cog-psy attention

Attention- the cognitive process of selectively
concentrating on one aspect of the environment while
ignoring other things.

aka. Arousal, Effort, Capacity, Perceptual Set, etc.

attention involves selecting some information and inhibiting other information
for further processing.

starting point for Overt Cognition

Failures in attention can cause learning and memory

Divided Attention- Listening to music and driving

Selective (Focused) attention- process of directing our awareness to relevant stimuli while ignoring irrelevant stimuli in the environment

allows us to tune out insignificant details and focus on important details

Dichotic Listening & Attention- Focused Attention can be studied by presenting people
with 2 or more stimuli at the same time through
Dichotic Listening Colin Cherry (1953):

Subjects were told to shadow—follow and repeat one stream of speech and ignore the other. found that subjects did not remember what played in the unattended ear the majority (2/3) of times

• findings suggest that there is an early selection processes
  but unattended stimuli sometimes received attention

Donald Broadbent favored the view that selection is
made at an early stage of information processing by a
selective filter to prevent overloading of the limited-
capacity attention system.
•He proposed that physical characteristics of messages
are used to select one message for further processing
and that all others are lost.

Broadbent (1958): made the following
assumptions of filtered stimuli:
• The inputs not initially selected by the filter
remain briefly in the sensory buffer store.
• If they are not processed they decay
rapidly.
• The filter is necessary to prevent overloading of
the limited capacity attentional-mechanism.

• According to Broadbent the meaning of
any of the messages is not taken into
account at all by the filter.
• All semantic processing is carried out
after the filter has selected the message to
pay attention to.
• So whichever message(s) are restricted by
the bottleneck is not understood.

Von Wright et al (1975) indicated full analysis of the
unattended message in a shadowing task through
unconscious processes.
• A word was first presented to participants with a mild
electric shock.
• When the same word was later presented to the
unattended channel, participants showed a strong GSR.
• GSR reactivity is indicative of both emotional arousal and
unconscious analysis of the word in the unattended
channel.

Broadbent's dichotic listening experiments have been
criticized because:
2. Practice and Familiarity with the Dichotic Listening Task.
Not inability of attention system.
Moray (1959) studied the effects of practice:
• Naive subjects could only detect 8% of targets appearing
in either the shadowed or non-shadowed message.
• Experienced subjects detected 67% of targets in the non-
shadowed message.

Broadbent's dichotic listening experiments have been
criticized because:
3. Cocktail Party Effect:
Broadbent's theory predicts that hearing your name when
you are not paying attention should be impossible because
unattended messages are filtered out before you process the
meaning
• Thus the model cannot account for the 'Cocktail Party
Phenomenon.
• This implies some analysis of the meaning of stimuli have
occurred early on and attentional filtering is not solely
based on the “physical” characteristics of the stimuli.

Treisman’s (1964): filter attenuates rather than
eliminates the unattended material.
• Attenuation is like turning down the volume so
that if you have 4 sources of sound in one room
(TV, radio, people talking, baby crying) you can
turn down or attenuate 3 in order to attend to the
fourth.
• The saliency of stimuli and their semantic
features are aiding the filter toward selection—
cocktail party effect.
Broadbent's Filter Model is not adequate, it does
not allow for meaning being taken into account.

DIFFERENCE- Broadbent does not include language, Treismans is related to phonological procressing

Zoom lens Model: Focused Visual Attention:

NO FILTER

Argues that focused visual attention is like a camera that is adjustable so the area covered by the lens can be increased or decreased

Methods:
 Five letter words were presented. Example---HAPPY
 A probe requiring a rapid response was occasionally presented.
 The probe could appear between any of the five letters of the
word.
 There were two conditions that manipulated the spotlight and
reaction time to the probe was measured.

Zoom lens Model: Focused Visual Attention:
• Condition 1: subjects focused attention to the middle
letter of the 5-letter word---HAPPY
• Condition 2: Subjects were required to focus on the
entire word and not center letter. This would have
subjects adopt a broader attentional beam.
• The results indicate that the attentional focus can have
either a very narrow (letter task) or rather broad zoom
(word task).
Focused Attention

Reaction time in the letter task was fastest when the probe was
in the center position—the area they focused on.
For the broad beam condition, it did not matter where the probe
appeared as reaction was relatively consistent in each position.
We can direct attention to certain objects within that
area or to certain significant parts of that area.
 These results suggest that focused visual attention operates in a
flexible fashion.

Treisman (1988): Concerned with the role of attention in selecting
and binding together complex information.
According to FIT, the perceptual system is divided into separate maps,
each which registers the presence of different visual features (e.g.,
colors, edges, shapes).
Each map contains information about the features it represents.
 If we are looking for a target defined by a particular shape or color,
our cognitive system first refers to each map separately.
The cognitive system then compares the contents of two maps.
This comparison of maps serves as a glue to bind unlinked features of
color and shape to yield a blue circle.

In Disjunctive (or feature) search trials, the target differs from
the other characters —by a single feature, such as shape (circle among
squares)—only 1 map is used here.
Conjunctive Search Trials: When the target (i.e., blue circle) is defined
by two or more features—color (blue versus white) and shape (circle
versus square)—two or more maps are compared and glued to link
blue circle.

Feature Integration Theory and
Guided Search
In the disjunctive display (a), only 1 feature (shape). Target is easy to select
from the distracters. FIT suggests that only 1 map needed here.
Greater Attention is required as we need more maps to compare the content as
they are being glued together. It is easier for a disjunctive visual search as only
1 map is needed!

 Spatial neglect is a failure to report, respond, or orient to
novel stimuli or meaningful stimuli presented to the side
opposite a brain lesion.
 The Neglect is not caused by a sensory or motor defect!
Spatial neglect is linked to longer and worse rehabilitation
outcomes (Appelros, 2007; Gillen et al., 2005).

When these patients are asked to copy or even draw from memory a
clock or a daisy, they do not attend to (that is, they fail to select)
information on the side of space opposite the lesion and so do not
incorporate this information in their pictures.

 Bisiach and Luzatti (1978) present compelling evidence
for neglect.
• The afflicted individuals were from Milan Italy, so they
were familiar with their hometown prior to the brain injury.
• The patients were asked to imagine that they were
standing at one end of a piazza, facing the cathedral.
• The patients uniformly described only buildings and
shops on the right side of the piazza and ignored the left,
even though this was from memory.

Similar to zoom lens is Posner’s spotlight attention model.
The primary idea being that attention is like a movable
spotlight that is directed towards intended targets, focusing
on each target in a serial manner.
The model suggests attentional shift occurs in 3 stages:
o Stage 1: in order for a person to orient to a new location, they first have to
disengage, or take attention away from where it is currently focusing.
o Stage 2: after disengaging, the shifting of one’s attention would occur from
one stimulus to another.
o Stage 3: after disengaging and shifting, attention would be engaged, or
focused onto the new target

Factors that Determine Dual-Task Performance!
1. Task Similarity:
• Treisman & Davies (1973) found that the
similarity of the stimulus modality can produce
interference.
• The researchers found that 2 stimuli produced
greater interference when presented to the same
sense modality (i.e., vision-vision) than different
sensory modalities (vision-hearing).

Factors that Determine Dual-Task Performance!
2. Practice:
• Common sense suggests that the old saying,
Practice makes Perfect!
• This proverb hold true especially for dual-task
performance.
• Example---new drivers find it difficult to hold a
conversation and talk at the same time.
Experienced drivers find it very easy!!
•Factors that Determine Dual-Task Performance!
2. Practice:
• Spelke, Hirst, & Neisser (1976):
• Performed a study where students received 5-hours of
training a week for 4 months on a variety of tasks.
• The main task was to read short stories for comprehension
at the same time they wrote down words for dictation---
dual task performance was poor at first.
• After 6 weeks of training, they were able to read rapidly
with high comprehension when taking diction as compared
to just reading without diction---dual task performance
improved with practice!!

Factors that Determine Dual-Task Performance!
3. Task Difficulty: Sullivan (1976)
 Gave subjects 2 tasks of shadowing an auditory message
and detecting target words on a non-shadowed message.
 When the shadowing task was made more difficult, fewer
targets were detected on the non-shadowed message.
• These results suggest that the ability to perform
two tasks together depends on their difficulty.

 Automatic Processing:
 Shiffrin and Schneider’s Theory: argued for a distinction between
controlled and automatic processes.
According to them:
 Controlled Processes are of limited capcity, require lots of attention, and
can be used flexibly in changing circumstances.
 Automatic Processes suffer no capacity limitations, do not require
attention, and are very difficult to modify once they have been learned.
 The biggest problem with automatic processes is their lack of flexibility.
Automatic processes are disrupted very easily when there is a change in
the circumstances (i.e., Stroop).

Automatic Processing: Stroop Effect:
 RED
 Yellow
 Green
 Blue
 Orange
 We associated the meaning
of the word with the color
presented. This has become an
automatic process.
 Through association and
practice we can name colors
while implicitly reading.

Your response time to naming
colors here will be slowed down.
 The color naming is incongruent
from the semantic meaning of each
word.
This paradigm provides evidence
for automaticity and divided
attention.

Divided Attention
 Automatic Processing:
 Shiffrin and Schneider’s Theory: argued for a
distinction between controlled and automatic
processes.
Eysenck (1982, p. 22) pointed out:
“Automatic processes function rapidly and in
parallel but suffer from inflexibility;
controlled processes are flexible and versatile
but operate relative slowly and in a serial
fashion”

Attention Deficit Disorder
 ADHD is the most commonly studied and diagnosed
psychiatric disorder in children.
 Prevalence is about 3% to 5% of children globally, and
diagnosed in about 2% to 16% of school aged children.
 Found 2-4x more likely in boys than girls.
 It is a chronic disorder with 30% to 50% of those
individuals diagnosed in childhood continuing to have
symptoms into adulthood.

 Signs and Symptoms:
1- Predominantly Inattentive Type Symptoms:
• Be easily distracted, miss details, forget things, and frequently switch
from one activity to another—divided attention intact!
• Have difficulty maintaining focus on one task—lack of focused attention!
• Have difficulty focusing attention on organizing and completing a task or
learning something new or trouble completing or turning in homework
assignments, often losing things (e.g., pencils, toys, assignments) needed
to complete tasks or activities
• Have difficulty processing information as quickly and accurately as others

2- Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type Symptoms:
 Fidget and squirm in their seats
 Talk nonstop, Dash around, touching or playing with anything and
everything in sight
 Have trouble sitting still during dinner, school, and story time--Be
constantly in motion.
 and also these manifestations primarily of impulsivity
 Blurt out inappropriate comments, show their emotions without restraint,
and act without regard for consequences.
 Have difficulty waiting for things they want or waiting their turns in
games

Low Arousal Theory
―People with ADD need excessive activity as self-stimulation because of
their state of abnormally low arousal!
―The theory states that those with ADD cannot self-monitor, and their
attention can only be gained by means of environmental stimuli.
―Without enough stimulation coming from the environment, an ADD child
will create it by walking around, fidgeting, talking, etc.
― This theory also explains why stimulant medications have high success
rates and can induce a calming effect at therapeutic dosages among children
―It establishes a strong link with scientific data that ADD is connected to
abnormalities with the neurochemical dopamine and a powerful link with low-
stimulation PET scan results.

Attention Deficit Disorder
 Biological Causes
 Research on children with ADD has shown a general reduction of
brain volume, but with a proportionally greater reduction in the
volume of the left-sided prefrontal cortex.
 These findings suggest that the core ADD features of inattention,
hyperactivity, and impulsivity may reflect frontal lobe dysfunction.
 SPECT scans found people with ADD to have reduced blood
circulation (indicating low neural activity), and a significantly
lower levels of dopamine (hypodopaminergia) across the board.

Attention Deficit Disorder
 Management of ADHD:
 Stimulants used to treat ADD raise the extracellular concentrations
of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine which will
improve attention.
 Medication Risk: Higher rates of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
occur in individuals with a past history of stimulant use for ADD in
childhood.
Emergency room visits by children ages 10–14 involving Ritalin
intoxication have now reached the same level as those for cocaine
which indicates escalating abuse of this highly addictive drug.

Attention Deficit Disorder
Based on symptoms, and the use of brain scans to measure
blood flow (SPECT), Amen described six types of ADHD:
Type 1 -- Classic ADHD. Symptoms of ADHD, plus hyperactivity
and impulsivity; responds well to stimulant medications.
Type 2 -- Inattentive ADHD. Features of ADHD, but instead of
hyperactivity, there is low energy; responds well to stimulant
medications.
Type 3 – Over focused ADHD. Symptoms of ADHD and negative
thoughts and behaviors, such as opposition and arguing;
tends to respond better to an antidepressant (such as Prozac)
combined with a stimulant.

Based on symptoms, and the use of brain scans to measure blood flow (SPECT), Amen
described six types of ADHD:
Type 4 -- Temporal Lobe ADHD. The hallmark features of ADHD,
plus irritability, aggressiveness, and memory and learning
problems; responds better to anti-seizure medications (like
Neurontin) than to stimulants.
Type 5 -- Limbic ADHD. Combines ADHD with depression and
low energy and decreased motivation; responds better to
stimulating antidepressants than to stimulants.
Type 6 -- The Ring of Fire. Cross between ADHD and bipolar
disorder; characterized by moodiness, aggressiveness, and
anger; Newer antipsychotic medications tend to work better
than stimulants.