Why are some things easy to pay attention to and other so
hard
4. Attention (William James, 1890)
Every one knows what attention is. It is the taking possession
by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem
several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought.
Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence.
It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively
with others
5. Attention
We are constantly confronted with more information than we can
pay attention to
There are limitations on how much we can attend to at one
time
We can perform some tasks with little attention
With practice, some tasks become less demanding of our
attentional processes
6. Definitions of Attention
The mental PROCESS that allows us to select relevant
information and filter out irrelevant information
Concentrating effort on a stimulus
An activity within the cognitive system
7. Definitions of Attention
The LIMITED mental RESOURCE that allows us to optimize our
processing of certain information
Mental fuel
A resource necessary to run the cognitive system
E.g. Rush hour traffic & cell phone
8. Attention
Defining Attention
Input Attention
Selective Attention
Attention as a Resource
Neuropsychology
9. Input Attention
The basic process of getting sensory information into the
cognitive system
Seems automatic
Very fast
Alertness & Arousal
Reflexive Attention
Spotlight Attention
10. Alertness & Arousal
Capacity to respond to the environment
Necessary for explicit processing
Processes involving conscious awareness that the task is being
performed
e.g, memorizing a word list
11. Alertness & Arousal
May NOT be necessary for implicit processing
Processing with no conscious awareness
e.g., reading text faster a second time even though you do not
remember reading it
12. Cognition Without Attention (Bonnebakker et al., 1996)
Gave a list of words during anesthesia
Gave an implicit memory test (word stem completion) after
anesthesia
Showed implicit memory for words heard while under
anesthesia
Implicit memory is VERY limited
13. Reflexive Attention
Orienting toward an unexpected stimulus (location-finding
response)
Reflexive response
Important for survival
Present very early in life
Response to stimuli that are important or novel
Over time, cease to be interesting Habituation
A gradual reduction of the orienting response
14. Spotlight Attention
Attention is like a beam of light:
Information inside the beam is easier to process
Information outside the beam is harder to process
Mental shift of attentional focus visual attention
15. Spotlight Attention
The mental attention-focusing mechanism that prepares you to
encode stimulus information
Cognitive process deliberate
Measure with:
Spatial Cuing Task (Posner)
Visual Search Task (Triesman)
16. Spatial Cueing Task (Posner et al.,1980)
17. Posner et al. (1980) Responses were faster after a valid
cue Facilitation Responses were slower after an invalid cue
Inhibition Mean Response Time (ms) Cue Type
18. Your Data from Coglab!
19. Triesman & Gelade (1980)
Visual search for a target
Disjunctive search
Target different from distractors in ONE feature (e.g., color
or shape T or bold)
Conjunctive search
Target was a combination of TWO features (e.g., color and shape
bold T)
21. Visual Search # Distractors Mean Response Time (ms)
22. Feature Integration Theory (attention as glue to bind
features together)
Disjunctive Search
No increase in RT across the display sizes
Visual search occurs in PARALLEL across the region of visual
attention
Search is automatic Popout Effect
23. Feature Integration Theory (attention as glue to bind
features together)
Conjunctive search
Increase in RT across the display sizes
Search is SERIAL (one-by-one)
Attention can be only on one object at a time
Conscious, deliberate act
24. Your Data from Coglab
25. Attention
Defining Attention
Input Attention
Selective Attention
Attention as a Resource
Neuropsychology
26. Attention
Input
Fast, automatic processes of attention
Early stages of feature detection
Data-driven
Selective
Slower, conscious attention
Voluntary allocation of mental effort pay attention
Conceptually-driven
27. Selective Attention
The ability to attend to one source of information while
ignoring other messages
Filtering
Vision --?
Hearing --?
Selective attention in hearing is purely a cognitive
process
28. Selective Attention
Cherry (1953)
How do we pay attention to what one person is saying when we
are surrounded by other messages?
Dichotic shadowing task
Two messages are presented one to each ear
Shadow the message in one ear (repeat)
Ignore the message in the other ear
29. Selective Attention
Cherry (1953)
Subjects could NOT report the content from the unattended
ear/channel
Did not notice if the language changed
Did notice if the voice changed
Male to female; human to tone
30. To Do List
Attention as a filter
Broadbents Filter Model
Triesmans Attenuation Model
Deutsch & Deutsch Late Selection Model
Normans Pertinence Model
Johnston & Heinz Multimode Model
31. Outside world Physical processing Semantic processing STM
(awareness)
32. Theory 1: Broadbents Filter Theory (1958)
The filter is tuned to ONE message based on physical
characteristics (e.g., loudness or pitch)
Only one message goes through the filter
Therefore, only information in the attended message can
influence performance
33. Broadbents Filter Theory (1958)
34. Outside world Physical processing Semantic processing STM
(awareness)
35. Theory 1: Broadbents Filter Theory (1958)
Filter goes between physical and semantic processing
Early selection
Explains Cherrys (1953) data
Does not explain how we often notice unattended info
36. The Cocktail Party Phenomenon
Moray (1959)
Dichotic shadowing task
Subjects noticed if their name appeared in the unattended
channel
According to Broadbents model only attended information is
available for cognitive processing but unattended information
somehow slips past the filter!
37.
Dichotic shadowing task
Physical differences between the two messages were removed
Same speaker recorded both messages
Not possible to have early selection based on physical
processing
Predictions?
Treisman (1960)
38.
Butfound that subjects could shadow very accurately!
Is selective attention based on semantic (meaning)
content?
Dichotic shadowing task
Coherent message being shadowed switched to unattended
channel
Treisman (1960)
39. Treisman (1960)
40. Treisman (1960)
RIGHT EAR
The
Little
Puppy
Lives
At
The
While
On
Summer
Vacation
LEFT EAR
The
Slow
Car
Finally
Broke
Down
House
By
The
Park
41. Treisman (1960)
Subjects switched to the message that completed the meaning of
the sentence
Semantic elements of the unattended message is receiving some
analysis
42. Theory 2: Treismans Attenuation Theory (1960, 1964)
Middle Selection
Still Early Selection but leaky the pillow filter
Unattended information comes in more weakly than attended
information
It is during the process of semantic analysis that we make our
selection of messages top-down effect
43. Outside world Physical processing Semantic processing STM
(awareness)
44. Theory 3: Deutsch & Deutsch (1963)
Late selection
Selection takes place after all messages have received full
physical and semantic analysis
45. Evidence for Late Selection
Leaks from the unattended channel
Triesman (1964)
Moray (1959)
Implicit processing
Corteen & Wood (1976)
46. Theory 3: Deutsch & Deutsch (1963)
Corteen & Wood (1976)
Conditioned subjects to be afraid of a word (e.g.,
Amsterdam)
Presented the word in the unattended channel during
shadowing
Measured GSR
Evidence for implicit processing
Everything is processed semantically, even if it does not reach
awareness
47. Outside world Physical processing Semantic processing STM
(awareness)
48. Theory 4: Normans Pertinence Model (1968)
No filter
Attention is the determined by:
Sensory activation
Loudness, distinctive voice
Pertinence
The importance of the information
49. Normans Pertinence Model (1968)
50. Theory 4: Normans Pertinence Model (1968)
All information comes into the perceptual system
Items with the highest combination of sensory and pertinence
are selected for attention
Selective attention is a continuous process
51. Summary
Selective attention can occur very early based on physical
characteristics
It can occur late based on semantic content
It can be influenced by both permanent and temporary
factors
ATTENTION IS FELXIBLE!!!
52. Theory 5: Multimode Model
Johnston & Heinz (1978)
Attention is highly flexible process that can operate in
multiple modes
Both early and late selection
Subjects listened to multiple messages that were
Physically different
Semantically different
Physically and semantically different
53. Theory 5: Multimode Model
Remember information from the target message while monitoring a
light
If selective attention is difficult (because of similarities of
competing messages) this should slow detection of the light
54. Johnston & Heinz (1978)
Having to listen to one message slowed down detection
Having to listen to two messages slowed down detection
more
It took a little extra attention when given two types of
cues
But, it took a lot more attention when only given one cue
Physical only (early selection)
Meaning only (late selection)
55. Johnston & Heinz (1978) Number of Messages Cost
(ms)
56. Theory 5: Multimode Models
We alter the type of selection depending on task demands
But, later selection (semantic processing) uses more of our
attentional capacity so it is slower and less accurate
57. Attention
Defining Attention
Input Attention
Selective Attention
Attention as a Resource
Neuropsychology
58. Attention as a Resource
Attention is mental effort
The mental resource that fuels cognitive activity
Attention is limited
Only so much of the fuel can be devoted to mental tasks
Contrast to automatic processes
59. Attention as a Resource
As tasks become automatic they take fewer resources you can do
more things at once
Brainstorm: Activities that are automatic (they used to take
cognitive resources, but now they dont because of practice)
Can you increase the size of you pool of resources?
60. The Stroop (1935) Task
RED BLUE GREEN YELLOW
YELLOW BLUE GREEN RED
Name the ink color (ignore the printed words)
Congruent
Incongruent
Interference
Word recognition is automatic, and it interferes with color
naming
61. The Stroop (1935) Task
62. Your Coglab Data
63. Automatic vs. Conscious (Posner & Snyder, 1975)
Automatic
Automatic
No access to consciousness
Consumes no (few) resources
Fast (no more than 1sec)
Conscious
Voluntary
Conscious
Requires lots of cognitive resources
Slow
64. Practice and Automaticity
Practice can make a task more automatic
Everyday Examples:
Driving (today vs. at age 16)
Reading (today vs. at age 6)
Examples from Research:
Spelke, Hirst & Neisser (1976)
Shiffrin & Schneider (1977)
65. Spelke, Hirst & Neisser (1976)
Gave subjects two difficult tasks
Reading out loud and taking diction
Lots of interference at first
With LOTS of practice, no interference
66. Shiffrin & Schneider (1977)
Subjects given 1-4 letters (targets) to detect
e.g., B and R
YES, if target was in the frame (1-4 distractors)
Consistent mapping
Same targets from trial to trial (practice)
B & R
Varied mapping
Different targets from trial to trial
B & R; 2 &7; 3 & B; M& Z
67. Shiffrin & Schneider (1977)
Should it be faster to search for 1 target or 4 targets?
Should it be faster if there is 1 distractor or 4
distractors?
68. Shiffrin & Schneider (1977)
With practice
For consistent mapping, search rates were fast, regardless of
how many targets or distractors automatic
For inconsistent mapping, search rates were longer for larger
displays not automatic
Conscious, controlled processing because the stimuli they had
to detect kept changing
69. Shiffrin & Schneider (1977)
70. Disadvantages of Automaticity
Barshi & Healy (1993)
Scanned multiplication problems for errors (multiple
times)
Fixed-order condition
Varied-order condition
Fixed order: 55% detection rate
Varied order: 90% detection rate
71. Disadvantages of Automaticity
Everyday Examples:
Landing a plane with no landing gear (1983)
Negative Transfer (In your new car, reaching for where the
radio knob was on your old car)
72. Attention
Defining Attention
Input Attention
Selective Attention
Attention as a Resource
Neuropsychology
73. Neuropsychology
Mrs. S. (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Ch8)
What experiments would you do to help you understand her
problem?
74. Hemineglect
Disruption or decreased ability to pay attention to something
in the (often) left-visual-field
Disorder of attention in which one half of the perceptual world
is negelected
Cannot direct attention to half of the perceptual world
(regardless of the modality of the stimulus)
Not sensory damage
75. Patient with Hemineglect
76. Hemineglect
Bisiach & Luzatti (1978)
Have patients image standing at one end of piazza and describe
what they see
Can only describe buildings on the right, even when they
imagine facing the opposite way (what they had previously
omitted!)
Neglect occurs for internal mental representations
77. Hemineglect
Duncan et al. (1999)
Patients with hemineglect can attend to stimuli in the
neglected field if nothing is displayed in the
right-visual-field
Ability dramatically reduced if a stimulus is present in the
right-visual-field