Chapter 4: Attention and Consciousness

1. Chapter 4: Attention and Consciousness

2. Attention Is… • The concentration of mental energy that must be used to process incoming information • Selective • Limited • Both conscious and preconscious

3. Preconscious Attention • Items that lie outside our conscious awareness, some may be made conscious, some not

4. Priming BREAD BUTTER • How quickly do you process the second word? • Faster if you have been primed with a related word. NURSE CAT DOCTOR DOG

5. Marcel (1983)

6. Marcel’s Procedure with Participants PALM PALM PINE XXXX PINE It’s a Plant. Umm, It’s a Plant. Subliminal Condition Conscious Condition

7. Marcel (1983) Results

8. 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)

9. 0 Bowers, Regehr, Balthazard & Parker (1990) BALL Which of these triads is coherent? What is the 4th word that ties them together?

10. 0 Bowers (et.al.) Results • Even if participants could not generate the 4th word, they still selected the coherent triad • Results demonstrate preconscious processing

11. 0 Tip-of-the-Tongue Experiences (TOT) • 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

12. 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?

13. Blindsight • Person cannot consciously see a certain portion of their visual field but still behave in some instances as if they can see it • Being aware of doing something is distinguishable from doing something

14. Controlled vs. Automatic Processing • Automatic processing • Requires no conscious control • Controlled processing • Requires conscious control

15. 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?

17. Automatization - Two 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

18. Effect of Practice on Automatization • Rate of learning slows as amount of learning increases Negative- Acceleration Curve

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. Functions of Conscious Attention • Signal Detection • Searching • Selective Attention • Divided Attention

23. Signal Detection Theory (SDT) Signal Decision

24. 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

25. Search • Actively searching for a target • Number of targets and distracters influence accuracy • Feature search versus conjunctive search

26. Conjunctive vs. Feature Search 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

27. 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.

28. Another Feature Search Is there a red T in the Display? T T T T T T T T Target is defined by a single feature According to feature integration theory the Target should “pop out” No attention required T T T T T T T T T

29. Another Conjunction Search Is there a red T in the Display? X T X T X Target is defined by two Features: shape and color According to FIT, the features must be combined and so attention is required Need to examine one by one T T X X T X X T T T

30. 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

31. Guided Search • Cave and Wolf (1990) • All searches have 2 phases • Parallel phase • Serial stage

32. Selectivity of Attention • Cocktail Party Problem • How are we able to follow one conversation in the presence of other conversations?

33. 0 Cherry’s Shadowing Technique Attended Ear Unattended Ear The doctor went to the park to find the homeless man. He was The lawyer defended his client as the trial began. He was able …..The doctor went to the park….. Listen to two different conversations and repeat one of the messages, may be binaural or dichotic

34. 0 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

35. 0 Models of Selective Attention • Do they have a filter? • Where does the filter occur?

36. 0 Broadbent’s Model Sensory Stores Sensory Filter Working Memory • Only one sensory channel is allowed • to proceed • Stimuli filtered at sensory level Long Term Memory

37. 0 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)

38. 0 Treisman Attenuation Model Attenuation of Unattended Working Memory 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 Long Term Memory

39. 0 Late Selection Theory Sensory Stores Working Memory All stimuli is processed to the level of meaning; relevance determines further Processing and action Deutsch & Deutsch (1963) Long Term Memory

40. Multimode Theory • Johnston & Heinz (1978) • Difficulty of a task is determined by when the selection takes place

41. Neisser’s Synthesis • Preattentive Processes • Parallel • Note physical characteristics • Attentive Processes • Controlled processes occur serially • Occur in working memory

42. Attentional-Resource Theories • Model A represents Kahneman (1973) model • Model B represents individual pools for each modality

43. Stroop Effect redyellowgreenblueredblueyellowgreenbluered 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

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

45. 0 Dual Task Paradigm • 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

46. Real Life Dual Task • Driving and • Cell phones • Adjusting music • Watching the scenery • Almost 80 % of crashes and 65 % of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds of the event

47. Strayer & Drews (2007) • Naturalistic Observation of cell phone use and driver behavior

48. Strayer & Drews (2007) Results • Impact of hands free cell phone conversations on simulated driving: • Cell-phone conversation led to inattentional-blindness • Even if they looked at an object, participant did not remember the object

49. 0 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

50. 0 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