attention

Attention

Cognitive Psychology PS21820 - Overview

  • Lecture Date: 24th October 2025

  • Instructor: Dr. Ioana Mihai

Today's Lecture Topics

  • Understanding the process of attention

  • Theories of attention

  • Neuroscience of attention

  • Failures and divergence

  • Attention in everyday life

  • Key Question: What is attention and why do we study it?

Definition of Attention

  • Attention: A multi-componential process involving the allocation of brain resources to accomplish behavioral tasks and goals.

  • Common Aspect:

    • Attention functions as a mechanism for:

    • Selecting

    • Limiting

    • Managing the processing of information.

  • Memory Connection: Only a relevant subset of information enters memory, and only relevant information is used to support learning and action.

Mechanisms of Attention

  • Processes Involved:

    • Sensations

    • Memories

    • Thought processes

    • Focusing on controlled processes (including consciousness) and automatic processes (like certain actions).

  • Example Scenario: Driving a car; noticing a child running across the street leads to applying brakes, while simultaneously managing thoughts about a study assignment.

Types of Attention

External vs. Internal Attention

  • External Attention:

    • Based on sensorial information, often cross-modal.

    • Quick filtering of bottom-up information.

  • Internal Attention:

    • Based on goals and priorities, long-term and working memory.

    • Involves top-down control.

Types of Attention Processes

  1. Sustained Attention:

    • Involves alertness and vigilance.

    • Connects to Signal Detection Theory (SDT).

  2. Selective Attention:

    • Necessitates focus while ignoring other stimuli.

    • Requires search processes and includes divided attention and multitasking.

    • Involves executive control functions and processes.

Vigilance and Signal Detection Theory (SDT)

  • Concept of Vigilance:

    • Refers to sustained attention and activation during tasks.

  • Signal Detection Theory:

    • Used to analyze decision making under uncertainty.

    • Example: A lifeguard spotting a struggling swimmer (signal) influences response.

    • Influencing Factors:

    • Strength of the signal

    • Presence of noise (other events)

    • Sensitivity in distinguishing signals from noise

    • Criterion for caution in response

  • Top-down influences: Motivation, experience, knowledge.

  • Bottom-up influences: Strength of the signal and habituation.

Selective Attention

  • Definition: Focus on a particular stimulus while ignoring others.

  • Research Basis: Theories of selective attention, e.g., through auditory attention experiments.

  • Cocktail Party Problem (Cherry, 1953):

    • Demonstrated how dichotic listening tasks process unattended information mainly for physical characteristics (like tone).

Bottleneck Models in Selective Attention

  1. Broadbent's Filter Theory

  2. Treisman's Attenuation Theory

  3. Deutsch and Deutsch's Theory

    • Each model exhibits how attention filters sensory information to short-term memory based on varying criteria and capacities.

Characteristics of Unattended Information

  • Physical Features: Tone of voice, gender distinctions.

  • Emotional Information: More likely to capture attention and harder to ignore.

  • Meaning: Own name is particularly difficult to overlook.

  • EEG Evidence: Indicates temporal mechanisms in processing.

Visual Selective Attention

  • Overt vs. Covert Attention:

    • Overt attention involves eye movements, whereas covert attention is the response to cues without eye movement.

  • Models of Visual Attention:

    • Spotlight Model (Posner, 1980): Focus of attention can be narrowed like a spotlight.

    • Zoom Lens Model (Eriksen, 1986): Similar concept that models attention as adjustable in size.

Perceptual Load Theory and Attention

  • Dual Load Theory (Lavie, 2010):

    • Differentiates between perceptual load, cognitive load, and distractors.

    • High perceptual load leads to better filtering of distractors; low perceptual load results in increased susceptibility to distractions.

  • Type of Distracting Information: E.g. faces or semantic information.

Treisman’s Feature Integration Theory

  • Stages of Attention:

  1. Pre-attentive Stage:

    • Involves parallel processing of basic features rapidly.

    • Facilitates simple searches based on one feature differences.

  2. Focused Stage:

    • Serial processing that is slower.

    • Involves binding of features and conjunction searches, which depend on the set size.

Real-life Implications of Visual Selective Attention

  • Top-Down Processes: Knowledge and expectations shape attention in real-life situations.

  • Dual-Path Model (Wolfe et al., 2011):

    • Proposes selective and non-selective pathways for visual attention.

Divided Attention

  • Concept:

    • Distribution of cognitive resources towards multiple information sources.

    • Involves multitasking and switching between tasks.

  • Factors Influencing Ability to Divide Attention:

    • Modality

    • Practice

    • Nature of processing (serial vs parallel)

Multiple Resource Theory (Wickens, 1984, 2008)

  • Resource Allocation:

    • Identifies four independent resources:

    • Stages

    • Codes

    • Modalities

    • Visual channels

  • Effect on Multitasking: Varies by resource distribution across these dimensions.

Automatic vs Controlled Processes

  • Automatic Processes:

    • No capacity limitations; do not require attention, very hard to change once learned.

  • Controlled Processes:

    • Limited capacity, require attention, and are flexible in nature.

  • Evidence from Real Life: Flexibility exists in processes.

  • Executive Control: Plays a role in inhibiting automatic responses.

Factors Influencing Attention

  1. Top-down vs Bottom-up Attention:

    • Salience/capture against goals/intentions.

  • Emotional Factors:

    • Emotional or social information can capture attention; internal states also play a role.

Neuroscience of Attention

Posner’s Tripartite Model

  • Components of Attention:

    • Alerting: Ascending reticular system; waiting for cues.

    • Orienting: Parietal areas; can be endogenous/exogenous or overt/covert.

    • Executive: Involves anterior cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex.

    • Concerned with managing interference and conflict between action and perception.

Corbetta and Shulman’s Approach (2002)

  • Two Brain Networks in Attention:

    • Top-down system: Driven by goals; activates dorsal system (bilateral dorsal and posterior fronto-parietal areas).

    • Bottom-up system: Driven by unexpected stimuli; activates ventral system (right ventral frontal and temporo-parietal areas); faster response times.

  • Default Mode Network:

    • Consists of posterior cingulate, lateral parietal, inferior temporal cortex, medial prefrontal, and subgenual anterior cingulate; related to alertness and internal focus.

    • Task performance typically improves with the deactivation of the default mode network during external focus tasks.

Failures of Attention

Change Blindness & Inattentional Blindness

  • Change Blindness: Inability to notice significant changes in a visual scene.

  • Inattentional Blindness: Failing to see an unexpected object when attention is engaged elsewhere.

  • Attentional Blink: A deficit in reporting a second target presented closely after a first target.

Disorders of Attention

  • Neglect:

    • Lack of awareness of stimuli in the space opposite to the brain damage.

    • Distinction between egocentric (self-centered) and allocentric (object-centered) neglect.

  • Extinction:

    • Difficulty recognizing stimuli presented on one side when a second stimulus is presented on the same side as the damage.

ADHD and Perceptual Load

  • Attention deficits can be linked to how perceptual load affects attention-related tasks, indicating implications for educational materials and rehabilitation.

Conclusion

  • Overall Concept of Attention:

    • A multi-component process involving selection, filtering, and monitoring of information and actions.

    • Attention operates through various dimensions and mechanisms that can interact, including:

    • Internal vs external focus

    • Top-down vs bottom-up processing

    • Automatic vs controlled processing

    • Overt vs covert attention

  • Functions of Attention:

    • System activation and alertness

    • Selection and search of information

    • Resource control

    • Shifting focus

    • Attention can fail under various circumstances.