Chapter 4: Attention Flashcards
Attention
The focusing of mental effort on selected
aspects of the environment or mental activities and the blocking out of other (selected/limited/direct)
Auditory attention
early experiments held to study attention by using auditory testing (dichotic litsening)
“cocktail party problem”
People’s ability to listen to one message while ignoring other messages
Dichotic Listening
listening to different sounds simultaneously to each ear; used to study how people selectively attend to one sound while ignoring another
what point in processing does selection occur?
early, intermediate or late selection
Broadbent’s Filter Model (Early)
model that explains how people process sensory information; attention acts like a filter, allowing some information to pass through while blocking out irrelevant stimuli
Early Selection Models
Unattended information is filtered out before it can be sent to brain areas responsible for analyzing the
meaning of the message
Filter and Detector
- first identifies messages based on physical characteristics
- then processes information to determine meaning; memory and consciousness
Tresiman’s Attenuation Theory
explains how we selectively process information in our environment, particularly when exposed to multiple stimuli simultaneously
Attenuator
both messages are analyzed; attended message is passed on at full strength while unattended message is passed on at a reduced strength
Late Selection Models
Selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur
until after information has been fully analyzed for
meaning
McKay (Dichotic listening experiment)
explains how unattended information can influence our interpretation of attended material, even when we are not consciously aware of it (context to object)
Cognitive Resources
processing capacity that can be allocated to perform cognitive tasks
Task Load (Cognitive Load)
Amount of cognitive resources are used to accomplish a task (High-load vs Low-load tasks)
Flanker-Compatibility Task
experiment that measures how well people can focus on a central target while ignoring other stimuli (target/distractors)
Overt and Covert Attention
The are many mechanisms that aid in focusing attention on a stimulus
Overt Attention
Body movements to align our sense organs to better detect the stimulus (physiological) - Eyes move toward what you’re focusing on
Covert Attention
Internal processes such as changes in neural responses to the stimulus (psychological) - Eyes stay still, but your mind shifts focus
Visual Overt Orienting
Body, head & eye movements that position the image of the attended stimulus on the appropriate region of the retina (saccades and fixation)
exogenous attention (bottom-up)
involuntary, stimulus-driven attention, meaning your focus is automatically captured by a salient sensory cue in your environment ; You hear a loud bang, and your attention immediately shifts to the noise
endogenous attention (top-down)
voluntary, goal-driven attention where you deliberately direct your focus to a specific location or object based on your own intentions and goals; You’re reading a book, focusing on the words despite background noise
“spotlight of attention”
a region of the visual field that is selected for enhanced processing
Precueing
A cue given before an event to help you focus your attention; A light flashes on the left side of a screen before a target appears on the left, so you’re ready to focus on that side
predictive cues
Cues that suggest where something is most likely to happen, guiding your attention; A basketball player moves toward one side of the court, and you’re ready to predict they will pass the ball to that side
