cogpsych - attention (1)

attention

the ability to focus on stimuli or locations. this idea of focusing is most often associated with selective attention

overt attention

the movement of the eyes provides observable signs of how attention is changing over time (looking directly at what you are focused on)

covert attention

occurs when attention is shifted without moving the eyes (a.k.a. seeing something “out of the corner of the eye” or mentally focusing on a location or object, while keeping your eyes is still)

divided attention

Attending to two or more things at once, it can be overt, covert or a combination of the two

overt attention

turning your head to look at directly at the stranger who just walked into the room

covert attention

eavesdropping on a nearby conversation at the coffee shop by listening intently while pretending to read a book

colin cherry

used a procedure called dichotic listening (i.e., different messages are presented to the two cars)

donald broadbent

created a model of attention, early selection model that information passes through the following stages.

sensory memory

holds all the incoming information for a fraction of a second and then transfers all of it to the next stage

filter

The _____ identifies attended message based on its physical characteristics, things like the speaker’s tone of voice, pitch, speed of talking, and accent, and lets only this message pass through to the detector in the next stage. All other messages are filtered out.

neville moray

did an experiment in which his participants shadowed the message presented to one ear and ignored the message presented to the other ear. [but when moray presented the listeners’s name to the other, unattended ear, about a third of the participants detected it]

result: cocktail party effect

cocktail party effect

A person is selectively listening to one message among many yet hears his or her name or some other distinctive message that is not being attended

attenuation theory of attention of ane treisman ; attenuator

_____ states that selection occurs in two stages, and that filter is an _____

late selection models of attention

propose that most of the incoming information is processed to the level of meaning before the message to be processed is selected

cognitive resources

The cognitive capacity or resources of a person that can be used for carrying out various tasks

cognitive load

The amount of a person’s cognitive resources needed to carry out a particular cognitive task

low-load tasks

use up only a small amount of the person’s cognitive resources

high-load tasks

use more of a person’s cognitive resources

nilli lavie

proposed that the number of cognitive resources that remain as a person is carrying out a primary task that determines how well the person can avoid attending to task-irrelevant stimuli.

flanker compatibility task

A task in which participants are told to carry out a task that requires them to focus their attention on specific stimuli and to ignore other stimuli

stroop effect

it occurs because the names of the words cause a competing response (just as in the incompatible condition in the flanker compatibility task) and therefore slow responding to the target, the color of the ink