05 Attention (dec 6)

next week: Consciousness

Attention
means by which we actively process a limited amount of info from enormous amt of
info
available through
our senses
stored memories
other cognitive processes

attention in most cases leads to action, its not an entirely passive process; u spend
cognitive resources when you focus
consciousness = feeling of awareness + content
includes both conscious and unconscious process
unconscious
selective and limited
analogy: ATTN is like a flashlight in the dark

How does attention work?

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sensation - hot in the car
memories - monthsary today, but thesis now, many assignments
thought process lalaala

Consciousness
includes both
feeling of awareness and
content of awareness
some of which may be under focus of attain
attention and consciousness form two partially overlapping sets
3 causal roles of conscious attain in cognition
1. helps in monitoring our interaction w/ environment
2. assists in linking our past (memories) and our present (sensation) to give us
continuity of experiences
1. better understanding of self and environment
3. helps us in controlling and planning for our future action
1. to organise thoughts what to do in the future u need attention

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4 main functions of attention and theories to explain them

1. Signal detection and vigilance:

We try to detect the appearance of a particular stimulus
On many occasions, we vigilantly try to detect whether we did or did not sense a
signala particular target stimulus of interest. Through vigilant attention to
detecting signals, we are primed to take speedy action when we do detect signal
stimuli.
2. Search:
We try to (actively) find a signal (or stimuli) amidst distracters
We often engage in an active search for particular stimuli.
3. Selective attention:
We choose to attend to some stimuli and ignore others
We constantly are making choices regarding the stimuli to which we will pay
attention and the stimuli that we will ignore. By ignoring or at least deemphasizing
some stimuli, we thereby highlight particularly salient stimuli. The concentrated
focus of attention on particular informational stimuli enhances our ability to
manipulate those stimuli for other cognitive processes, such as verbal
comprehension or problem solving.
4. Divided attention
We prudently allocate our available attentional resources to coordinate our
performance of more than one task at a time
We often manage to engage in more than one task at a time, and we shift our
attentional resources to allocate them prudently, as needed.
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Attending to Signals over the Short and Long Terms

Signal-detection theory (SDT)

a framework to explain how people pick out the few important stimuli when they are
embedded in a wealth of irrelevant, distracting stimuli.
interaction between the physical sensation of a stimulus and cognitive processes
such as decision making.
often is used to measure sensitivity to a targets presence.
Signal: target stimulus
hits (true positives)
false alarms (false positives)
misses (false negatives)

 rejections (true negatives)

SDT can be discussed in the context of attention, perception, or memory:
attentionpaying enough attention to perceive objects that are there;
perceptionperceiving faint signals that may or may not be beyond your
perceptual range
memoryindicating whether you have/have not been exposed to a stimulus
before,

VIGILANCE: Waiting to Detect a Signal

a persons ability to attend to a field of stimulation over a prolonged period, during
which the person seeks to detect the appearance of a particular target stimulus of
interest.
increased vigilance is seen in cases where emotional stimuli are used (e.g., when
somebody is confronted with a threatening stimulus).
amygdala plays a pivotal role in the recognition of emotional stimuli
The thalamus is involved in vigilance as well.
SEARCH: Actively looking
a scan of the environment for particular featuresactively looking for something
when you are not sure where it will appear
Search is made more difficult by distracters, nontarget stimuli that divert our
attention away from the target stimulus
Feature search
we simply scan the environment for that feature
Distracters play little role in slowing our search
Conjunction search
we look for a particular combination of features.
Treisman
Feature-Integration Theory
explains the relative ease of conducting feature searches and the relative difficulty
of conducting conjunction searches.
Similarity theory
the data are a result of the fact that as the similarity between target and distracter
stimuli increases, so does the difficulty in detecting the target stimuli
disregards tribesmans theory ; similarity b/w targets and distractors are important;
not number of features to combined
more shared similarities in item in display, more difficult to detect a particular target
AMT OF SHARED TRAIT Increases difficulty
Guided search theory
all searches involve two consecutive stages

 parallel stage
the individual simultaneously activates a mental representation of all the
potential targets.
items are processed at the same time. A decision about target presence is
based on the output of this processing
serial stage
attention is directed to one item at a time, allowing each item to be
classified as a target or a distractor in turn

SELECTIVE ATTENTION
the capacity for or process of reacting to certain stimuli selectively when several
occur simultaneously.

cocktail party problem

the process of tracking one conversation in the face of the distraction of other
conversations
shadowing technique: dichotic presentation
each ear is presented a separate message.
Theories of Selective Attention
1.

Broadbent and Treismans Models of Attention.

we filter information right after we notice it at the sensory level
Multiple channels of sensory input reach an attentional filter.
filter permits only one channel of sensory information to proceed and reach the
processes of perception. We thereby assign meaning to our sensations.

2. Selective Filter Model (Moray)

messages that are of high importance to a person may break through the filter
of selective attention
selective filter blocks out most informa- tion at the sensory level. But some
personally important messages are so powerful that they burst through the
filtering mechanism
3. Attenuation Model (Anne Treisman)
Instead of blocking stimuli out, the filter merely weakens (attenuates) the
strength of stimuli other than the target stimulu
4. Late-Filter Model (Deutsch and Deutsch)
stimuli are filtered out only after they have been analyzed for both their physical
properties and their meaning

factors that affect our ability to pay attention

Anxiety
Being anxious, either by nature (trait-based anxiety) or by situation (state-based
anxiety), places constraints on attention
Arousal
Your overall state of arousal affects attention as well.
You may be tired, drowsy, or drugged, which may limit attention.
Being excited sometimes enhances attention
Task difficulty
If you are working on a task that is very difficult or novel for you, youll need more
attentional resources than when you work on an easy or highly familiar task.
Task difficulty particularly influences performance during divided attention.
Skills
The more practiced and skilled you are in performing a task, the more your
attention is enhanced

Intelligence and attention correlation

- assumes that intelligence consists of an assortment of functional units that are
the basis for specific actions
Inspection time
shorter inspection times are correlated with higher IQs
Inspection time - the amount of time it takes you to inspect items and make a
decision about them
Reaction time
Some investigators have proposed that intelligence can be understood in terms of
speed of neuronal conduction

WHEN OUR ATTENTION FAILS US

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
difficulties in focusing their attention in ways that enable them to adapt in optimal
ways to their environment
three primary symptoms of ADHD

 inattention
hyperactivity (i.e., levels of activity that exceed what is normally shown by
children of a given age)
impulsiveness.
3 main types of ADHD
hyperactive-impulsive
inattentive
a combination of hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive behavior.

Change blindness
- an inability to detect changes in objects or scenes that are being viewed
inattentional blindness
- a phenomenon in which people are not able to see things that are actually there