Att&Per_Flashcards_Unit 2
Principle: Cocktail Party Problem
Definition: Being able to follow one conversation and not be distracted by others in a noisy environment.
Experiment: Cherry’s Shadowing Task (1953)
Definition: A dichotic listening task where the subject listens to two messages simultaneously and repeats one out loud.
Experiment: Broadbent’s Split Span Task (1954)
Definition: A dichotic listening task where the subject is presented with pairs of digits, one in each ear, and must recall them.
Principle: Selective and Limited Nature of Attention
Definition: The understanding that we can only focus on one message at a time in a dichotic listening task.
Experiment: Moray’s (1959) Finding
Definition: When the unattended message in a dichotic listening task contained meaningful content (e.g., the subject’s name), subjects often remembered the content of the unattended message.
Model: Broadbent’s (1958) Model
Definition: Predicts that in a dichotic listening task, sensory information is detected at both ears, even though we are trying to ignore stimuli heard in one ear.
Model: Treisman’s Attenuation Model (1960)
Definition: A model of selective attention that explains how some unattended information gets through the filter.
Experiment: Treisman’s Shadowing Experiment (1960)
Definition: In this experiment, subjects were told to shadow one story they heard in one ear and ignore another story in the other ear.
Model: Late Filter Model (Deutsch & Deutsch, 1963)
Definition: Argues that when trying to selectively pay attention to something, information is filtered out, although this filter occurs later than in other models.
Addition: Norman’s (1968) Addition to the Late Filter Model
Definition: Norman built on the Late Filter Model by adding the role of long-term memory in the processing of sensory inputs.
Principle: Automatic Processing
Definition: The idea that all processing that occurs before the filter in late filter models is automatic and does not use up the limited capacity of attention.
Neisser’s Two-Step Perspective of Attention (1967)
Definition: Attention involves two types of processing: preattentive and attentive.
Summary: Models of Selective Attention
Broadbent’s theory: Predicts little or no processing of unattended auditory information.
Summary: Models of Selective Attention
Treisman’s theory: Predicts flexibility in the processing of unattended information (it is processed, although less intensely than the stimuli we’re trying to pay attention to).
Summary: Models of Selective Attention
Deutsch & Deutsch’s theory: Predicts that both attended and unattended information receive equal processing before any information is filtered out.
