Attention Flashcards
(105 cards)
1
Q
What is selective attention?
A
The ability to focus on that which is important to the task at hand while ignoring or suppressing task-irrelevant information.
2
Q
What do early selection models suggest?
A
That the information not attended to is filtered out before any processing occurs e.g. identification
3
Q
Give an exam of an early selection model
A
Broadbent’s Filter Model
4
Q
What is evidence for early selection?
A
Dichotic listening - can report basic physical characteristics but cannot report meaning or content.
5
Q
Explain Broadbent’s Filter model.
A
Info is held in a sensory store and some of this information is then passed into the perceptual processing system but other information is filtered out. The later information is not available for processing, so processing is only applied to filtered stimuli.
6
Q
What did Moray, Corteen, Von Wright, and Treisman find?
A
Evidence for processing in the unattended channel.
7
Q
What is the difference between Broadbent and Treisman’s modified model?
A
In Treisman’s model, the unattended information is not filtered out, but attenuated (turned down)
8
Q
Why can we hear some words in the unattended channel?
A
Some stimuli are louder than others e.g. your name or words associated with an electric shock.
9
Q
What are the similarities between Broadbent and Treisman’s model?
A
The attenuation still happens early (prior to processing of perceptual/meaning processing) and it is still a structural model (the attenuator is the new part in the model)
10
Q
What is late selection?
A
All incoming information is processed to the highest level - physical characteristics and the meaning of all current stimuli are extracted in parallel without interference.
11
Q
Where does selection occur in late selection?
A
At the level of response/awareness
12
Q
Is late selection structural?
A
Yes.
13
Q
What is evidence for late selection?
A
- Lackner & Garrett 1972
- Stroop Task
14
Q
What did Lackner and Garrett 1972 find?
A
- PPs use material from the unattended channel to resolve ambiguous sentences
- PPs paraphrasing reflected the content of the unattended channel
15
Q
How is the stroop task evidence for late selection?
A
- Two elements of the stimuli, both are encoded
- Both elements compete for response
16
Q
What is the difference between a structural and capacity model? (4)
A
Capacity models have no structure bottleneck, the cognitive system has limited amount of processing capacity, and ‘paying attention’ is equivalent to ‘investing energy’, so limiting factor is not a structural one.
17
Q
What does Kahneman 1972 suggest?
A
Any task demands a processing capacity and that task performance is dependent on the allocation of capacity to the task.
18
Q
According to Kahneman 1972, what does a task’s processing capacity depend on?
A
- the difficulty of the task
- the individual’s experience on the task
19
Q
Accoring to Kahneman 1972, what is the allocation of the capacity to tasks dependent on?
A
- Enduring dispositions (habits and preferences)
- Momentary (need right now)
- Evaluation of demands on capacity
20
Q
What evidence is there for Kahneman 1972’s theory?
A
Dual Tasking
21
Q
What is the dual task decrement?
A
When individuals do two things at once, there is a drop in performance. Could be classified as the difference between the single task and the dual task performance.
22
Q
What did Deutsch and Deutsch (1963) find?
A
Both attended and unattended information is analysed for meaning in order to select an input for full awareness.
23
Q
Explain Lavie’s Perceptual Load Theory.
A
When there is low demand, more of what is seen is processed. When there is high demand on capacity, less of what is seen is processed.
24
Q
Is Lavie’s Perceptual Load Theory a model of early or late selection?
A
It is a hybrid model (both). You can have both early and late selection within the system depending on the demands of the attended stimuli.
25
Low load =
Little demand for perceptual processing
26
High load =
Increased demand for perceptual processing
27
What compatibility effects are there in Lavie's Perceptual Load Theory?
Incompatible, neutral, and compatibile effects
28
Explain each compatibility effect.
Incompatible - wrong option stimuli
Neutral - a random stimuli
Compatible - a correct option stimuli
29
What did Lavie's Load Theory Results show?
The RT was the longest for the incompatible condition.
There is a strong compatibility effect in low load but no real compatibility effect in high loads between compatible/incompatible conditions.
30
How does perceptual load effect early or late selection?
Low load means late filtering.
| High load means system filters out irrelevent stimuli early.
31
What is inattentional blindness?
Not noticing task irrelevant elements in the visual scene. (e.g. the gorilla video)
32
What did Cartwright-Finch & Lavie 2006 find?
Increased loads reduced PPs noting irrelevant stimuli.
| Perceptual load reduces the compatibility effect and increases inattentional blindness.
33
Explain the cross task.
In the low PL condition, PPs were asked if the green line is horizontal or vertical (easy). In the high PL condition, PPs were asked which line is longer (hard). At the end they were asked if they could see the square,
34
What happens to interference when we vary the load on working memory?
HighWM load - larger differences in RT between congruent and incongruent compared to LowWM load.
Therefore, high WM load increases interference and high PL reduces interference.
35
What does Allport say about attention?
The fundamental purpose of attentional mechanisms is to protect the brain's limited capacity system from informational overload.
36
What is the S System?
Sensory memory
37
What is the P System?
The perceptual system - operates serially (selected items are processed one at a time)
38
What did Broadbent 1971 suggest about the P system?
That the P system affects perceptual-semantic categorisation in that items in the P system are assigned to their corresponding mental categories
39
What did Treisman and Gelade 1980 get participants to do?
have to find a target amongst distractors. e.g. red horizontal line amongst red vertical lines and green horizontal lines.
40
What did Treisman and gelade 1980 vary in their experiment?
The number of distractors and the presence or absence of the targets.
41
What is a conjoined feature?
Searching for a stimuli with more than 1 feature e.g. colour AND shape.
42
How do single feature searches impapct reaction time?
Increasing the number of items has no impact on reaction time.
When it's absent, the number of items in the array does have an impact on reaction time.
43
How do conjoined feature searches impact reaction time?
When it is present, the array size increases the reaction time.
The highest increasing reaction time occurs when the target is not present in the conjoined feature condition - negative conjoined/conjunctive
44
List the visual search conditions in order from longest to shortest reaction time.
Negative Conjunctive
Positive Conjunctive
Negative Feature
Positive Feature
45
If the gradient of a visual search model is less than 10ms...
They are called 'pop-outs' where the size of the array does not make a difference and the target just 'pops out'.
46
What are the two stages of Feature Integration Theory - Treisman & Schmidt 1982?
Two processing stages:
- Feature detection
- Feature integration
47
Explain the feature detection stage of feature in integration theory. (3)
It is parallel, fast, efficient.
It is pre-attentive.
Single features 'pop-out'.
48
Explain the feature integration stage of feature integration theory. (3)
It glues features together using attentional focus.
Serial processing is needed.
Slow search, inefficient.
49
What is a disadvantage of feature integration theory?
The theory can't explain why the texture around the target has an impact in an array.
50
What should all search data look like?
Distributions should overlap but be distinct.
51
What does all search data actually look like according to Wolfe 1998?
When you take all the data, it doesn't form the 4 distributions but falls into 2 distributions; target present and target absent.
52
What drives search in a bottom-up view?
- Salience (differeces amongst the targets and distractors)
| - Attributes (elements that capture the deployment of attention)
53
What drives search in a top-down view?
Scene properties.
| Values.
54
Explain Attentional Engagement Theory?
- Efficiency of the search slope is based on aspects of the task. (the observation that search performance depends on how similar distractors are to each other)
55
What are guiding attributes according to Wolfe 2004?
Attributes that might guide the deployment of attention
56
What are the undoubted guiding attributes? (4)
Colour
Motion
Orientation
Size
57
What are the two pathways in Wolfe's model?
Selective pathway
| Non-selective pathway
58
What is the selective pathway?
Leads to recognition of stimuli's elements and has the traditional bottle-neck.
59
What is the non-selective pathway?
Extracts basic semantic information from the scene and provides guidance to the selective pathway.
60
How does value affect search?
High value distractors increased RT over absent.
61
What is the anger superiority effect?
Angry faces were detected relativelyy quickly and accurately when presented in a neutral or happy crowd.
62
What is a parallel search?
If the time to search for a target is unaffected by the number of to-be-searched elements in a display (searching many items as the same time)
63
What is a serial search?
When target detection is more difficult and the search is a one-at-a-time search?
64
Could there be a happiness superiority effect?
Despite all evidence, Juth et al found that it is happy expressions that are easy to detect.
There is no evidence to support their prediction regarding threat enhancement when an angry face looked directly at the PP.
65
What are the features of automatic processing? (7)
- Fast
- Parallel (multiple happen at once)
- Requires little effort
- No capacity demands
- May arise through extensive practice
- No real call on conscious attention
- Difficult to control
66
What are the features of controlled processes? (7)
- Slower
- Serial
- Effortful
- Dependent on capcity demands
- Can be changed quickly
- Dependent on focussed attention
- Controlled
67
Explain Schneider and Shriffin's search task
PPs were presented with items and then asked to search for them in a number of frames with distractors. Set up to examine the differences between automatic processing and controlled processing using 2 conditions.
68
What were the hypotheses for Schneider and Shriffin's Task
Variable mapping was hypothesised to need controlled processing and consistent mapping was hypothesised to trigger automatic processing.
69
What is the difference between the consistent and variable mapping condition in S&S's task?
In consistent mapping, the targets are always different from the distractors but in varied mapping the target in one set of trials can become the distractor in the next set of trials.
70
What were the other independent variables in S&S's mapping task? (3)
- Memory set size (1,2,4)
- Frame size (no. of items on each frame)
- Frame time (length of presentation)
71
What were the results of S&S's mapping task for consistent mapping?
- No real effect of no. of items to be remembered
- No increase in RT as frame size increases
- No change in performance as you make the task harder (capacity demands)
72
What were the results of S&S's mapping task for variable mapping?
- As memory load increases, so does RT
- As PL increases, so does RT
- Reduced performance and reduced accuracy
73
What were the overall results of S&S's mapping task?
- Consistent mapping is much quicker than variable mapping
- Consistent mapping - fast + automatic
- Variable mapping = slow + controlled
74
Can other distinctions be made via training according to S&S?
- Performance became independent of item and PPs report process becoming automatic after around trial 600.
- Was much harder to learn the distinction the second time around.
- Automatic processing is hard to learn, but harder to unlearn
- controlled processes are open to conscious control
- automatic processes are beyond control.
75
What is Posner's Spatial Cueing Task?
PPs respond to the presence of a target which is left or right of a fixation point by a cue.
Can be done centrally or in the periphery.
76
What is Cue Target Onset Asynchronicity?
The time between the cue and the target. This can be varied.
77
What are the elements to Posner's Task? (4)
- Central vs Peripheral cue
- Valid or Invalid
- Informative vs Uninformative
- CTOA (Cue Target Onset Asychronicity)
78
What were the results of Posner's Cueing Paradigm?
- Invalid cues have longer RTs than neutral which have longer RTs than valid - validity effect
- If there is a validity effect, that means the cues are working.
79
Explain the validity effect for informative cues.
For the first 100ms, there is no validity effect.
80
Explain the validity effect for uninformative cues?
There is no validity effect for central cueing.
| For peripheral cueing, there is a validity effect for the first 100/200ms and then it flips.
81
Define endogenous.
How you pay attention is controlled by what you want to do (voluntary)
82
Define exogenous.
What happens when the world grabs your attention - you have no control over where you look because the peripheral cues grab your attention.
83
What is the Inhibition of Return?
For peripheral uninformative cues, there is an initial positive validity effect but changes at around 200ms. At longer cue delays, uncued targets are quicker. Attention drifts away and is slow to come back.
84
What did Frisesen and Kingstone 1998 research?
Whether eye gaze is also automatic.
85
What did Driver et al 1999 find regarding real faces?
There was a validity effect present (only significant at 700ms).
86
What did Driver et al 1999 find once they made the task easier?
Found validity effects - automatic processing at 300ms.
When they increased the number of invalid trials, they still had validity effect at 700ms - suggesting that it's a controlled process.
87
What do cueing tasks tell us?
- Peripheral cues seem to be automatically directing attention
- Central cues can be used to direct attention in a voluntary fashion
- Central cues can automatically control attention.
88
Can you drive while texting on your phone?
No.
- Slower breaking
- More varied following distances
- Showed more failure to maintain lane
89
How do you reduce the dual task decrement in real life situations?
The costs are less with two tasks from separate modalities than two tasks in the same modality.
We also can't multitask with our phones.
90
How do radiologists conduct visual searches?
- fixate quicker on abnormalities
spend less time on non-selient structures
- have different search patterns
91
What increases the efficiency of search in real life?
Expertise - determines where and what you search for, driven by an improved sense of gist.
92
Is attention affected in schizophrenia?
Yes
93
What is joint attention?
The capacity to share attentional focus with other social partners.
94
How is attention affected in autism?
They have difficulty following eye gaze in everyday settings.
They don't show responsiveness to joint attention.
95
What can we do using search tasks?
- Examine how individuals search in the real world in key situations.
- Examine what type of attentional controlled is in deficit in Schizophrenia.
96
What can we do using the Posner paradigm?
- Examine what types of attention are in deficit in Autism and Schizophrenia.
97
How is attention affected in Dyslexia?
- Issues with automatic/exogenous cueing in DD children
- Control is atypical in DDC
- Attention shift is 'sluggish'
98
What is change blindness?
Occurs when a stimulus undergoes a change without being noticed by its observer
99
What Change Detection Paradigms are there?
- Flicker paradigm
| - Forced Choice detection paradigm
100
What is the Flicker paradigm?
- observers rarely detect changes during the first cycle of alternation
- changes to objects in the 'centre of interest' are detected more readily than peripheral
- suggests attention is focused on central objects either more rapidly or more often - allowing faster change detection
101
What is the Forced Choice Detection paradigm?
- Observers only receive 1 view of each scene before responding so total duration of exposure can be controlled more precisely
- Only a subset of the images have changed so signal-detection analyses can be used and both accuracy and latency can be used as dependent measures
102
What explanations are there for change blindness? (5)
- Overwriting
- First Impressions
- Nothing is stored
- Nothing is compared
- Feature combination
103
What is change deafness?
The inability to detect changes between 2 voices
104
What is the World Recognition View of change deafness?
- Semantic processing is independent of talker identity
- Changing speake voice has no effect on the ability to encode or recall a message
- Change deafness may occur because the speaker voice gavev no extra useful information
105
What is the Episodic View of change deafness?
- Non-lexical information is also encoded by listeners (talkers vocal characteristics e.g. accent)
- Listener has to be sensitive to change in speakers
