psych 200 - attention

attention

process of focusing on specific features of the environment or on certain thoughts or activities

selective attention

excluding other features of the environment

limited attention

in capacity and timing

overt and covert attention

we can decide to attend to information but some information automatically grabs out attention

two types of attention

selective and divided

selective attention definition

ability to focus on one message and ignore all others

selective attention: case in point

we do not attend to a large fraction of the information in the environment

research on selective attention

focuses on filtering out some information and promoting other information for further processing

dichotic listening

• one message is presented to the left ear and another to the right ear

• participant shadows one message to ensurew they are attending to the message

• question: can we completely filter out the message to the unattended ear and attend only to the shadowed message?

results of dichotic listening

• participants could not report the content of the message in unattended ear

• knew the message and the speaker

• the unattended ear is being processed at some level

• cocktail party effect

breadbent’s filter model

early selection model

evidence for late selection

after meaning has been established; McKay

Treisman’s attenuation theory

intermediate selection model

Broadbent’s filter model; early-selection model

filters message before incoming information is analyzed for meaning

sensory memory (Broadbent’s Filter Model)

holds all incoming information for a fraction of a second; transfers all information to next stage

filter (Broadbent’s Filter Model)

identifies attended message based on physical characteristics; only attended message is passed on to the next stage

flow diagram of Broadbent’s filter model of attention

messages → sensory memory → filter → detector → memory

detector (Broadbent’s Filter Model)

processes the information received to determine the meaning of the message

short-term memory (in terms of Broadbent’s filter model)

receives output of detector; holds information for 10-15 seconds and may transfer to long-term memory

what couldn’t Broadbent’s model explain?

• how did participant’s name get though

• participants can shadow meaningful messages that switch from one ear to another

• effects of practice on detecting information in unattended ear

evidence for late selection

selection of stimuli for final processing may not occur until after information has been analyzed for meaning

McKay evidence for late selection

• in attending ear, participants heard ambiguous sentences

• in unattended ear, participants heard biasing words

Triesman’s attenuation theory; intermediate-selection model

attended message can be separated from unattended message early in the information-processing system; selection can also occur later

attenuator (Treisman’s Attenuation Theory)

• replaces filter; analyzes incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning

• attended message is let through the attenuator at full strength

• unattended message is let through at a much weaker strength

directionary unit (Treisman’s Attenuation Theory)

• contains words, each of which have thresholds for being activated

• words that are common or important have low thresholds

• uncommon words have high thresholds

flow of Treisman’s attenuation theory

messages → attenuator → directionary unit → to memory

spelke et al. (divided attention)

enables people to simultaneously do two things that were difficult at first; after hours of practice participants could read and categorize dictated words simultaneously

schneider and shiffrin (divided attention)

• divide attention between remembering target and monitoring rapidly presented stimuli

• varied mapping condition

• same stimulus can sometimes be a target and sometimes a distractor

• participants never achieved automatic processing

consistent mapping condition in divided attention

target would be numbers and distractors would be letters; over time participants became able to divide their attention

automatic processing

occurs without intention and only uses some of a person’s cognitive resources

stroop effect

name of the word interferes with the ability to name the ink color; cannot avoid paying attention to the meanings of the words

varied mapping condition

rules changed from trial to trial; used with schneider and shiffrin

controlled processing

participants paid close attention and their search was slow and controlled

strayer and johnston

pursuit tasks with green and red lights; had a dual-task portion that had radio or cellphone usage

studies on cellphones supports the theory that impairment comes from …

internal cognitive engagement

inattentional blindness

a stimulus that is not attended is not perceived, even though a person might be looking directly at it

stimulus salience

areas that stand out and capture attention; bottom-up process; depends on characteristics of the stimulus

how salient are colors and motion?

highly

scene schema

knowledge about what is contained in typical scenes; help guide fixations from area to area

eye movements are determined by …

task

location based covert attention

moving attention from one place to another

precueing in covert attention

• directing attention without moving the eyes

• participants respond faster to a light at an expected location than at an unexpected location; even when eyes kept fixed

location based

moving attention from one place to another

object based

attention being directed to one place on an object

Egly et al

• participants saw two side-by-side rectangles followed by a target cue

• reaction time fastest when target appeared where indicated OR when target appeared in same rectangle

feature integration theory flow

objects → preattentive stage; analyze into features → focused attention stage; combine features → perception

preattentive stage

automatic, no effort, unaware of process, object analyzed into features

treisman and schmidt

• participants report combination of features from different stimuli

• illusory conjugations occur because features are free floating

focused attention stage

• attention plays key role

• features are combined

patients with balint syndrome

inability to focus attention on individual onjects; high number of illusory conjunctions reported

feature integration theory

mostly bottom up processing; top-down processing influences processing when participants are told what they would see

physiology of attention

enhances neural responding; processing is distributed across large # of areas in the brain