Attention and Consciousness

Cognitive Psychology, Fourth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 3

Chapter 3: Attention and Consciousness

http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/11.html

http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/12.html


Attention Is…

• The concentration of mental energy that must be used to process incoming information– Selective

– Limited

– Both conscious and preconscious


Preconscious Attention

• Priming effects

• Tip of the tongue experiences

• Automatization

• Habituation


PrimingBREAD

BUTTER

• How quickly do you process the second word?

• Faster if you have been primed with a related word.

NURSE

DOCTOR

CAT

DOG


Marcel (1983)

Condition Subliminally Present Prime

Consciously Present Prime

Prime PALM PALM

Mask XXXX

Target PINE OR WRIST PINE OR WRIST

Response Body part or Plant? Body Part or Plant?

Reaction time How fast? How fast?


Marcel’s Procedure with Participants

PALM PALMXXXXPINE PINE

It’s a Plant. Umm, It’s a Plant.

Subliminal Condition Conscious Condition


Marcel (1983) ResultsCondition Subliminally

Present Prime

Consciously Present Prime

Targets:PINE or WRIST

Found faster RT for both target words

Found faster RT for one of two target words, slower RT for the other target

Interpretation Both meanings were primed

Only one meaning is primed, the other inhibited


Priming Can Speed or Slow Processing

• Facilitative Priming– Target stimuli (e.g., BUTTER) are

processed faster if preceded by a related word (e.g., BREAD)

• Negative Priming Effect– Target stimuli (e.g., PINE) is processed

slower if preceded by a word related to target’s alternate meaning (PALM relating to hand)


Bowers, Regehr, Balthazard & Parker (1990)

Triad A Triad B

Basket Swan

Room Army

Foot Mask

Which of these triads is coherent?

What is the 4th word that ties them together?

BALL


Bowers (et.al.) Results

• Even if participants could not generate the 4th word, they still selected the coherent triad

• Results demonstrate preconscious processing


Tip-of-the-tongue Experiences

• You know you know the word but you cannot fully retrieve the word

• Paradigms used to generate TOT states– Show pictures of famous people or

politicians and have participants name them

– Ask general knowledge questions to generate TOTs


TOT Demonstration

• What is the name of Dagwood Bumstead’s dog?

• Who wrote Paradise lost?

• What is a wheeled hospital cart called?

• Do any of these questions put the answer on the tip of your tongue?


Controlled vs. Automatic Processing

• Automatic processing– Requires no conscious control

• Controlled processing – Requires conscious control


Is Typing Automatic or Controlled for You?

• Do you type without thinking where your fingers are? Are you a search and peck typer?

• If you do type without using attention, what happens when you think about the letters as you are typing them?



Automization - 2 Explanations

• Integrated components theory-Anderson– Practice leads to integration; less and less

attention is needed

• Instance Theory - Logan– Retrieve from memory specific answers,

skipping the procedure; thus less attention is needed


Effect of Practice on Automization

• Rate of learning slows as amount of learning increases

Negative- Acceleration Curve


Habituation

• Decrease in responsiveness when exposed to a repeated stimulus– People who smoke do not notice the

smell of cigarettes on their clothes, but nonsmokers do

– People get used to hearing the chiming of their clocks


Dishabituation

•Change in familiar stimuli causes one to notice it again– Smokers who quit, suddenly notice how

much their clothes smell of smoke

– If clock breaks, suddenly owner notices the clock isn’t chiming


Habituation/Dishabituation Paradigm

• Allows psychologists to test abilities of Infants and animals

• Measure subject’s arousal to see if a change occurs when pattern or sound is changed – If animal or infant dishabituates to a change,

then they can detect the change– If the animal or infant does not dishabituate to a

change in stimuli, they did not detect the change


Functions of Conscious Attention

• Signal Detection

• Searching

• Selective Attention

• Divided Attention


Signal Detection Theory (SDT)

Present Absent

Present HitFalse Alarm

Absent MissCorrect

Rejection

Decision

Signal


Vigilance and SDT

• Vigilance is attending to a set of stimuli over a length of time in order to detect a target signal

• Vigilance decreases rapidly over time (fatigue), thus misses and false alarms increase


Search

• Actively searching for a target

• Number of targets and distracters influence accuracy

• Feature search versus conjunctive search


Conjunctive vs. Feature Search

L L L L L L L

L L L L L L L

L L L L T L L

L L L L L L L

L L L L L L L

L L L L L L L

L O L L L L L

L L L L L L L

Which box is it easier to detect a letter that is different?

The box on top is a feature search

The box on the bottom is a conjunction search


Treisman’s Feature-Integration Theory

• Individual Feature processing is done in parallel. Simultaneous processing is done on the whole display and if feature is present-- we detect it.

• Conjunctive searching requires attention to the integration or combination of the features. Attention to particular combination of features must be done sequentially to detect presence of a certain combination.


Another Feature Search

T

T

T

TT

TT

Is there a red T in the Display?

T

T

Target is defined by a single feature

According to featureintegration theory the Target should “pop out”

No attention required

T

T

T

T T

TT

T


Another Conjunction Search

X

T

T

X

T T

TIs there a red T in the Display?

X

XTarget is defined by two Features: shape and color

According FIT, the features must be combined and so attention is required

Need to examine one by one

X

XT

XTT


Similarity Theory

• Disagrees with Treisman’s FIT theory

• Similarity between targets and distracters is important; not number of features to be combined– The more shared features among items in

display, the more difficult to detect a particular target

• Some findings cannot be explained by FIT


Guided Search

• Cave and Wolf (1990)

• All searches have 2 phases– Parallel phase

– Serial stage


Selectivity of Attention

• Cocktail Party Problem– How are we able to follow one

conversation in the presence of other conversations?


Cherry’s Shadowing Technique

The lawyer defended his client as the trial began. He was able

The doctor went to the park to find the homeless man. He was

…..The doctor went to the park…..

Listen to two different conversations and repeat one of the messages, may be binaural or dichotic

Attended Ear Unattended Ear


Cherry’s Study Results

• Noticed in unattended ear:– Change in gender

– Change to a tone

• Did not notice in unattended ear:– Changed language

– Changed topic, same speaker

– If speech was played backwards


Models of Selective Attention

• Do they have a filter?

• Where does the filter occur?


Broadbent’s Model

LongTerm Memory

WorkingMemory

SensoryFilter

Sensory Stores

• Only one sensory channel is allowed to proceed• Stimuli filtered at sensory level


Broadbent’s Model Could Not Explain

• Participant’s name gets through

• Participants can shadow meaningful messages that switches from one ear to another

• Effects of practice on detecting information in unattended ear (e.g., detect digit in unattended ear for naïve and practiced participants)


Treisman Attenuation Model

LongTerm Memory

WorkingMemory

Attenuation of Unattended

Sensory Stores

Filter weakens the strength of unattended information. Arrow colors represent different levels of strength

If arrow reaches circle, info will be activated in working memory

Note some circles are closer due to different thresholds of information


Late Selection Theory

LongTerm Memory

WorkingMemory

Sensory Stores

All stimuli is processed to the level ofmeaning, relevance determines furtherProcessing and actionDeutsch & Deutsch (1963)


Neisser’s Synthesis

• Preattentive Processes– Parallel

– Note physical characteristics

• Attentive Processes– Controlled processes occur serially

– Occur in working memory


Attentional-Resource Theories

• Model A represents Kahneman (1973) model

• Model B represents individual pools for each modality


Stroop Effectredyellowgreenblueredblueyellowgreenbluered

Say the color the words are printed in as quickly as you can

What errors do you make?

Reading interferes with your ability to state the color and your reaction time is slower


Divided Attention Research

• How many tasks can you do at once? – e.g. driving & talking, radio, phone...

• Dual Task Paradigm– Neisser & Becklen (1975) superimposed film study

• Ability to divide attention improves with practice

• No built in, fixed limit, to # of tasks a human can perform simultaneously


Pashler’s PRP Effect

• Dual Task Paradigm: Two tasks at once– Task 1 may require a verbal response to an

auditory stimulus– Task 2 may require a participant to push a

button in response to a visual stimulus.

• Results indicate that responses to the second task are delayed

• Known as the psychological refractory period (PRP) effect


Complex Mental Processes

• Access to conscious Mental Processes– Some say we do (Ericsson & Simon)

– Some say we do not (Nisbett & Wilson)

• Evidence on both sides:– Protocol analysis

– Change Blindness


Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

• Symptoms– Inattention– Hyperactivity – Impulsivity – Not everyone who is overly hyperactive,

inattentive, or impulsive has ADHD– Behavior must be demonstrated to a degree that

is inappropriate for the person's age


Posner & Attention

• Two attention systems; two functions– Anterior frontal lobe system

• Tasks requiring awareness (planning or writing)

– Posterior parietal lobe system• Tasks involving visuospatial abilities

(playing Tetris, vigilance tasks)

Technology

Attention and Consciousness