Module 4: Attention

Attention Is…
 The means by which we actively process a limited amount of information.

Main Functions of Attention

 Signal Detection – measure sensitivity to a target’s presence

Signal
Present Absent
Decision Present Hit False Alarm
Absent Miss Correct Rejection

 Vigilance
o Attending to a set of stimuli over a length of time in order to detect a target signal
o Decreases rapidly over time (fatigue), thus misses and false alarms increase
 Search
o Actively searching for a target
o Number of targets and distracters influence accuracy
o Feature search versus conjunctive search
 Selective Attention – attending to one thing while ignoring others.
 Distraction – one stimulus interfering with the processing of other stimulus.
ASPECT

 Divided Attention – paying attention to more than one thing at a time.

 Attentional Capture – a rapid shifting of attention usually caused by a stimulus such as
a loud noise, bright light, or sudden movement.
 Visual Scanning – movement of the eyes from one location to another object.

Attention as Information Processing

 Braodbent’s Filter Model of Attention
o Designed to explain the results of an experiment
done by Colin Cherry. Dichotic refers to presenting
o Cherry studied Attention using a technique called different stimuli to the left and
dichotic listening. right ears
 o Shadowing – repeating the words as they are heard
o Cocktail Party Effect – the ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out
other stimuli

Model of Attention (Donald Broadbent)

 Sensory Memory holds all of the incoming information for a fraction of a second then
transfers all of it to the filter.
 The Filter identifies the message that is being attended to based on its physical
characteristics and lets only this attended message pass through to the detector in the nest
stage.
 The detector processes the information from the attended message to determine higher-
level characteristics of the message, such as its meaning.
 The output of the detectors sent to short term memory, which holds information for 10-15
seconds and also transform information to long term memory, which can hold
information indefinitely.

Models of Selective Attention

 Early selection model
o Broadbent’s filter model
o It is called as such because the filter eliminates the unattended information right at
the beginning of the flow of information
o Filters message before incoming information is analyzed for meaning

o Sensory memory
 Holds all incoming information for a fraction of a second
 Transfers all information to next stage
o Filter
 Identifies attended message based on physical characteristics
 Only attended message is passed on to the next stage
o Detector
 Processes all information to determine higher-level characteristics of the
message
o Short-term memory
 Receives output of detector
 Holds information for 10–15 seconds and may transfer it to long-term
memory
 Intermediate selection model
o Treisman’s attenuation model
 o Attended message can be separated from unattended message early in the
information-processing system.
o Attenuaton Model of Attention
 Proposed that selection occurs in two level
 Attenuator analyzes the incoming messages in terms of its 1) physical
characteristics, 2) language, and 3) its meaning.
 Attended message is let through the attenuator at full strength
 Unattended message is let through at much weaker strength.

 Dictionary unit
 Contains words, each of which has a threshold for being
activated
 Words that are common or important have low thresholds
 Uncommon words have high thresholds
 Late selection model
o For example, MacKay (1973)
o Proposes that most of the incoming informatiion is processed to the level of
meaning before the message to be further processed is selected.

Load Theory of Attention

 Processing capacity — refers to the amount of information a person can handle and sets
a limit on their ability to process incoming information
 Perceptual load — the difficulty of a given task
o High-load (difficult) tasks use higher amounts of processing capacity
o Low-load (easy) tasks use lower amounts of processing capacity

The Stroop Test

 Occurs because the name of the words cause a competing response and therefor slow
responding to the target.
 Name of the word interferes with the ability to name the ink color
 Cannot avoid paying attention to the meanings of the words

Directing Attention by Scanning a Scene

Scanning a scene with eye movement

  Central Vision – the area we are looking at
 Peripheral Vision – everything off to the side
 Fovea has a much more detail than the peripheral retina

Overt Attention
 Shifting attention from one place to another by moving the eyes
 Saccades: rapid movements of the eyes from one place to another
 Fixations: short pauses on points of interest
 Studied by using an eye tracker

Scanning base on a Stimulus Salience

 Stimulus Salience – the physical properties of the stimulus, such as color, contrast, or
movement.
o areas that stand out and capture attention
o Bottom-up process
o Depends on characteristics of the stimulus
o Color and motion are highly salient
o Saliency Map – created by determining how salience influences the way we scan
a scene typically involves analyzing characteristics and combining the values

Scanning Bases on Cognitive Factors

 Scene schema
o knowledge about what is contained in typical scenes
o Help guide fixations from one area of a scene to another

Scanning Bases on Task Demands

 Eyes movements are determined by task
 Eyes movements preceded motor actions by a fraction of a second
 Scanning is influenced by People’s predictions

Covert Attention
 Attention without Eye Movements
 Precueing: directing attention without moving the eyes
o Participants respond faster to a light at an expected location than at an unexpected
location
o Even when eyes kept fixed

 Attention improves our ability to

respond to a location
 Attention improves our ability to
respond to objects
 Attention affects perception
 Attention Affects Physiological
responding
Attentional Warping – the map of categories on the brain
changes so more space is allotted to categories that are
being searched for, and this effect occurs even when the
attended category isn’t present in the movie.
Divided Attention
Operant Conditioning (BF Skinner) – a type of leaning in
 Practice enables people to
which behavior is controlled by rewards that follow
simultaneously do two things that behaviors
were difficult at first. Mind Wandering – thoughts coming from within which have
 Schneider and Shiffrin (1977) also called daydreaming.
o Divide attention between
remembering target and monitoring rapidly presented stimuli
o Memory set: one to four characters called target stimuli
o Test frames: could contain random dot patterns, a target, distractors
 Automatic processing occurs without intention and only uses some of a person’s
cognitive resources.

Distractions: Cell Phone Use

 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study
o Video recorders placed in cars
o Accident risk is 4X higher when using a cell phone.
 Strayer and Johnston (2001):
o Simulated driving
o Participants on phone missed twice as many red lights and took longer to apply
the brakes
 Same result using “hands-free” cell phone

Attention and Visual Perception

 Inattentional blindness: occurs when people are unaware of clearly visible stimuli if
they aren’t directing their attention to them.
o Stimulus that is not attended is not perceived, even though a person might be
looking directly at it
 Inattentional Deafness: focusing on a difficult task results in impaired hearing

Change detection
 Change Blindness:
o If shown two versions of a picture, differences between them are not immediately
apparent.
o Task to identify differences requires concentrated attention and search.
 Continuity Errors

Object-Based Visual Attention

 Location-based:
o Moving attention from one place to another
 Object-based:
o Attention being directed to one place on an object
 The enhancing effect of attention spreads throughout the object
 Attention can be based on the
o Environment
  Static scenes or scenes with few objects
o Specific object
 Dynamic events

Attention and Experiencing a Coherent World

 Binding – The process by which features such as color, form, motion, and location are
combined to create our perception of a coherent object.

Feature Integration Theory (FIT)

 Preattentive stage
o Automatic
o No effort or attention
o Unaware of process
o Object analyzed into features
 Focused attention stage
o Attention plays key role
o Features are combined
 Treisman and Schmidt (1982)
o Ignore black numbers and focus on objects
o Participants can correctly pair shapes and colors
 R.M.: Patient with Balint’s syndrome Illusory Conjunction –
o Inability to focus attention on individual objects combination of features
o High number of illusory conjunctions reported from different stimuli
 Mostly bottom-up processing
 Top-down processing influences processing when participants are told what they would
see
o Top-down processing combines with feature analysis to help one perceive things
accurately

Physiology of Attention
 Attention enhances neural responding.
 Attentional processing is distributed across a large number of areas in the brain
 Ventral Attention Network – controls attention based on saliences
 Dorsal Attention Network – controls attention based on top-down process.
 Effective Connectivity – refers to how easily activity can travel along a particular
pathway.
 Executing Attention Network – extremely complex and may involve two separate
networks.
 Executive Functions – include a range of processes that involve controlling attention and
dealing with conflicting responses.