MODULE 4.2: ATTENTION

controlled attention

topics

• practice and automaticity

• automatic vs. controlled processing

• selective attention

• divided attention

• how does control of processing actually work?

practice, automaticity, automatic vs. controlled processing

color stroop

• classic stroop task

• try to name the ink color and do not read the word

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attention and practice

• with practice, (many) activities require less attention

  • ex- practiced drivers

• reading is so automatic that we can’t “turn it off”

controlled vs. automatic processing

• CONTROLLED PROCESSING: in tasks that require effortful attention

• AUTOMATIC PROCESSING: in tasks well practiced, not much effort or attention needed

  • it can occur even without intention/conscious decision

  • its steps occur without conscious awareness

  • it does not interfere with other mental activity

caveat

• an activity thought of as “automatic” may not actually be automatic in all its aspects

• many aspects of “automatic” activities are not so

  • reading comprehension

  • typing an essay

  • riding a bike

• careful about considering that seemingly automatic activity “does not require much effort/attention”

implications

• practice leads to transition from controlled to automatic processing

• however, for any given seemingly “automatic” behavior

  • only some components may have become automatic

  • some components may not have become automatic

  • aspects of task may still require controlled, effortful processing

selective attention

• SELECTIVE ATTENTION: focusing on one input or one task while ignoring other stimuli

  • AUDITION: paying attention to one stream of sound over others

    • cocktail party problem

      • following one person’s conversation at party

      • daily life

  • VISION: paying attention to one object over others

    • controlled visual search- focusing on each object

  • AUDITORY-VISUAL: paying attention to reading vs. music

dichotic listening task

• DICHOTIC LISTENING: two different speech streams to left, right ears; headphones

• pay attention to speech in one ear (the attended channel) while ignoring information in other (the unattended channel)

• SHADOWING: repeat back attended channel speech

  

  findings

  • very little reported about unattended message content

  • auditory selective attention

filter theory

• Donald Broadbent

• filter selects one message to process

• early selection

• • cocktail party effect

    • certain pieces of information noticed even in unattended channel

    • participants own name

    • real life also

attenuation theory

• Anne Treisman

• unattended channel attenuated, not blocked

• lowered volume

• types of processing

• lower volume channel processed less

• thresholds for processing

• certain stimuli- very low threshold

• get processed

neural bases

• fMRI

• rest

• clear speech

• masked speech

implication of regions more active for

• clear than rest

  • non-noisy auditory speech processing

• clear than masked

  • typical auditory processing areas less active in noise

• masked than clear

  • cognitive control areas to deal with noise