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Attention. What is attention? What are the effects of paying attention?. 3 meanings of the word attention:. 1. Selectivity: only aware of a subset of stimuli-- selective attention. 2. Capacity Limitations: limited ability to handle different tasks or stimuli at once-- divided attention.
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Attention What is attention? What are the effects of paying attention?
3 meanings of the word attention: 1. Selectivity: only aware of a subset of stimuli--selective attention. 2. Capacity Limitations: limited ability to handle different tasks or stimuli at once--divided attention. 3. Sustained mental effort: limited ability to engage in protracted thought, especially on the same subject--vigilance.
Shadowing Experiments (Cherry,1953) “dichotic listening” Prose Passage #1 Prose Passage #2
Shadowing Exps: Findings Subject Tries to Comprehend Both: 1. Fails! Subject Shadows One Ear: 2. Unable to report the contents of the unattended channel. 3. Improved performance with physical attributes of stimuli (e.g., pitch, loudness, location).
Questions we can ask about these attention effects: 1. Is it limited to verbal stimuli? (show video) 2.a. What aspect of the unattended information is filtered out? 2.b. Where in the stream of information processing does the filter occur?
Early Selection Model(Broadbent, 1958) FILTER input detection recognition - The attentional filter lets through stimuli with certain physical features (e.g. pitch, location, size). - Only information that passed the filter received further analysis (e.g. meaning, or shape). - Consistent with ‘gorilla’ video
Challenges to Early Selection Theory Moray (1959) “Mary had a little lamb” “...[John Smith] you may stop now” Result w/o name: 6% notice w/ name: 33% notice “Mary had a little lamb”
Treisman (1960) jumping message expt. example attended ear: ... I SAW THE GIRL / song was WISHING unattended ear: ... me that bird / WALKING in the street Conclusion Meaning of unattended message is processed. Thus, selection is “later” than previously thought.
Read the sentence in RED as fast as you can.
Let’s read an monster about attention! Susan caught article fish using sandcrabs
The window meets in Washington Can Legislature about of fish
Late Selection Theory (Deutsch & Deutsch, Norman) FILTER input detection recognition Stimulus input is analyzed to the point of recognition. After that, only relevant information is remembered.
So…Is attentional selection early or late? An intermediate position (Treisman, 1960): Unattended messages are attenuated (partial blocking). Unattended stimuli do not usually cause their detectors to reach threshold, unless the detector has been primed (e.g. repetition priming or frequency of occurrence might cause this). By this account, unattended information has an influence when that information is particularly relevant, or frequent.