across objects when spatial cues are used

What does the cue do in Egly’s experiment?

presented to direct attention to a specific location on 1 of the objects which sets up pps expectations that a target will appear near the cued location

Where may the target appear in Egly’s experiment?

valid - at cued location

invalid same object - target appears at a diff location on same object as cue

invalid diff object - target appears on other object at same distance from cue as in ISO

What does Egly’s experiments’s findings highlight?

attention spreads more easily within an object (V/ISO) than across objects (IDO) even when spatial distance is the same - sugg that attention is object based not purely spatial

What does Egly’s experiment demonstrate?

that our attention prioritises the structure of objects - we are more likely to perceive changes within same object compared to across diff obj even when physical distance bt stimuli is identical

In Moore et al’s study, what has the perception of objects shown? (2)

affects how attention is directed and spreads

in both panels, shapes and alignment of elements influence whether attention operates within perceived unified objects/seperate parts

What are object boundaries critical in acc to Moore’s work?

critical in determining how attention moves

What does Moore’s figure emphasise? (2)

how object grouping and perceptual organisation influence the allocation of attention

even when spatial arrangement of stimuli remains similar, how elements are grouped into objects impacts how efficiently attention can be shifted

What do valid trials have?

the shortest response times indicating that attention is more efficient when correctly cued

What do ISO conditions and IDO conditions show? (2)

ISO - show slower resp times than valid trials but faster than IDO - demonstrates benefit to attention within same object

IDO - slowest resp times - highlighting additional cost of switching attention across objects

What happens when contours are present?

distinction bt same object and diff object conditions is more pronounced - clear object boundaries enhance object based attention

What happens in no contour condition?

response times increase overall and dfr bt same object and diff obj conditions diminishes - sugg attention struggled when object boundaries are less defined

What does the ‘contour’ experiment highlight? (2)

that object based attention is infl by clarity of object boundaries

when objects are clearly delineated, attention is more effectively guided within and across objects

What do inter object shifts lead to?

weaker attention effects (att spreads more easily within objects rather than bt objects)

What is spatial attention constrained by?

object boundaries which are delineated by perceptual processes sa amodal completion

When is the firing rate of neurons higher? (2)

when attending to motion, especially when the motion in in the neuron’s preferred direction

nrs in visual system respond more strongly when attention is directed toward a specific feature

What does attention enhance?

neuronal activity for attended features even when stimulus is the same - supports idea that feature based attention selectively amplifies relevant info, improving perception and decision making

What was found in Zhang and Luck’s work?

despite being irrelevant to the task, spatial distb of attended colour (red) is more prominent, indicating a bias in visual processing toward the attended feature

What does Zhang and Luck’s work support?

the idea that feature based attention enhances processing of all stimuli that share the attended feature even when in different locations

What is enhancement constrained by?

perceptual info that governs object recognition

How can attention be directed?

towards non spatial features sa colour or emotional valence

What do feature and object based attention focus?

perceptual resources upon relevant items across the visual field

What did Treisman et al develop? (2)

influential model of attention ka feature integration theory where attention was conceptualised as the glue that binds visual fts encoded by separate anatomical modules

based on behavioural evidence of a qualitative distinction in performance in visual search tasks

What does the FIT account for?

the dfr bt feature and conjunction searches bc not all conjunction searches are slower than feature searchers

What does feature based attention appear to be?

global - reciprocal connections bt what and where

What is selection the result of according to the biased competition model?

competitive interactions bt objects

What happens to stimuli in the biased competition model?

presented within a receptive field and generate strongest competition

How can competition be biased acc to the BCM?

by bottom up and top down processes

What does competition do in the BCM?

coordinates activity in distributed cortical regions

What is attention not?

a unitary construct, its a neural cognitive mechanisms for prioritising/selecting info

How is competition for representation resolved by?

via reciprocal links bt bottom up and top down processes

What does attention protect?

capacity limits in perceptual, post perceptual and action systems