Attention & Consciousness

Attention - means by which we actively process a limited amount of info from

the enormous amount of info available
- includes both conscious & unconscious processes
- allows us to use our limited mental resources judiciously
- heightened focus increases likelihood we can respond speedily &
accurately to interesting stimuli
Consciousness - both the feeling of awareness & the content of awareness (some
may be under the focus of attention)
~ attention & consciousness form 2 partially overlapping sets
Purpose of conscious attention in playing a causal role for cognition
1. Monitor interactions w/ the environment
- maintain awareness of how well we’re adapting to the situation we find ourselves
2. Assists in linking our past (memories) & present (sensations) to give us a sense of continuity of experience
- continuity may serve as basis for personal identity
3. Helps in controlling & planning for future actions
- can be done based on info from 1 & 2
Main Functions of Attention
1. Signal detection & vigilance - detecting appearance of a particular stimulus
2. Search - we try to find a signal amidst distracters
3. Selective attention - choosing to attend some stimuli & ignore others
4. Divided attention - prudently allocating available attentional resources to coordinate
performance of more than 1 task at a time
Attending to Signals Over the Short & Long Terms
Signal Detection: Finding Important Stimuli in a Crowd
Signal-detection theory (SDT) - framework to explain how people pick out the few important
stimuli when embedded in a wealth of irrelevant, distracting stimuli
- often used to measure sensitivity to a target’s presence
Possible outcomes when trying to detect a target stimulus (signal)
1. Hits - true positives
- correctly identifies presence of a target
2. False alarms - false positives
- incorrectly identifies presence of a target that is actually absent
3. Misses - fails to observe the presence of a target
4. Correct rejections - true negatives
- correctly identifies the absence of a target
Sensitivity - measured in terms of: hits – false alarms
SDT in the context of:
1. Attention - paying enough attention to perceive objects that are there
2. Perception - perceiving faint signals that may/may not be beyond your
perceptual range

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3. Memory - indicating whether you’ve been exposed to a stimulus before
Vigilance: Waiting to Detect a Signal
Vigilance - person’s 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
- needed in settings where a given stimulus occurs only rarely but
requires immediate attention as soon as it does occur
Amygdala - plays a pivotal role in the recognition of emotional stimuli
- important brain structure in the regulation of vigilance
Thalamus - involved in vigilance
Specific activation states
a. Burst - result of relative hyperpolarization of the resting membrane
potential
b. Tonic - results from relative depolarization
Sleep: neurons are hyperpolarized and in burst mode higher levels of vigilance are associated with tonic discharges
Search: Actively Looking
Search - scan of the environment for particular features
- actively looking for something when you are not sure where it will
appear
Distracters - nontarget stimuli that divert our attention away from the target
stimulus
- usually cause false alarms
Display size - number of items in a given visual array
- does not refer to the size of the items or even the size of the field
on which the array is displayed
Display-size effect - degree to which the number of items in a display hinders (slows
down) the search process
Feature search - scan the environment for a distinct feature
- distracters play little role in slowing search
Featural singletons - items with distinctive features; stand out in the display
Conjunction search - look for a particular combination of features
Search Process Theories
1. Feature-integration theory - explains the relative ease of conducting feature searches and the
relative difficulty of conducting conjunction searches
Treisman’s Model:
~ For each possible feature of a stimulus, each of us has a mental map for representing the given feature across the
visual field
~ There is no added time required for additional cognitive processing

~ During feature searches, we monitor the relevant feature map for the presence of any activation anywhere in the
visual field
~ Monitoring process can be done in parallel (all at once); no display size effects

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~ During conjunction searches, an additional stage of processing is needed
^ additional stage conjoins two or more features into an object representation at a particular location
~ Must be carried out sequentially, conjoining each object one by one; display size effect
Specific neural feature detector - identified by David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel
- cortical neurons that respond differentially to visual stimuli of
particular orientations (e.g. vertical, horizontal)
Best search strategy
- not for the brain to increase the activity of neurons that respond to the particular target stimuli
- nearly optimal strategy of activating neurons that best distinguish between the target and distracters while at the
same time ignoring the neurons that are tuned best to the target
2. Similarity Theory - difficulty of search tasks depends on the degree of disparity among
the distracters
- does not depend on the number of features to be integrated
i. Criticsm of Treisman’s model - 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
- targets that are highly similar to distracters are relatively hard to
detect
3. Guided Search Theory - suggests that all searches, whether feature searches or conjunction
searches, involve two consecutive stages
- activation process of the parallel initial stage helps to guide the
evaluation and selection process of the serial second stage of the
search
a. Parallel stage - individual simultaneously activates a mental representation of all
the potential targets
i. Representation - based on the simultaneous activation of each of the features of the
target
b. Serial stage - individual sequentially evaluates each of the activated elements,
according to the degree of activation
- person chooses the true targets from the activated elements
~ Younger adults’ searches were more accurate and faster than the searches of the older adults
~ Participants were slower by approximately 300 milliseconds when doing guided searches as compared with feature
searches
~ Older adults’ critical volume was lower than that of the younger adults
^ consistent with an approximate decline in volume of 2% per decade
Occipito-temporal cortex - more activated in younger adults in more difficult search tasks
- activated in older adults even in easier search tasks
Selective Attention
Cocktail party problem - process of tracking one conversation in the face of the distraction
of other conversations
Shadowing - task devised by Colin Cherry
- you listen to two different messages
- required to repeat back only one of the messages as soon as
possible after you hear it
Dichotic presentation - presenting a separate message to each ear
Factors to Help Selective Attention
1. Distinctive sensory characteristics of the target’s speech (e.g. high vs. low pitch, pacing, rhythmicity)

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2. Sound intensity (loudness)
3. Location of the sound source

~ Spatial cues are less important than factors like how harmonious and rhythmic the target sounds
Theories of Selective Attention
Filter theories - blocks some of the information going through and thereby selects
only a part of the total of information to pass through to the next
stage
Bottleneck theories - slows down info passing through
1. Broadbent’s Model - we filter information right after we notice it at the sensory level
- multiple channels of sensory input reach an attentional filter
i. Channel - distinguished by their characteristics like loudness, pitch, or accent
ii. Filter - permits only one channel of sensory information to proceed and
reach the processes of perception
- we 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 information at the sensory level
i. Criticism of Broadbent - even when participants ignore most other high-level (e.g.,
semantic) aspects of an unattended message, they frequently still
recognize their names in an unattended ear
3. Attenuation Model (Anne Treisman) - instead of blocking stimuli out, the filter merely weakens
(attenuates) the strength of stimuli other than the target stimulus

- had participants shadowing coherent messages, and at some point

switched the remainder of the coherent message from the attended to
the unattended ear

- participants picked up the first few words of the message they had
been shadowing in the unattended ear so they must have been
somehow processing the content of the unattended message

- participants notice if the messages are identical, slightly out of

temporal synchronization, or translated
4. Late-Filter Model (Deutsch & Detusch) - location of the filter is even later
- suggested that stimuli are filtered out only after they have been
analyzed for both their physical properties and their meaning
- later filtering would allow people to recognize information
entering the unattended ear
- propose that there is an attentional bottleneck through which only a
single source of information can pass
Synthesis of Early-Filter and Late-Filter Models
Processes Governing Attention (Ulric Neisser)
1. Preattentive processes - automatic processes are rapid and occur in parallel
- can be used to notice only physical sensory characteristics of the
unattended message
- do not discern meaning or relationships
2. Attentive, controlled processes - occur later; executed serially and consume time and attentional
resources (e.g. working memory)

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 - can be used to observe relationships among features
- serve to synthesize fragments into a mental representation of an
object
Investigating Divided Attention in the Lab
Neisser & Becklen: improvements in performance eventually would have occurred as a result of practice
- hypothesized that the performance of multiple tasks was based on skill resulting from practice
^ not to be based on special cognitive mechanisms
- controlled tasks can be automatized so that they consume fewer attentional resources
- 2 discrete controlled tasks may be automatized to function together as a unit but tasks are not fully automatic
Psychological refractory period (PRP) - slowing resulting from simultaneous engagement in speeded tasks
a.k.a. attentional blink
- people can accommodate fairly easily perceptual processing of the
physical properties of sensory stimuli while engaged in a second
speeded task
^ they cannot readily accomplish more than one cognitive task
Theories of Divided Attention
- people have a fixed amount of attention that they can choose to allocate according to what the task requires
1. Attentional-resources theory
- single pool of attentional resources that can be divided freely
- oversimplified
- people are much better at dividing their attention when competing tasks are in different modalities
- some attentional resources may be specific to the modality (e.g., verbal or visual) in which a task is presented
- complements filter theories
2. Resource theory
- better metaphor for explaining phenomena of divided attention on complex tasks
- practice effects may be observed

~ As each of the complex tasks becomes increasingly automatized, performance of each task makes fewer demands on
limited-capacity attentional resources
Divided Attention in Everyday Life
- driving: distractions  accidents
Factors That Influence Our Ability to Pay Attention
1. Anxiety - places constraints on attention
2. Arousal - sometimes excitement enhances attention
3. Task difficulty - particularly influences performance during divided attention
4. Skills - attention more enhanced when more practiced/skilled
Neuroscience and Attention: A Network Model
Posner: attentional system in the brain “is neither a property of a single brain area nor of the entire brain
Alerting - being prepared to attend to some incoming event, and maintaining
this attention
- includes the process of getting to this state of preparedness

Dysfunction: ADHD
i. Brain areas involved - right frontal & parietal cortexes
- locus coeruleus
ii. Neurotransmitter - norepinephrine  maintenance of alertness
Orienting - selection of stimuli to attend to  needed in visual search

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 - orienting network develops at 1 y.o.

Dysfunction: autism
i. Brain areas involved - parietal lobe, the temporal parietal junction, the frontal eye fields,
and the superior colliculus
ii. Neurotransmitter - acetylcholine
Executive attention - processes for monitoring and resolving conflicts that arise among
internal processes (thoughts, feelings, responses)
- final and highest order of attentional process

Dysfunction: Alzheimer’s disease, borderline personality disorder,

& schizophrenia
i. Brain areas involved - anterior cingulate, lateral ventral, prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia
ii. Neurotransmitter - dopamine
Intelligence and Attention
Planning, Attention, and Simultaneous– - model of intelligence that takes attention into account
Successive Process Model of Human Cognition

PASS
i. Luria’s theory of intelligence - assumes that intelligence consists of an assortment of functional
units that are the basis for specific actions
Processing Units (PASS)
1. Arousal & attention - primarily attributed to the brainstem, diencephalon, and medial
cortical regions of the brain

~ arousal is an essential antecedent to selective and divided attention

a. Inspection time - amount of time it takes you to inspect items and make a decision
about them
- shorter inspection times correlate w/ higher scores on intelligence
tests

~ task requires concentrated bursts of focused attention

b. Response time - speed of neuronal conduction
i. Choice reaction time - time it takes to select one answer from among several possibilities
Why Our Attention Fails Us
1. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - have difficulties in focusing their attention in ways that enable
(ADHD) them to adapt in optimal ways to their environment
- first described by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman in 1845
i. Symptoms - inattention, hyperactivity
ii. Types a. Hyperactive- impulsive
b. Inattentive
c. Combination of both
iii. Medications Ritalin, Metadate, & Strattera (non-stimulant, affects norepi)
^ ^ stimulant, affects dopamine
- more given to boys
- best used in combi w/ behavioural interventions
Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner) - intelligence comprises multiple independent constructs

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2. Change blindness - inability to detect changes in objects or scenes that are being
viewed
Inattentional blindness - phenomenon in which people are not able to see things that are
actually there
3. Spatial neglect/ hemi-neglect - attentional dysfunction in which participants ignore the half of
their visual field that is contralateral to (on the opposite side of) the
hemisphere of the brain that has a lesion
- result mainly of unilateral lesions in the parietal and frontal lobes,
most often in the right hemisphere
i. Testing - bisect horizontal lines on a sheet of paper
- often draw only one side of the picture
Extinction - when stimuli are present in both sides of the visual field, people
with hemi-neglect suddenly ignore the stimuli that are contralateral
to their lesion
- doesn’t occur when stimulus is presented to only 1 side
- reason: inability to disengage attention from the stimulus in the
ipsilateral field in order then to shift their attention to the
contralateral visual field
Habituation - becoming accustomed to a stimulus so that we gradually pay less
and less attention to it
Dishabituation - change in a familiar stimulus prompts us to start noticing the
stimulus again.
~ occur automatically, involves no conscious effort
~ relative stability & familiarity of stimulus govern these processes
~ an attentional phenomenon that differs from the physiological phenomenon of sensory adaptation
Sensory adaptation - lessening of attention to a stimulus that is not subject to conscious
control
- occurs directly in the sense organ, not in the brain
i. Factors that influence habituation - internal variation w/in a stimulus
- subjective arousal
- relative complexity of stimulus
Arousal - used to observe habituation at the physiological level
- degree of physiological excitation, responsivity, and readiness for
action, relative to a baseline
Tinnitus - ringing in the ears
- have problems habituating to auditory stimuli
Automatic and Controlled Processes in Attention
Automatic processes - involve no conscious control
- parallel processes

1. concealed from consciousness

2. unintentional
3. consume few attentional resources
Controlled processes - accessible to conscious control and even require it
- performed serially
Automatization - process where tasks that start off as controlled processes eventually
become automatic ones as a result of practice
a.k.a. proceduralization

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 - effects of practice show a negatively accelerated curve
i. Process - during the course of practice, implementation of the various steps
becomes more efficient
- gradually combines individual effortful steps into integrated
components that are further integrated until the whole process is one
single operation
Instance theory (Logan) -suggested that automatization occurs because we gradually
accumulate knowledge about specific responses to specific stimuli
Automatization in Everyday Life
Dyslexia - automatization is impaired
- have difficulty completing tasks, in addition to reading, that are
normally automated
Stroop effect - named after John Ridley Stroop
- demonstrates the psychological difficulty in selectively attending
to the color of the ink and trying to ignore the word that is printed
with the ink of that color
- automatization of reading, mental pathways interfere w/ each other
Types of errors – p. 176
Consciousness
Protocol analysis - analyzing people’s solving of problems
~ you may believe you know why you made the decision, but that belief is likely to be flawed
Preconscious Processing
- information that is available for cognitive processing but that currently lies outside conscious awareness
- includes stored memories that we are not using at a given time but that we could summon when needed
Priming - used to study things that currently lie outside the conscious
awareness
- participants are presented with a first stimulus (the prime),
followed by a break that can range from milliseconds to weeks or
months
- participants are presented with a second stimulus and make a
judgment to see whether the presentation of the first stimulus
affected the perception of the second

~ presentation of the first stimulus may activate related concepts in

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
Anterior cingulateprefrontal cortices
Blindsight
memory that are then more easily accessible
- you try to remember something that is stored in memory but that
cannot readily be retrieved
- involved when one is experiencing the tip-of-the-tongue
phenomenon
- traces of visual perceptual ability in blind areas