Attention and consciousness

Attention

Is the concentration of mental energy that must be used to process incoming information

Preconscious

Items that lie outside are conscious awareness

Conscious attention

1. Helps monitor interaction with the environment

2. Assist in linking our knowledge to the present

3. Helps in controlling and planning for future actions

Signal detection and vigilance

Detect appearance of particular stimulus

Searching

Treisman’s theory; Find a signal in distractors

Signal detection theory

Framework of how we Pick up stimuli; Perceive something regardless of many distractions; was one of the first theories to suggest an interaction between the physical sensation of a stimuli and cognitive processes, such as decision making

Hit, miss, false alarm, correct rejection

Four outcomes of signal detection theory

Hit

An outcome of signal detection where in there is a signal and one correctly identifies the signal

Miss

An outcome of signal detection theory where in there is a signal, but one missed the signal

False alarm

An outcome of signal detection theory where in, the signal is absent, but one identified a signal

Correct rejection

An outcome of signal detection theory where in a signal is absent and one correctly identified it as absent

Priming

Phenomenon when we are exposed to a stimulus, we are able to think of a response; Related thinking; Can speed up or slow down the processing

Facilitative priming

Target stimuli are processed faster if preceded by a related word

Automatic processing

Requires no conscious control; Effortless processing; Can be done even if you are not aware of it; Demand little to no attention; Example: Writing your name

Automatization

A procedural action where in tasks start off as controlled process, eventually become automatic as a result of practice

Controlled processing

Requires conscious control; Sequential processing; You’re aware of the next action

Search

Function of conscious attention wherein one actively search for a target

Triesman’s Feature Integration Theory

Individual feature processing is done in parallel; Simultaneous processing is done on the whole display and is feature is present - We detect it

Feature search

Target is defined by a single feature; The target should pop out and no attention required

Conjunction search

Target is defined by two features: shape and color. The features must be combined, and so attention is required

Similarity theory

The data can be a result of the fact that the similarity between target and the distractor stimuli increases so does the difficulty in detecting the target stimuli

Guided search theory

all searcher, whether feature searches or conjunction searches involve two consecutive stages: parallel stage and subsequent serial stage

Parallel stage

A stage of guided search theory where in there is a simultaneous activation of the features of the target

Subsequent serial stage

Is a stage guided search theory wherein one sequentially evaluate each of the activated elements according to the degree of activation and choose the most appropriate element for the target

Cocktail party problem

It is a theory where in we are able to follow one conversation in the presence of other conversation; Selective attention; This theory describes the difficulty we experience in focusing and chaotic environment and cancels out noises

Cherry shadowing technique

• Noticed in unattended ear: Change in gender, familiar name including the subject’s.

• Did not notice in unattended ear: Changed language, Change topic but same speaker, If speech was played backwards

Broadbent’s model

• One sensory channel is allowed to proceed

• Stimuli is filtered at sensory level

• Also known as filter model of attention

• Explains how we process information and select a specific

Selective filter model

Blocks out most information at the sensory level, but some personally important messages are so powerful that they burst through the filtering mechanism

Late selection theory/late filter model

If we see the information relevant, that is the only thing we process. Stimuli is processed after it was analyzed based on relevance

Stroop effect

Read the interferes with ability to state the color and your reaction is slower

Divided attention

Ability to focus on multiple tasks. Related to automatic processes

Anxiety, arousal, task difficulty, and skills

Factors that influence attention

Alerting

• Repaired to attend to some incoming event

• Norepinephrine

Right frontal, parietal cortex, locus coeruleus

Brain areas involved in alerting

Orienting

Selection of stimuli to attend to; acetylcholine

Superior parietal lobe, temporal parietal junction, frontal eye fields, superior colliculus

Brain areas involved in orienting

Executive attention

Monitoring and resolving conflict that arise among internal processes! Dopamine

Anterior cingulate, lateral, ventral, and prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia

Brain areas involved in executive attention