Attention

Question 1

What is attention?

Answer 1

• Attention- the behavioural and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information while ignoring other perceivable information

Question 2

What is passive attention?

Answer 2

o Passive attention- when controlled in a bottom-up way by external stimuli

Question 3

What is active attention?

Answer 3

o Active attention- when controlled in a top-down way but individual’s goals or expectation

Question 4

What is external attention?

Answer 4

o External attention- the selection and modulation of sensory information

Question 5

What is internal attention?

Answer 5

o Internal attention- the selection, modulation and maintenance of internally generated information such as task rules, responses, long-term memory or working memory

Question 6

How is focused attention studied and what information can be obtained from this?

Answer 6

o Focused or selective attention-
 Auditory
 Visual
 Studied by:
• Presenting individuals with 2 or more stimulus inputs at the same time and instructing them to respond only to one.
 Information obtained from studying focused attention-
• Tells us how effectively we can select certain inputs and avoid being distracted by non-task inputs
• Study the nature of selection process and the fate of unattended stimuli

Question 7

How is divided attention studied and what information can be obtained from this?

Answer 7

o Divided attention
 Processing multiple inputs
 Task performance
 The effects of practice
 Studied by:
• Presenting at least 2 stimulus inputs at the same time but individuals are instructed that they must attend and respond to all stimulus inputs
 Information obtained from studying divided attention:
• Processing limitations and capacity of attentional mechanisms

Question 8

What are two types of attention?

Answer 8

o Focused or selective attention

o Divided attention

Question 9

What is a dichotic listening task?

Answer 9

• Dichotic listening tasks:
o Dichotic listening task- a different auditory message is presented to each ear and attention has to be directed to one message
 Often accompanied with shadowing- repeating one auditory message word for word as it is presented while a secondary message is also presented

Question 10

What are two problems we face when trying to attend to one voice amongt many?

Answer 10

o Two problems when trying to attend to one voice among many
 Sound segregation- has to decide which sounds belong together in one ear and which ones do not
• Hard to do because there is considerable overlap of signals from different sound sources in the cochlea
 Must direct attention to sound source of interest and ignore other

Question 11

What is the locus of selection?

Answer 11

• Locus of selection- the point at which some material is accepted or selected for further processing, and some material is rejected and no longer processed

Question 12

What is an early locus of selection and who supports this view?

Answer 12

o Early locus of selection- information is selected or rejected on the basis of its physical characteristics
 Cherry (1953)
 Broadbent’s (1958) filter theory

Question 13

Describe Cherry’s 1953

experiments and findings on locus of selection

Answer 13

 Cherry (1953)
• Wanting to find process of specifically focusing on one conversation
• Conditions of dichotic listening task with shadowing
o Simultaneous messages
o Different messages in different ears
o Different language in unattended ear
o Speech vs other sounds in unattended ear
o Similar messages in both ears but staggered
• Findings:
o Selection is possible
o Only crude information/physical characteristics from unattended ear is encoded
 Sex of speaker
 Speech or noise
o When voices are physically similar, they are hard to distinguish on the basis of meaning differences alone
o Very little information seemed to be extracted from the unattended message
 Words are not recognised even when repeated many times
 German and English switch not distinguishable
• But (Caleb’s suggestion) should have tried languages such as thai and mandarin that are extremely different
 Didn’t noticed when speech were backwards
 However, physical changes in voice always nearly detected

Question 14

Describe Broadbent’s filter theory and one of its downsides

Answer 14

 Broadbent’s (1958) filter theory
• Multiple inputs are coded in parallel
• One is selected on the basis of its physical characteristics
o The other input remains briefly in sensory buffer and is rejected unless attended to rapidly
• Accounts for lack of processing of unattended stimuli
• Proposes an early locus of selection
• However, it has been shown that some information from the unattended ear is processed beyond the physical level

Question 15

What is the late locus of selection and who supports this view?

Answer 15

o Late locus of selection- Information is selected or rejected on the basis of more complex characteristics like its meaning
 Moray 1959- switching during shadowing experiments
 Conway et al. 2001
 Treisman 1960 and 1964

Question 16

Describe Moray’s 1959 experiment on locus of selection and a problem with it

Answer 16

 Moray 1959- switching during shadowing experiments
• Instructions to switch ears or stop presented in the unattended ear
• Few of these instructions reported or acted on (near 10%)
• But if the instructions were preceded by the listener’s name then the probability of switching was much greater (33%)
o Exhibits cocktail party effect
o But could simply be due to the fact that name before instruction lengthens the instructions

Question 17

Describe Conway et al’s 2001 findings on locus of selection

Answer 17

• Found that probability of detecting one’s own name on the unattended message depends on working memory capacity
• Found that people with low working memory capacity were more likely to hear their own name, suggesting that they are less able to control their focus of attention
• When instructed to search those high in WM capacity performed much better

Question 18

Describe Treisman’s 1960 and 1964 view and experiment

Answer 18

 Treisman 1960
• Supported flexible but technically late locus of selection
• Found that dichotic listening task subjects did switch to the unattended channel if the speech made sense, but quickly switched back
o Did an experiment where two messages only made sense if continued in other ear
o Found that people shadowed the message that began in one ear and finished it through the other ear (as half of that message was in other ear)-hence rejected information based on meaning and took in the meaning of information

 Treisman (1964)
• Listeners start with processing based on physical cues, syllable pattern and specific words and move onto processes based on grammatical structure and meaning. If there is insufficient processing capacity to permit full stimulus analysis, later processes are omitted
• Also argued that top-down processes are important due to breakthrough evidence- listeners performing the shadowing task sometimes say a word presented on the unattended input if the word on the unattended channel is highly probable in the context of the attended message

Question 19

Describe Treisman’s 1960 attenuation theory and what evidence it accounts for

Answer 19

• Attenuation theory
o Attenuator reduces the processing of unattended words and strengthens the processing of attended words
o Accounts for breakthroughs
o Words which are expected are more likely to be processed (priming)

Question 20

What are breakthroughs in dichotic listening tasks?

Answer 20

 Breakthroughs occur when information in the unattended ear affects performance in such a way to suggest the unattended information is processed, for example when you hear your name in a conversation you are not attending to

Question 21

What do breakthroughs during dichotic listening tasks suggest and what might they be the result of?

Answer 21

• Breakthroughs suggest attentional selection selection is not strictly early, that is, information in the unattended channel is processed for more than its physical characteristics
• Breakthroughs may not be common enough however to threaten early selection theories. Some evidence suggests breakthroughs may simply be a result of attention being poorly focused (slippage) or captured by the unattended channel in which case the phenomenon does not represent strong evidence for late selection theories

Question 22

Describe Li et al’s 2001 experiment

Answer 22

o Words which are expected are more likely to be processed (priming)
 Li et al (2011) asked listeners to shadow one message while distractor words were presented to the unattended ear
• Women dissatisfied with their weight made more shadowing errors than those not dissatisfied when weight related words were presented to the unattended ear

Question 23

Describe who supports the view of no (or extremely extremely late) locus of selection

Answer 23

 Deutsch and Deutsch (1963)
• All stimuli are processed to a large degree, with the most important or relevant stimulus determining the response
• Selection based on importance
• Not much support for this theory

Question 24

Describe who supports a flexible view of locus of selection

Answer 24

• Johnston and Heinz (1978)

- Lavie’s load account (1995)

Question 25

Describe Johnston and Heinz’s view on locus of selection

Answer 25

• Selection occurs as early as possible
o Uncertainty leads to processing of irrelevant stimuli
• Task demands necessitate early selection
o When stimuli are complex, they cannot be processed at once, so selection must take place early
• Moving locus of selection based on tasks

Question 26

Describe how the cocktail party problem may occur

Answer 26

Cocktail party problem-
• Physical differences are used to efficiently attend to one voice out of two
• Temporal coherence- if listeners can identify at least on distinctive feature of target voice, they can then distinguish its other sound features via temporal coherence
• Top down processes also used
• Familiarity with target voice is important

Question 27

What is a leaky filter and what could it explain?

Answer 27

• Leaky filter would explain why some unattended items receive further analysis
o Leakage- filter is not very strong and is letting things through even when focused on other things

Question 28

What is slippage and what are its effects on priming?

Answer 28

• But slippage is where attention suddenly shifts- switching attention
o So technically the unattended channel is attended, briefly
o Attentional shifts take about 50ms, and priming effects disappear at (and below) that point

Question 29

Is a leaky filter or slippage more likely? Who experiences the most of them and what could it explain?

Answer 29

• Slippage is what happens instead of leakage
o Low working memory people experience a lot more slippage
• This might be an explanation to the ‘breakthroughs’ (people attending to meaning)- people may be slipping and hence, it could be argued that all breakthrough evidence is invalid and Broadbent’s model is the right model

Question 30

What is Lavie's 1995 load account?
Describe locus of selection in:
-High perceptual load
-Low perceptual load
-High cognitive load

Answer 30

o Combines early selection assumption that perception has limited capacity and late selection assumption that perception is involuntary and cannot be shut down at will
o We are more likely to be distracted when the task we are doing has low perceptual load (as if we have spare attentional capacity which can be captured by irrelevant things);
 High perceptual/visual load means that attention is unable to wander-less resources that can be captured by other things: full capacity leaves no capacity for irrelevant distractor perception
• Locus of selection is early under high perceptual load
 Low perceptual load- means that locus of selection is late
• Low perceptual load: spare capacity remaining beyond the task-relevant processing spills over involuntarily to irrelevant distractor processing
o If you place a high load on attentional control/executive function, get more distractions
 High cognitive load means that attention is harder to control
• When executive functions crowded, get more slippage and hence are more easily distracted
 Higher working memory load during task performance results in greater distractor interference
• Irrelevant distraction is increased with higher cognitive control load
o So selection filter can be early or late depending on spare capacity
o Perceptual load is due to limited processing capacity
o Locus of selection depends on what person is doing-task load

Question 31

What is the Yerkes-Dodson law?

Answer 31

• Yerkes-Dodson (1908)
o Shows the relationship between performance and arousal
o Simple task-being stressed is optimal for task as early selection filter means you filter out everything that is irrelevant
o Complex task- medium stress is optimal: still need arousal but too much stress is bad

Question 32

Describe Norman, Bouquet and Croizet’s 2014 results on pressure and performance

Answer 32

• Norman, Bouquet and Croizet (2014)
o Visual search task was presented either as perception training, or an assessment of intellectual ability indexed by attentional capacity
 Place people under pressure while they’re doing visual search
o Pressure increased distraction caused by task related features, and reduced distraction by irrelevant features

Question 33

Who proposed Feature integration theory and is it right?

Answer 33

Feature integration theory-Treisman and Gelade (1980)

• THIS THEORY IS WRONG

Question 34

What is visual search?

Answer 34

• Visual search- where a specified target is detected as rapidly as possible

Question 35

What is feature search in terms of effort, search processes, definition and attention?

Answer 35

o Feature search
 Effortless
 Parallel
 Defined by unique in one particular feature
• Feature might be a unique colour, shape or orientation
 Pre-attentive search

Question 36

What is conjunction search in terms of effort, search processes, definition and attention?

Answer 36

o	Conjunction search
	Effortful
	Sorting out from distractors 
	No feature is unique 
	Effortful attention- need to bind feature together 
	Serial search

Question 37

What are the 3 features of feature integration theory

Answer 37

• Features found faster than conjunctions
• Texture segregation easier with distinct features
o Looking for borders-divide objects into 2 distinct parts
• Illusory conjunctions
o Mistakenly combining features from two different stimuli to perceive an object that is not present
o In the absence of focused attention

Question 38

What is feature integration theory overall?

Answer 38

o Two processing stages-
 A fast, initial, parallel processing of basic visual features (preattentive processing)
 A slow, serial process with focused attention providing the glue to form objects from the available features

Question 39

Describe the how to read and interpret a graph of performance speed on a detection task as a function of target definition and display size (number of distractors) graph in terms of whether search is serial or parallel

Answer 39

• Performance speed on a detection task as a function of target definition and display size (number of distracters) graph
o If search is parallel, search speed should not be affected by number of distractors
 Flat search slope- unaffected by display size
 Flat search slope occurs in single-feature targets as display size increases
 Flat search slope implies parallel search

o For conjunction targets, display size has an enormous effect- no flat search slope
 Responding was slower and there was a large effect of display size when the target was defined by a conjunction of features- these findings suggest there was a serial processing

Question 40

What are the problems with feature integration theory, and who found these problems?

Answer 40

• In feature search, the uniqueness of target is proposed to result in a parallel search but in feature search the distractors are all the same, while in conjunction search the distractors are all different-problem with experimental design (Duncan and Humphreys 1989)
• There is no clear distinction between parallel and serial searches in data, and in very large displays targets are found much faster than predicted (Wolfe 1998)
• Conjunction search may be slower simply because targets are less easy to discriminate (they share features with the distractors)
o Decision integration hypothesis (Palmer et al.2000)

Question 41

Descrobe Duncan and Humphreys 1989 criticism of Feature integration theory

Answer 41

• In feature search, the uniqueness of target is proposed to result in a parallel search but in feature search the distractors are all the same, while in conjunction search the distractors are all different-problem with experimental design (Duncan and Humphreys 1989)
o Search is faster when the distractors are very similar to each other because it is easier to identify them as distractors
o There is similarity between the target and distractors- number of distractors has a large effect on time to detect even targets defined by a single feature when targets resemble distractors
o Visual search for targets defined by more than one feature is typically limited to those distractors sharing at least on of the target’s features

Question 42

Describe Wolfe 1998 critiscism of feature integration theory

Answer 42

• There is no clear distinction between parallel and serial searches in data, and in very large displays targets are found much faster than predicted (Wolfe 1998)
o Looked for bimodal graph due to 2 different processes
 Found a normal curve instead- no evidence of qualitative difference between the two different functions (parallel vs serial)

Question 43

Describe Wolfe’s guide search theory and its predictions regarding
T’s and L’s
Triple conjuction
that would be different to FIT theory and that were proven to be right

Answer 43

o Wolfe proposed guided search theory which uses activation maps
o THIS IS THE RIGHT THEORY
 Stimulus is filtered through broadly-tuned categorical channels
 Output produces feature maps with activation based on local differences (bottom-up) and task demands (top-down)
 A weighted sum of these activation forms the activation map. In visual search, attention deploys limited capacity resources in order of decreasing activation
 Dual-path model: there is a selective pathway of limited capacity in which objects are individually selected for recognition. There is also a non-selective pathway in which the essence of a scene is processed to help direct or guide processing within the selective pathway
 Perceptual system lays map on top of each other
• Distinct- extremely high peak with low peak distractors
• Non-distinct-high peak but not too high compared to others- lots of distractors
o Guided search predicts a serial search for T’s among L’s since no useful feature maps can be employed
o Guided search predicts two parallel searches, and the two feature maps are combined for a standard conjunction (predicts faster search than FIT)
o For a triple conjunction FIT’s predicts a serial search, whereas guided search predicts a more efficient search than for simple conjunctions

Question 44

Are pre-attentive processes innate or learned?

Answer 44

• Pre-attentive processes are innate and not learned

o Pop-out is evidence for preattentive processes

Question 45

Is automaticity innate or leared?

Answer 45

• Automaticity requires training and extensive learning (development of skills)

Question 46

Describe Shiffrin and Schneider’s 1977 experimental methods

Answer 46

• Automaticity requires training and extensive learning (development of skills)
o This is distinct from the automatic detection of targets as demonstrated by Shiffrin and Schneider (1977)
 Automatic processes suffer no capacity limitations, do not require attention and are very hard to modify once learned
 Subjects memorised 1-4 target letters
• Memory set (K,H,W,Z)
 Searched a visual display (of size 1-4)
• Sequential displays and hammered response button when saw target
 Participants decided rapidly whether any item in the visual display was the same as any item in the memory set
 Consistent vs varied mapping
• Consistent mapping-consonants always targets, numbers always distractors (exactly the same targets) or vice-versa
o Participant given only consonants to memorise would know any consonant detected in the visual display must be in the memory set
• Varied mapping- targets change: numbers and consonants were both used to form the memory set and to provide distractors in the visual display

Question 47

Describe Shiffrin and Schneider’s 1977 results

Answer 47

 Looked at search slopes
• Found that after 2100 trials of practise, got shallow search slope, but only the in the consistent mapping condition and implies parallel processing
o Develop fast decision speed not affected by memory set size or display size
o In varied mapping, got decision speed (slope) increase with memory set and display set size- therefore implying serial process: fast reaction time does not develop
• Reversing the mappings in constant mapping condition caused a huge cost in performance (1000 trials just to recover performance level at the start of the experiment)
o Automatic processes are inflexible, which disrupts performance when conditions change

Question 48

Describe the enormous problems with the Shiffrin and Schneider experiment

Answer 48

 Thought they had study of automaticity, and this paper is wrongly used to prove automaticity in social psychology, when it’s just looking at letters
 Problems with their experiment:
• No external validity
• Consistent mapping conditions consisted of letters and numbers as distinct target/distractor groups
o No counterbalance- all targets are angular consonants whilst all distractors were curly numbers
o Perceptual issue confound
• Search slopes were never completely flat-things have sped up but cost of processing items has never reached 0
o Hence spoils parallel search theory

Question 49

Describe features of automatic processes, and if they have been proven to be false, how they have been so

Answer 49

 Fast
 Parallel
• Flat search slope claim is not fully explained by instance theory other than memory retrieval reducing time to complete the task
o Explains why search slopes are shallower and never fully flat
 Do not draw on central capacity
• One memory trace doesn’t draw much on central capacity-Logan’s instance theory
 Unavailable to consciousness
• Alternate explanation: Cerebellum type issue- procedural tasks cannot easily be verbalised
• Consciousness was never adequately assessed Newell and Shanks (2014) critiqued Nisbett and Wilson 1977 study
o 3 articles of clothing on a shelf in a shop
o Participants tend to choose the ones in the far right
o When asked why they chose that one, they would say because it’s the nicest piece of clothing
 They didn’t know they were choosing the ones on the right- thought it was an unconscious process
o But Newell and Shanks (2014) found they weren’t picking the one on the right
 Going left to right and doing serial comparison and picking the last one
 Unavoidable
• Stroop Effect (word vs colour printed in) has proven this wrong
• Capture errors are not completely obligatory-just slow down for cognitive processes
 Effortless
• Less effort instead of effortless
 Insulated
• A skilled typist will stop on the letter, the novice typist will carry on to the end of the word when asked to stop
• Skilled behaviour is about more control, not less

Question 50

Describe what theories of automatic processes Shiffrin and Schneider kickstarted

Answer 50

Reason (1990) and Moors and De Houwer (2006)

Question 51

Describe Reason’s 1990 errors caused by automatic processes

Answer 51

 Reason 1990- errors caused by automatic processes (but further research says that most of these things aren’t automatic at all- they’re just not encoded properly)
• Capture errors- it is hard to deviate from a routine
o Assumption that routine is automatic
• Omissions- interruption of a routine causes a step to be missed
• Perseverations- repeating a routine action
• Descriptions- correct action, wrong object
• Data-driven- response dictated by outside source
• Associative-activation errors- expectations trigger wrong routine
• Loss-of-activation errors- forget what they are doing in a specific place

Question 52

Describe Moors and De Houwer (2006) description of automaticity

Answer 52

 Features of automaticity-Moors and De Houwer (2006)
• Rejected Shiffrin and Schneider’s 1977 assumption that there is a clear-cut distinction between automatic and controlled processes
• Four features are associated with automatic processes but are not always found together
o Fast
o Efficient
o Goal-unrelated
o Unconscious
• A continuum between automatic and non-automatic -features are continuous rather than all or none
o Can make relative statements about automaticity

Question 53

Describe Cheng’s 1985 description of automaticity

Answer 53

• Cheng (1985)
o Skill is not about doing things faster, it’s about restructuring the task (changing the task itself): skill is not automatic
o E.g. skill in cognitive arithmetic involves direct recall

Question 54

Describe the principle of Logan’s 1988 instance theory of automaticity

Answer 54

o Automaticity is memory retrieval
o Assumes that task practice leads to storage of information in long-term memory, facilitating subsequent performance on that task
o Novice performance is limited by a lack of knowledge rather than a lack of resources

Question 55

What are the assumptions of Logan’s 1988 instance theory of automaticity

Answer 55

o Assumptions-
 Separate memory traces are stored each time a stimulus is responded to
 Repeated exposure means more memory traces
 More memory traces means faster retrieval and less effortful processing -chances of getting response back sooner when there’s more memory traces

Question 56

According to Logan’s instance theory of automaticity, why are “automatic” processes fast?

Answer 56

• Automatic processes are fast because they require only the retrieval of past solutions from long-term memory

Question 57

According to Logan’s instance theory of automaticity, why are “automatic” processes less effortful?

Answer 57

• Make few demands on attentional resources because the retrieval of heavily over-learned information is relatively effortless

Question 58

According to Logan’s instance theory of automaticity, why are “automatic” processes not consciously aware

Answer 58

• No conscious awareness of automatic processes are no significant processes intervene between presentation of a stimulus and retrieval of the appropriate response

Question 59

What does Logan’s instance theory of automaticity not predict in the traditional featurs of automaticity

Answer 59

just faster and smoother behaviour-does not predict most traditional lists of automatic processing features (but most of these aren’t true anyways so it doesn’t matter)
 Capture errors not completely obligatory
• Predicts more control not less
 Lack of awareness due to inability to verbalize task
 Driving and other self-paced task are not performed in parallel
o Logan’s instance theory only predicts the fast feature of automatic processes

Question 60

Describe Logan and Crump’s 2009 research on typists

Answer 60

• Logan and Crump (2009) asked skilled typists to only type the right hand letters from each word-and this was incredibly disruptive
o This required attention to be shifted from the outer to the inner loop
 An outer loop selects words (from thoughts or vision)
• Attention beneficial here
 An inner loop turns those words into finger movements
• Motor control of hands and fingers translates words into movements
• Attention here disrupts transfer of information
o And the outer loop clearly doesn’t know what the inner loop is doing

Question 61

Describe Logan and Crump’s 2010 findings of inner and outer loop in typing

Answer 61

• Then Logan and Crump (2010) inserted random errors into output when person typed, or when typist made an error, sometimes randomly corrected it
o When errors were inserted, typists’ fingers did not slow, but consciously typists took credit for the errors
 Outer loop is aware of error but inner loop isn’t, but still typist thought they made an error
o When errors were corrected, typists’ fingers slowed down, but consciously typists were unaware of errors
 Inner loop noticed an error was made but outer loop didn’t- typist was not aware of errors
o Processes are operating at two different levels
 Some subsets of a skill are ballistic

Question 62

What is the psychological refractory period effect?

Answer 62

o PRP (Psychological refractory period effect)-when the second stimulus is presented very shortly after the first one, there is typically a marked slowing of the response to the second stimulus

Question 63

What 3 successive stages does task performance involve?

Answer 63

o Task performance involves 3 successive stages:
 Perceptual
 Central
 Motor

Question 64

What is dual task performance?

Answer 64

• Dual task performance-doing two things at once and hence have to share attentional resources

Question 65

Describe pashler 1998’s findings and hypothesis on dual task performance

Answer 65

• Poorer performance suggests both tasks draw from a common pool of resources
o Pashler 1998-
 One stimulus attended -> faster processing as resources not shared
 Capacity sharing-> when two stimuli are attended, processing resources are divided, resulting in slower processing

Question 66

What is the attention operating characteristic curve?

Answer 66

 Attention operating characteristic curve-depending on how much attention you give a task, if you don’t give full attention to a task you perform less well at it

Question 67

Describe Wickens’ intferrence about dual task performance

Answer 67

• Less interference when tasks use different stimulus and response modalities (Wickens 1984)
o Wickens inferred a multiple resource pool

Question 68

What are different theories of dual task performance and who supports them?

Answer 68

o Capacity theories- graded sharing of a single pool (Kahneman 1973) or multiple resources (Wickens 1984)
o Bottleneck (single channel theory): (Craik 1947) +Pashler PRP paradigm
o Crosstalk and task similarity (e.g. outcome conflict- Navon and Miller 1987)
o Neural theories (Kinsbourne 1981)

Question 69

What are capacity theories and what evidence are they supported by?

Answer 69

o Capacity theories- graded sharing of a single pool (Kahneman 1973) or multiple resources (Wickens 1984)
 Assume processing is parallel, and allocation of resources can be varied at will
• In dual task paradigms, participants can give different percentages of attention consciously to different tasks

Question 70

What is the bottleneck theory and what is an example of a paradigm within this theory? Is this theory still compatible with the attention operating characteristic curve?

Answer 70

o	Bottleneck (single channel theory): queuing and rapid shifting between tasks because of serial processing (Craik 1947)
	Bottleneck-> only do 1 thing at a time but switch between things rapidly 
	This theory is still compatible with the AOC curve- explanation becomes that people are switching back and forth between tasks at a different rate, instead of dividing attentional resources 
	Pashler’s PRP paradigm

Question 71

Describe Pashler’s PRP paradigm and his results

Answer 71

 Pashler’s PRP paradigm
• Dual speeded responses to two tasks which overlap-stimulus 1 is presented, and stimulus 2 is presented between stimulus 1 perception and response at different stages
o Response to the second task is slowed depending on when the second stimulus is presented
 When short stimulus-onset asynchrony, there is a delay in reaction time
• As SOA is reduced, slope often approaches -1
 When long stimulus-onset asynchrony, there is no delay in reaction time
o This suggests an overlap in central stages involving decision and response selection
 Found that can do perceptual analysis and response production at the same time, as well as perceptual analysis/response production at the same time as central processes, but central processes CANNOT be done at the same time

Question 72

Can the PRP effect be eliminated? Why/why not?

Answer 72

o Found that PRP effect is reduced but never seems to disappear with practise (Selst, Ruthruff and Johnston 1999)
 But never to 0-> always need central processes to direct what we’re doing
 Tasks not being done in parallel but very fast -> executive control barely noticed
 Persistent effect may be due to response interference or crosstalk
o PRP effects are found with very simple tasks in different modalities

Question 73

Is PRP evidence against capacity sharing?

Answer 73

o PRP is not evidence against capacity sharing (AOC) as all that is done is rapid switching

Question 74

What is the crosstalk and similarity theory?

Answer 74

o Crosstalk and task similarity: limitations depend on the similarity of tasks and the information being processed (e.g. outcome conflict- Navon and Miller 1987)
 Doing things that are different at the same time is easier than doing things that are the same at the same time
• This is because there is less cross-talk between different things vs similar things

Question 75

What are neural theories of dual-task paradigms?

Answer 75

o Neural theories: tasks can be performed together if the structures performing them are neutrally distant (Kinsbourne 1981)

Question 76

How is attention controlled?

Answer 76

• Attention is controlled by:
o Volition (endogenous)
o Drawn by the salience of stimuli outside (exogenous)

Question 77

Describe Posner’s 1980 spotlight model of attention control

Answer 77

	Posner (1980)-space based attention 
•	Can allocate location 
•	Covert visual attention
o	Attention without eye movements 
•	Spotlight model- illuminates a fairly small area, little can be seen outside the beam and can be redirected to focus on any given object

Question 78

Describe Posner’s 1980 experiment on his spotlight model

Answer 78

• Effect of valid and invalid cues
o Experiment
 Told that it is in best interest to divert attention (not eyes) towards direction of arrow
 Valid trial- Faster response when people know where stimulus will appear in a certain period of time
 Invalid trial- cue points to wrong direction
 Reaction time: cue

Question 79

What is inhibition of return in attention and why does it occur?

Answer 79

o A reduced probability of visual attention returning to a previously attended location of object
o Inhibition of return predicts that 300ms or longer after a location is cued, you will be slower to respond to a stimulus in that location
o This might be because attention has evolved not to linger on one thing too long-this has dangerous implications in the wild

Question 80

Describe Eriksen and St Jame’s zoom lens model

Answer 80

 Eriksen and St James (1986)-space based attention
• Benefit persists in the absence of distractors
• The zoom lens models
o Visual attention more flexible than spotlights
o We can deliberately increase or decrease the area of focal attention

Question 81

Describe why sudden-onsets capture attention and how came up with this theory

Answer 81

 Sudden-onsets are the only stimuli which capture attention (Yantis 1993). These can capture attention because of:
• Sudden change in luminance/contrast
• Sudden onsets represent the appearance of a new perceptual object (Yantis and Hillstrom 1994)-most plausible theory
o New perceptual objects require the creation of an object file (Kahneman and Treisman 1992)

Question 82

What is an object file?

Answer 82

 An object file is a temporary representation of the objects currently in visual awareness
• Their actual nature is disputed, but they are necessary because of the problems caused by mere activation in representation

Question 83

What are two views of attention?

Answer 83

• Attention is space based

- Attention is object based

Question 84

Describe an experiment supporting object based attention

Answer 84

• Attention is object based
o Moore, Yantis and Vaughan 1998
 Exogenous priming of objects
 Target is same distance from cue in both invalid same object and different object conditions
 So cue was primed on one object, in invalid same object it was on the same object but different part and in different object it was in a different object
 Small benefit was found even though distance was controlled for

Question 85

What is the implicit association test, what is it used for and what is a problem with it?

Answer 85

• Social/clinical psychologists use the IAT task and are often unaware of inhibition of return
• Evidence interpreted to imply that a particular subgroup of people have a strong attentional bias towards X kind of stimuli, may actually indicate the opposite as don’t know what the stimulus onset asynchrony is between cue and targets

Question 86

Describe Jiang, Costello, Fang and He’s experiment on attentional capture

Answer 86

• Jiang, Costelllo, Fang and He
o Naked images are shown to one of the eyes but quickly masked
 Subconscious threshold presentation
 Most do not even realise they are being shown naked pictures
o A probe afterwards will show which direction the person was paying attention in to see whether they attended towards or away from the naked image
o This corresponded well with self-reported sexuality
 Heterosexual males avoid looking at naked men
 Heterosexual females who were not averting their eyes at naked women

Question 87

Describe Bressan et al’s 2008 experiment and results on religion and attentional capture

Answer 87

o An unexpected change captures attention of religious people more than others
 Two words are presented, and after a vable SOA, a dot (target) appears. In 33rd trial, for the first time, words were always white-on-black, one of the two words is unexpectedly presented in black-on-white
 Strong believers were more disturbed (reaction time increase) by schema violations than weak believers (but were actually less aware of the disturbing event)
• Distinguished between religiosity based on personal experience (what they looked at), belief in paranormal aspects of religion (ignored) and religiosity not based on experience (ignored)

Question 88

What is Bressan et al’s explanation of why religious people are more disturbed by unexpected changes in paradigm?

Answer 88

 Bressan et al’s explanation is that religious people have a stronger belief in the meaningfulness of coincidences (misunderstanding of coincidences)
• Religious people are more pattern seeking
o Susceptible to seeing patterns where there are none

Question 89

What is the multiple object tracking paradigm?

Answer 89

• Items appear on screen and several flash
• Items which flashed then need to be tracked as all the items move randomly around the screen
• Multiple Object Tracking Paradigms:
o Track multiple objects at once
 Limit of 4 trackable objects

Question 90

Describe Pylyshyn’s view on multiple object tracking

Answer 90

o Pylyshyn- parallel multiple object tracking

 Hypothesises that it is parallel

Question 91

Describe why some people think that multiple object tracking occurs serially and why predictability is a big factor in this

Answer 91

o Other explanation- serial multiple object tracking
 This is why the faster the multiple object tracking paradigm gets, the harder it is
• This would not be a problem if it is in parallel
• Hence, rapid switching very likely-serial process
• Prediction of where object would be is very important
o If objects are predictable, easier to track
o If objects are not predictable, might lower maximum limit of 4 as harder to track

Question 92

Describe Yantis’ view on multiple object tracking limit of 4

Answer 92

o Other explanation (Yantis)-single shape being morphed

 Good at transforming shapes with 4 corners, hence 4 is the limit

Question 93

Describe the 3 theories on how we can track multiple objects at once

Answer 93

• Parallel
• Serial
• Single shape being morphed

Question 94

What is inattentional blindness?

Answer 94

• Inattentional blindness- failure to detect an unexpected object appearing in the visual environment

Question 95

Describe Mack and Rock’s first 1998 paradigm on inattentional blindness and their results

Answer 95

• Mack and Rock 1998-first researchers on change blindness
o First paradigm-
 Present a primary task (judging the longest of two arms in a cross for example) and then on the fourth trial present a critical stimulus within the arms
 But spoilt on paradigm very quickly as there are only four trials
 On first two trials, shown fixation, stimulus in the centre of field of view for 200ms , then mask
 On third trial, critical new stimulus near the original stimulus, then mask
• Then asked participant if saw anything
 On fourth trial, would do the same thing as third trial
• But participant already suspicious due to question and now looking for something
 5000 subjects were tested over 7 years
 Without attention people did not notice:
• Texture and grouping differences
• Shape
 But 75% of subjects noticed
• Colour, flicker and motion

Question 96

Describe Mack and Rock’s 2nd 1998 paradigm and their results

Answer 96

o Second paradigm
 Repeated first paradigm, but Fixation in middle, stimulus is offset and critical stimulus appears right in the middle, then mask
• Inhibition of return could have played a role in this
 This increased inattentional blindness- subjects inattentional blindness double to 60-80% at fixation
 Argued that objects at fixation are typically the focus of attention- however, when the task requires focusing away from fixation, attention to objects at fixation is actively inhibited

Question 97

Describe why subjects are more likely to see their own names

Answer 97

• Subjects were more likely to see their own names (after Moray, 1959)
o But could be due to encoding and memory processes
o This is also suggested by people only remembering things after being asked if they noticed something different in different question formats which would have excited their memory processes

Question 98

What does detection of unexpected objects in inattentional blindness depend on and what are 2 factors in this?

Answer 98

• Detection of unexpected object in inattentional blindness generally depends heavily on the probability it will attract attention. Two factors are of special importance-
o The similarity of the unexpected object to task-relevant stimuli
o The observer’s available processing resources

Question 99

What is change blindness?

Answer 99

• Change blindness-failure to detect various changes in the visual environment
• Using the world as an outside memory
• Large changes unnoticed after a blank
• Works so long as the general story of the scene is not changed

Question 100

What is change blindness blindness?

Answer 100

• Change blindness blindness- the tendency of observers to overestimate greatly the extent to which they can detect visual changes and so avoid change blindness

Question 101

Why is a blank or eye saccade required in change blindness?

Answer 101

o Blank wipes out motion cues -look at reaction times from 10-30 seconds before see the change

Question 102

Describe what change blindness shows about human attention

Answer 102

• Have illusion of completeness
o Shows how little we encode if not important or not expected
o Involves memory so that pre-change and pos-change stimuli can be compared
o Can occur when we don’t compare pre- and post- image to each other
• Perceptual accuracy may be sacrificed to some extent so that we have a continuous, stable perception of our visual environment

Question 103

When is change detection in change blindness better?

Answer 103

• Change detection is better when
o Changed object has been fixated prior to the change
o Attention to the to-be changed object was necessary for change detection
o Visual representations of objects must last for some time after receiving attention
o Change detection was much better when there is a change in type of object rather than token (swapping one object for something similar)

Question 104

What are two types of change detection?

Answer 104

• Two types of change detection
o Sensing there has been a change without conscious awareness of which object has changed
o Seeing the object that has changed

Question 105

What are applications of attention research?

Answer 105

•	Driving
o	Dashboard design, mobile phones, navigators, google glass
o	Driver training, roadside distractions
o	Design of road signs
•	Military and aviation
o	Heads up displays, vigilance tasks
•	Medicine
o	Pattern recognition and diagnosis
•	Pain, depression, anxiety management 
o	Facebook/Instagram anxiety
•	Security
o	Information overload

Question 106

Describe why we have limited cognitive resources

Answer 106

• Limited cognitive resources
o Limits only noticed under extreme circumstances
o An inevitable consequence of the hardware

Question 107

Describe the selection for action theory and who is responsible for it

Answer 107

• Limited response abilities
o Selection for action (Allport 1989)
 Conceiving what you are picking up before you are picking it up
 Excessive processing creates conflict
 Cannot process more than we can act on, so don’t process everything
• Will not process things we cannot act on
• Means that attention is limitation-attention is an emergent concept based on simple rules
o No attentional centre-happens as each system works relative to another