Attention

I. Attention defined

A. defined: the concentration of mental effort

B. properties of attention: selective, focused, divided

C. considerations

1. limited processing capacity

2. controlled vs. automatic processes

D. purposes
1. monitoring interactions

2. providing continuity

3. controlling and planning for future events


II. Selective Attention

A. the cocktail party phenomenon

B. dichotic listening & shadowing

1. processed
a. speech vs. non-speech

b. speaker gender

c. name

d. message repetition

2. non-processed
a. meaning

b. language

c. shifts

d. word lists

C. Visual Signals
1. selective reading (Neisser, 1969)
a. only highly conscious material


III. Filter Theories of Attention

A. Broadbent’s single filter theory
1. early selection based on physical (sensory) characteristics  
a. information that gets past the filter goes on for meaningful processing   2. responses to both channels could occur with slow presentations  
a. Broadbent (1954)  
1. 6 items, 2/second, recall as sets or ear to ear

2. 65% vs. 20% correct

3. loss of information due to switching
 

 3. but: important info from other channel can be processed   a. could switching occur?
  1. one's name was heard only 33% of the time (Pashon, 1998)


B. Triesman’s attenuation theory
1. Treisman (1960)
a. participants followed when a message switched from one ear to another

b. early selection but can be modified based on meaning
2. Wood & Cowan (1995)
a. can info from the unattended ear be recognized?
1. 2 messages: Grapes of Wrath, 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. switch to backwards speech for intervals of 0, 30, 180 seconds

3. shadowing was disrupted for those who noticed
 

a. automatic attentional shift to unattended message

b. errors peaked at 10-20 sec after presentation
3. the theory
a. modified filter theory with an attenuator
1. turns down the volume
b. analysis at three possible levels: physical, linguistic, semantic

c. thresholds
 

1. some messages have permanently lower thresholds = faster access to meaning  
a. e.g., your name 2. other messages can have temporarily lowered thresholds
  a. e.g., priming
  1. e.g., MacKay (1973) words in the unattended ear can disambiguate meaning (but not when presented as a list, Pashler, 1988) d. people process only as much as needed to separate messages
1. differ physically, filter physically
e. problem of decisions
C. Late selection
1. Duestch/Norman model
a. filter at the response level
1. certain aspects of meaning are processed
2. info deemed important continues for more
b. characteristics of importance
1. context, significance, alterness
c. but: why are so many inputs lost


IV. Alternatives to Filter Theories

A. Attentional Resource Theories
1. defined
a. attention as selection, rather than filtering
2. Kahneman’s model a. limited attentional capacity (sum total of our mental resources)

b. demands on attentional capacity can change

c. resource-limited vs. data-limited processing
1. mental effort vs. quality of data
3. Navon & Gopher
a. modality as important
B. Schema theory
1. information may be left out of our cognitive processing

2. selective watching (Neisser & Becklen, 1975)

a. no notice of action in other scene

b. "skilled perceiving"


V. The Neuropsychology of Attention

A. areas I
1. parietal lobe: hemineglect
a. overlooks information on one side of the visual field

b. attentional not sensory

2. networks of visual attention a. task: attend to information on one side of a stimulus or another

b. disengage: involves posterior parietal lobe

c. move: involves superior colliculus in the midbrain

d. enhance: involves the pulvinar in the thalamus
B. areas II
a. anterior - planning and word search

b. posterior - visual search and vigilance


VI. Automaticity and Divided Attention

A. the Stroop task
1. reading is an automatic process
a. but color naming can improve 2. begins when learning to read, peaks @ 2nd - 3rd grade, declines to age 60 B. Posner & Snyder (1975)
1. occurs without intention

2. occurs without conscious awareness

3. does not interfere with other mental activity

C. Schneider & Shiffrin (1977) 1. presented displays where one searched for letters among letters or numbers among letters

2. mapping conditions

 
a. varied mapping: targets in one trial became distractors in another

b. consistent mapping: same targets throughout

c. also manipulated size of the memory set, frame size, & time
3. results
a. consistent mapping (automatic processing): accuracy increased with longer frame times only

b. varied mapping (effortful processing): everything had an effect
 

 4. automatization
a. with practice, tasks can become automatic

b. chunking

D. Divided Attention
1. defined

2. examples

a. Spelke et al. (1976)
1. dictation + reading short stories

2. practiced 1 hour daily for 17 weeks

3. "normal" performance after 6 weeks

4. alternating back and forth?

b. Hirst et al. (1980)
1. transfer of skills to reading encylopedia articles, too

2. automacity on one task?

a. were aware of and could recognize words for dictation

b. concluded: doing the tasks "differently"
3. limitations on divided attention
a. importance of modality

b.psychological refractory period (Pashler, 1993)

1. two tasks: verbal response to a tone ("high" vs. "low") and manual response to a letter (push a button)

2. varied time between task presentation

3. S1 <-> S2, R2 took longer

4. waiting time = PRP

a. propose that the PRP occurs at the stage of response selection rather than at making the response or sensing the stimulus
c. some tasks divide more naturally than others
1. e.g., shadow speech/type copy but not vice versa
TOP | Back to PSY 307 Schedule