Attention

1. Attention What Cognitive Psychology says about it

2. What is “Attention”? • The means by which we actively process a limited amount of information from the enormous amount of information available through our senses, our stored memories, and our other cognitive processes.

3. Why do we do this? • 1. Lets us use our limited mental resources in the most effective way • 2. Heightened focus increases the likelihood that we can respond speedily and accurately to interesting stimuli • 3. Paves the way for memory • More likely to remember things we paid attention to than what we ignored • Duh…!

4. Conscious Attention (what we choose to focus on) • 3 Purposes: • 1. monitors our interactions with the environment • 2. links our past with present to give us a continuity of experience • 3. helps control and plan our future actions

5. Preconscious Processing • Info outside your conscious awareness but are available for processing…can bring them into awareness • Example: Thinking about what your bedroom looks like • Example: Thinking about the sensation in your right foot • You just pulled those memories into your awareness, but they aren’t constantly there

6. Priming • Increased sensitivity to certain stimuli due to prior experience • Because priming is believed to occur outside of conscious awareness, it is different from memory that relies on the direct retrieval of information. • Example: if a person reads a list of words including the word table, and is later asked to complete a word starting with tab, the probability that they will answer table is greater than if not so primed

7. Selective Attention • Colin Cherry (1953) and the • Cocktail Party Effect • Focusing on one conversation while facing the distraction of others • Found we are good at “tuning out” when needed • But…we’re also subconsciously listening to others…. • think about if you hear your name in another convo.. • Think about these two concepts of listening vs. not listening for the next two slides