Lesson 4 Attention and Consciousness

Attention


• ____ is the means by which we actively select and process a limited amount of information from all of the information captured by our senses, are stored memories and are other cognitive processes.

• ____ includes both conscious and unconscious processes.

• ____ allows us to use our limited mental resources judiciously.

Conscious Processes


A mental operation of which a person is explicitly aware and often in control.

Unconscious Processes


Operate outside the person's awareness and play a major role in directing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and of course, in triggering mental illness.

Consciousness


Includes both the feeling of awareness and the content of awareness, some of which may be under the focus of attention.

Causal role of Consciousness in Cognition


1. It helps monitor or interactions with the environment.

2. It assists us in linking our past (memories) and present (sensations) to give a sense of continuity of experience.

3. It helps us control our plan for our actions based on the information from monitoring and from the links between our past memories and present sensations.

Four Main Functions of Attention

1. Signal Detection and Vigilance

2. Search

3. Selective Attention

4. Divided Attention


Signal Detection and Vigilance


We try to detect the appearance of a particular stimulus.

Search


We engage in an active search for particular stimuli.

Selective Attention

You choose to attend to some stimuli and ignore others. Focusing our attention helps us execute other cognitive processes, such as verbal comprehension or problem solving.

Divided Attention


We engage in more than one task at a time, and we shift our attentional resources to allocate them as needed.

Signal Detection Theory (STD)


____ is a framework to explain how people pick out the important stimuli embedded in a wealth of irrelevant, distracting stimuli.

Signal Detection Matrix Used in Signal Detection Theory


Signal detection theory was one of the first theories to suggest an interaction between the physical sensation of a stimulus and cognitive processes such as decision making. Think about the work of airport screeners. They need to be capable of perceiving objects such as a box cutter in hand carried luggage.

Hit: The screener recognizes a box cutter in the luggage.


Signal: PRESENT

Detect A Signal: _____

Miss: The screener fails to see the box cutter in the luggage.


Signal: PRESENT

Do Not Detect a Signal: ______

False Alarm: The screener thinks there is a box cutter in the luggage when there is none.


Signal: ABSENT

Detect A Signal: _____

Correct Rejection: The screener recognizes that there is no box cutter in the luggage, and indeed, there is none.


Signal: ABSENT

Do Not Detect a Signal: ______

STD can be discussed in the context of: Attention

Paying enough attention to perceive objects that are there.


STD can be discussed in the context of: Perception

Perceiving faint signals that may or may not be beyond your perception range (such as high-pitched stone)


STD can be discussed in the context of: Memory

Indicating whether you have or have not been exposed to a stimulus before, such as whether the word champagne appeared on a list that was to be memorized.


Vigilance


Refers to a person's ability to attend to a field of stimulation over a prolonged period, during which the person seeks to detect the appearance of a particular target stimulus of interest.

Search


• ____ involves using our attention or resources to actively and often skillfully seek out a target.

• Specifically, ____ refers to a scan of the environment for particular features—actively looking for something when you are not sure where it will appear.

Two kinds of Searches

• Feature search

• Conjunction search


Feature Search


We look for just one feature (e.g., color, shape, or size) that makes our search object different from all others.

Conjunction Search


We look for a combination of features, these searches are more difficult than feature searches that look for just one feature.

Feature-Integration Theory


____ explain why it is relatively easy to conduct future searches and relatively difficult to conduct conjunction searches.

Feature-Integration Theory: Stage 1 Feature Search

Analyze features (color, size, shape, orientation etc.)

• Can be done in parallel (all at once)

• Occurs at preattentive stage

• No display size effect


Feature-Integration Theory: Stage 2 Conjunction Search

Combine features into objects

• Must be done sequentially (one object at a time)

• Requires attentional resources

• Display size effect present


Two stages involved when people perceive objects:

1. We perceive pictures of objects (color, size, shape)

2. Involving the connection of two or more pictures with some sort of "Mental Glue".


Similarity Theory


• According to ____, the more similar the target and distractors are, the more difficult it is to find the target.

• The difficulty of search tasks depends on how different distractors are from each other. But it does not depend on the number of features to be integrated.

Selective Attention


The process that allows an individual to select and focus on particular input for further processing while simultaneously suppressing irrelevant or distracting information.

Dichotic Presentation


Attended Inputs: In the picnic basket, she had peanut butter sandwiches, and chocolate brownies.

Unattended Inputs: The cat suddenly started to run after the mouse and......

What helps us to attend only to the messages of the target speaker?

1. Distinctive sensory characteristics of the target's speech (e.g., high versus low pitch, pacing, and rhythmicity)

2. Sound intensity (loudness)

3. Location of the sound source.


Theories of Selective Attention

1. Early Filter Model

2. Selective Filter Model

3. Attenuation Model

4. Late-Filter Model

5. A Synthesis of Early and Late-Filter Model 


Divided Attention


____ occurs when mental focus is on multiple tasks or ideas at once. Also known as multitasking, individuals do this all the time. Examples are singing along to a song while driving, having a conversation while walking, or listening to music while grocery shopping.

Theories of Divided Attention

1. Single Pool Model (A)

2. Multiplicity of Modality-Specific Pools (B)


Single Pool Model

Multiplicity of Modality-Specific Pools 


Factors that influence our ability to pay attention

• Anxiety

• Arousal

• Task Difficulty

• Skills


Neuroscience and Attention: A Network Model


Effectively organized pattern of activation through the 3 subfunctions of attention

3 Subfunctions of Attention

1. Alerting

2. Orienting

3. Executive Attention


# 1 Example of failing attention

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder


ADHD


People with ____ have difficulties in focusing their attention in ways that enable them to adapt and optimal ways to their environment.

Cause of ADHD


The condition was first described by Dr. Heinrick Hoffman in 1845. It has been investigated widely, but no one knows for sure the cause of ADHD.

• It may be partially heritable condition

• Link to maternal smoking and drinking during pregnancy

• Childhood exposure

• Brain injury

• Food additives and particular in sugar and certain dyes.

True

T OR F: People with ADHD have noted differences in the Frontal Subcortical Cerebellar Catecholaminergic Circuits and in Dopamine regulation.

3 Primary Symptoms of ADHD

• Inattention

• Hyperactivity

• Impulsiveness


3 Main Types of ADHD

• Hyperactive

• Inattentive

• Combination of hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive behavior


Psychotherapy and Drugs; Ritalin (methylphenidate)


ADHD is most often treated with combination of _______. Some drugs currently used to treat ADHD are ____.

True


T OR F: Metadate (methylphenidate) and Strattera (atomoxetine). This last drug slippers for mother drugs used to treat ADHD in that it is not stimulant. Rather it affects the neurotransmitter norepinephrine. The stimulants, in contrast, affect the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Change Blindness and Inattentional Blindness


# 2 Example of failing attention

Change Blindness 


Inability to detect changes in object or since that are being viewed. Failure to notice an obvious change.

Inattentional Blindness 


The failure to notice the existence of an unexpected item.

Spatial Neglect


One half of the world goes amiss

Spatial Neglect or Hemineglect


It is an attentional dysfunction in which participant ignore the half of their visual field that is contralateral to the hemisphere of the brain that has lesion.

Automatic Processes


It is actions that are usually carried out without conscious awareness and require minimal effort or intention.

Controlled Processes


Are accessible to conscious control and even require it.

Require intentional effort


Amount of intentional effort

Controlled Processes: ______

Require little or no intention or effort (and intentional effort may be even required to avoid automatic behaviors)


Amount of intentional effort

Automatic Processes: _____

Require full conscious awareness


Degree of conscious awareness

Controlled Processes: _____

Generally occur outside of conscious awareness, although some automatic processes may be available to consciousness.

Degree of conscious awareness

Automatic Processes: _____

Consume many attentional resources


Use of attentional resources

Controlled Processes: _____

Consume negligible attentional resources


Use of attentional resources

Automatic Processes: _____

Perform serially (one step at a time)


Type of processing

Controlled Processes: _____

Performed by parallel processing (i.e., with many operations occurring simultaneously or at least in no particular sequential order)


Type of processing

Automatic Processes: ____

Relatively time consuming execution, as compared with automatic processes


Speed Processing

Controlled Processes: _____

Relatively fast


Speed Processing

Automatic Processes: _____

Novel and unpracticed tasks or tasks with many variable features.


Relatively novelty of tasks

Controlled Processes: _____

Familiar and highly practiced tasks, with largely stable task characteristics.


Relative novelty of tasks

Automatic Processes: _____

Relatively high levels of cognitive processing (requiring analysis or synthesis)

Level of processing

Controlled Processes: ____

Relatively low levels of cognitive processing (minimal analysis or synthesis)

Level of processing

Automatic Processes: ____

Usually difficult tasks


Difficulty of tasks

Controlled Processing: ____

Usually relatively easy tasks, but even relatively complex tasks may be atomized, given sufficient practice


Difficulty of tasks

Automatic Processing: ____

Process of Acquisition 


With practice, many routine and stable procedures may become atomized, such that highly controlled processes may become partly or even wholly automatic; the amount of practice needed for automatization increases for highly complex tasks.

Automatization or Proceduralization 


Many tasks that initially require conscious control can become automatic through practice, a process.

How does automatization occur?

• Processes become automatized through practice by making the implementation of various steps more efficient.

• The alternative explanation, known as instance theory proposed by Logan (1988), suggests that automatization occurs as individuals accumulate knowledge about specific responses to specific stimuli.


Automatization in Everyday Life

• The automatization of tasks, like reading, is not always assured even with practice.

• The Stroop effect reveals the challenge of selectively attending to the color of ink while trying to ignore the printed word.


True

T OR F: In other situations, automatization may result in "mindlessness" and maybe life threatening. Typically, are absent minded implementation of automatic processes has wireless little consequences.

Mistakes we make in Automatic Processes

• Mistakes are errors in choosing an objective or in specifying a means of achieving it.

• Slips are errors in carrying out an intended means for reaching an objective


Capture Errors


Intending to deviate from a routine activity we are implementing in familiar surroundings, but at a point at which we should depart from the routine, we fail to pay attention enter your game control of the process; hence, the automatic process captures our behavior, and we fail to deviate from the routine.

Omissions


An interruption of a routine activity may cause us to skip steps in implementing the remaining portion of the routine. 

Perseverations

After completing an automatic procedure, one or more steps of the procedure may be repeated.

Description Errors 


An internal description of the intended behavior leads to performing the correct action on the wrong object.

Data-driven Errors 


Incoming sensory information may override the intended variables in an automatic action sequence.

Associative-activation Errors 


Strong associations may trigger the wrong automatic routine.

Loss of activation Errors 


The activation of a routine may be insufficient to carry it through the completion.

Slips, which come in various forms, are most likely to occur when two conditions are met:

• First, when we need to deviate from a routine and automatic processes in appropriately takeover intentional, controlled processes.

• Second, when our automatic processes are disrupted, often due to external events or data, but sometimes due to destructive internal thoughts.


How can we minimize the potential for negative consequences of slips?

In everyday situations, we are less likely to slip when we receive appropriate feedback from the environment.


The Consciousness of Mental Processes 


• ____ is a fundamental aspect of human cognition, as it allows us to monitor, reflect upon, and sometimes even control our thoughts and behaviors.

• It involves being able to introspect and recognize what is happening in one's mind.

How conscious are we of our Complex Mental Processes?

• One view is that people have good access to their complex mental processes. Simon and his colleagues, for example, have used protocol analysis in analyzing people solving of problems, such as chest problems and so cold Crypta Rithmetic problems, in which one has to figure out what numbers substitute for letters in a mathematical computation problem.

• A second view is that people's access to their complex mental processes is not very good. In this view, people meeting they know how they solve complex problems, but their thoughts are frequently erroneous.


True


T OR F: The essence of the second view is that people's conscious access to their thought processes, and even their control over their thought processes, is minimal. Consider the problem of getting over someone who has terminated and intimate relationship with you. One technique that is sometimes used to get over someone is thought suppression. As soon as you think of the person, you try to put the individual out of your mind, you try to put the individual out of your mind.

Preconscious Processing


• Some information that currently is outside our conscious awareness still may be available to consciousness or at least to cognitive processes.

• Preconscious information includes stored memories that we are not using at the given time but that we could summon when needed.

• Sensations, too, may be pulled from preconscious to conscious awareness.

Studying Preconscious Priming


• In priming, you first see something (the prime), then there's a pause, and later you see something else. You ask if the two things are related or the same. This helps researchers understand how the first thing you saw influences how you perceive the second thing.

• The thought behind this procedure is that the presentation of the first stimulus may activate related concepts and memory that are then more easily accessible.

• Most priming is positive in that the first stimulus facilitates later recognition. But priming on occasion may be negative and impede later recognition.

Marcel's Study


• ____ show that consciously seen rhymes activated specific meanings, facilitating related word classification.

• Unconsciously seen primes appeared to activate all possible meanings.

Dyad of Triads Task


In this study, they use a task called the "____." Participants were given pair of three-word groups. In one of the groups, the words made sense together, like they were related in some way. In other groups, the words were just random and unrelated.

Auditory Priming 


Experiments exploring _____ reveal the same behavioral effects as visual priming. Using neuro imaging methods, investigators have discovered that similar brain areas are involved in both types of priming.

Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon


• Describes the common experience of failing to remember something stored in memory.

• Often, individuals feel like they know the information but can't retrieve it consciously.

Classic Study of Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon

• Participants were given dictionary definitions and asked to recall corresponding words.

• Some participants couldn't recall the word but provided clues like the first letter, syllables, or similar sound.

• Eventually, participants were able to retrieve the sought after word, suggesting that preconscious information was still accessible to attentional processes.

Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon Universal Nature


• The tip of the tongue phenomenon is observed across different languages

• Bilingual individuals may experience it more, potentially due to less frequent use of one language.

• Even those with limited reading ability can experience it.

Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon Brain Involvement 


• The anterior cingulate-prefrontal cortices are engaged when individuals experience the tip of the tongue phenomenon.

• These brain regions likely play a role in resolving retrieval failures through high level cognitive processes.

Blindsight in Patients with Visual Cortex Lesions


• Some patients with damage to specific areas of the visual cortex are blind in corresponding areas of their visual field

• However, some of these patients display blindsight, demonstrating visual perceptual abilities in these blind areas.

• They can correctly guess object locations and orientations above trans levels and pre-adjust their actions to objects' size, shape, orientation in the blind field.

• Despite these abilities, they fail to show voluntary behavior, such as reaching for objects in the blind region, even when they have unmet needs.