AttentionWhat does it mean?

PWrite down YOUR definition(s) of “attention.”PWe’ll compare notes, and probably see a variety

of different concepts being described

Attention

Ways of thinking about attention

PAttention as arousalPSelective attention< What happens to unattended inputs?< Conscious and unconscious perception< Change blindness< Priming

PDivided attention< Limited resources (specific? general?)< Response selection< Automaticity

Selection in readingOne morning a big poster outside of Oak Schoolfolding tables volunteers new textbooks volunteers told people about a basement rummage bargain salefolding tables New textbooks a rummage saleInside were long counters on which stuff collecteda rummage sale new textbooks folding tables by the kids was shown. Price tags were fastened tofolding tables volunteers new textbooks rummage all articles. Most of the customers bought old butvolunteers new textbooks folding tables rummage useful furniture.The sale was a huge success and sale volunteers new textbook volunteers newmoney was used to purchase a great many books.

Dichotic listeningAn experimental procedure for studying selection and

division of attention

Yesterday I bought a bigpumpkin.....

After a while I bin nachhause gehen.....

Yesterday I bought....

Traditional models of selectiveattention

PFilter theory (Broadbent)PAttenuation theory (Treisman)PLate selection theory

Figure 4.2 (p. 102)Flow diagram of Broadbent's filter model of attention.

Figure 4.3 (p. 103)(a) A sieve that lets through small grains of sand and keeps coarse grains from coming through, based on the physical characteristic of the size of the sand particles. (b) Broadbent's model of attention lets through the attended message and keeps the unattended message from getting through, based on physical characteristics of the message, such as the pitch of a person's voice.

Figure 4.6 (p. 106)Flow diagram for Treisman's attenuation model of selective attention.

Figure 4.8 (p. 108)Event-related potential (ERP) recorded when a person is selectively at tending to a message (solid color line) and when the person is not selectiv ely attending (dashed black line). The N100 wave, a negative wave that peaks a t 100 msec, is larger when the person is paying attention.

Figure 4.9 (p. 109)A difference between the early- and late-selection approaches to selective attention is the characteristics of the messages that are used to accomplish selection. Early selection (Broadbent's approach) is based on physical characteristics. Late selection (Makay's approach) is based on meaning. Treisman's attenuation model falls in between these two because selection can be based on physical characteristics, meaning, or both.

Attention can both promote andinhibit processingLimited resource models

PConscious expections and unconscious primingPPosner & Snyder experiment, demonstrationPHigh validity cue leads to expectation< Which leads to both facilitation and inhibition

PLow validity cues does not lead to expectation< Gives facilitation, not inhibition

PSearchlight metaphor

Posner ExperimentA classic design....

PTask: tap your chair as soon as you see a target(#)

PCue: an arrow (that might be) pointing to wherethe target appears

PManipulation: validity of arrow< Valid, invalid, neutral (no arrowhead)

PManipulation: proportion of valid trials< In our demo, 80%

Posner findingsAutomatic priming

PFacilitation: faster than neutral condition whenarrow points to # < Some facilitation even when arrow is uninformative

(arrow lies 50% of the time) (automatic facilitation)< More facilitation when arrow is usually-valid (usually

tells the truth) (conscious facilitation)

Posner Findings, cont.Strategic/conscious priming

P Inhibition: slower than neutral when arrow pointsaway from #< But ONLY in usually-valid condition (conscious

inhibition)< There is only facilitation, not inhibition, in the

uninformative (50-50) condition

Figure 4.27 (p. 127)Three models of attention. (a) Spotlight model: Attention is focused on one area; (b) zoom lens model: A “spotlight” in which the area of attention can be varied to be small or large; (c) object-based attention: Attention is focused on an object and moves with the object.

If a resesarcher examines the fate of unattendedinformation, s/he is most likely studyinga. vigilanceb. divided attentionc. selective attentiond. visual agnosia

The Posner/Snyder visual cueing experiment, demonstrated inclass, in which an arrow cue sometimes pointed at a targetyou had to respond to, showed which of the followingphenomena:a. you are unaware of targets you are not attending tob. when the cue is usually valid, your detection of the target isinhibited on gtrials in which the cue points in the wrongdirectionc. your detection of the target is inhibited on trials in whichthe cue points in the wrong direction, regardless of thevalidity of the cued. a simple target like # pops out and you can respond to itequally quickly regardless of whether or not you have a validcue about where it will appear.

Inattention

PAttentional blink< Attending to one stimulus (or making one response?)

inhibits attention to the one after itPChange blindness (change detection)< Magic demo< Movies

PRelation to eye fixations< Henderson & Hollingworth

Attentional blink

PYou’ll see a rapid series of letters, 100 to 150ms/letter

PYour task: was there a J, a K, or both, or neither?PResult: you were likely to miss a target when it

immediately follows another target

Magic!

CogLab Change Detection

Flicker No Flicker0

20

40

60

80

100

Accuracy, %

Flicker No Flicker0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Time, sec

If a researcher examines the fate of unattendedinformation, s/he is most likely studyingA) VigilanceB) Selective attentionC) Divided attentionD) Visual Agnosia

The attentional blink experiment demonstrated inclass is claimed to showA) You are unaware of unattended stimuli but awareof ones you are looking forB) You are momentarily inattentive to a stimulus thatoccurs right after a target stimulusC) Your memory for events depends on your ability tosubvocally encode themD) You are functionally blind in the period of timewhen the eyes are making a saccade from one locationto another

Pathologies of attention

PSchizophrenia< McGhie, unable to let normally-automatic processes go

on automatically< Maybe unable to control attention selectively< Ordinary skills of living are disrupted

PUnilateral neglect< Parietal lobe damage, failure to attend to one hemifield

PBlindsight< V1 area damage, but still some residual visual function

An interesting link

If you would like to look at any of thedemonstrations of inattention and changeblindness, you can find a link on the Psych 315web page (under experimental demonstrations) oryou could go directly to

http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/djs_lab/demos.html

Divided attention

PLimited capacity (or capacities)PAutomaticity< Effects of practice

PTask specific capacities< Response selector limits

Evidence for limited general capacity

PPupil dilation effectsPEffects of cell phone usage when drivingP fMRI measures: more activity in brain area used

for one task when done separately than whendone with another task

Example of capacity limitationNonautomaticity

PCell phone use during driving< Quadruples accident rate< 20-30% of all crashes occur during cell phone use

– But may not be causal; just correlational< URI study

– Eye movements while driving and using cell phone (or doingother capacity-demanding tasks

< University of Utah, Canadian studies– Respond (e.g. brake) to signal (e.g. red light)

AutomaticityRemember the Stroop test?

PAutomatic processes don’t take capacity< Don't interfere with other processes

PAutomatic processes don’t need intention< Irresistable reflex

PAutomatic processes are/can be unconscious< You may be unaware of them

Practice and automaticity

PHighly practiced tasks may be automatic< Stroop task

PExperimental demonstration of the effects ofpractice on automaticity< The Schneider and Shiffrin experiment

The Schneider and Shiffrinexperiment

PVisual search task; 1-4 target items in memory, 1-4 items in visual array

PVariable mapping: different target items eachtrial< Conscious search: RT gets longer with more visual

itemsPConstant mapping: same target items for

hundreds of trials< Pop-out! Parallel search, automatic

Figure 04.07

Practice in coordinating tasksSpelke, Hirst, & Neisser

PWriting to dictation + reading storiesPPractice for 6 weeksPLearn channel segregation: keep two tasks from

intefering with each other

Lee Brooks experiment

P Imagine capital F; mentally walk around it,classifying each corner as “inside” or “outside”

PVisually guided response: for each corner, pointto “I” or “O” (inside/outside) in visual array

PLinguistic response: say “inside” or “outside” foreach corner

PWhich is harder? Why?

1. O I2. I O3. O I4. O I5. O I6. I O 7. I O8. O I9. O I10. I O

As you work around the F, decide whether the first corner isan INSIDE or an OUTSIDE, and point to the I or the O online 1; then do the same for the second corner on line 2, etc.)

1. O I2. I O3. O I4. O I5. O I6. I O 7. I O8. O I9. O I10. I O

1. O I2. I O3. O I4. O I5. O I6. I O 7. I O8. O I9. O I10. I O

As you work around the F, decide whether the first corner isan INSIDE or an OUTSIDE, and point to the I or the O online 1; then do the same for the second corner on line 2, etc.)

1. O I2. I O3. O I4. O I5. O I6. I O 7. I O8. O I9. O I10. I O

As you work around the F, decide whether the first corner isan INSIDE or an OUTSIDE, and point to the I or the O online 1; then do the same for the second corner on line 2, etc.)

1. O I2. I O3. O I4. O I5. O I6. I O 7. I O8. O I9. O I10. I O

As you work around the F, decide whether the first corner isan INSIDE or an OUTSIDE, and point to the I or the O online 1; then do the same for the second corner on line 2, etc.)

Some individuals with damage to the parietal lobeare apparently unaware of one side of the world(e.g., the left hemifield). This disorder is calledA) unilateral neglectB) blindsightC) split brain syndromeD) visual agnosia

Your lecturer described some recent researchshowing the attentional problems caused by cell-phone use while driving, and interpreted them interms ofA) capacity limitationB) overuse of the articulatory loopC) attenuation theoryD) Broadbent's filter theory