Cognitive Psychology: Attention Overview

Attention: Overview

• Attention is a cognitive process focusing on specific stimuli while ignoring others.
• It's vital for perception, memory, and action, processing relevant information.

Types of Attention

• Selective Attention: Focusing on one task/stimulus, ignoring others.
• Divided Attention: Splitting attention between multiple tasks/stimuli.
• Sustained Attention: Maintaining focus on a task/stimulus for a long time.

Selective Attention: Filtering and Processing

• Selective attention is necessary because the environment offers more information than we can process.
• Models explain how we filter irrelevant stimuli:

Broadbent's Filter Model (Early Selection)

• Filters sensory information early, before perceptual analysis.
• Stages:
  • Sensory memory (brief storage of all incoming info).
  • Filter (selects info based on physical features – pitch, volume).
  • Detector (processes the selected info for meaning).
  • Short-term memory (holds processed info for a short time, then transfers to long-term).

Challenges to Broadbent's Model

• Cocktail Party Effect: We can hear our name in unattended conversations, showing unattended info isn't always blocked.
• Treisman's Attenuation Model: Unattended info isn't completely filtered, but attenuated (weakened). Salient information can still pass through (hearing your name).
• Late Selection Models: All stimuli are processed for meaning first, the decision to attend to something happens later.

Divided Attention: Multitasking

• Divided attention deals with processing multiple inputs or tasks simultaneously.
• Generally, multitasking reduces task performance due to limited attentional resources.

Capacity Theories of Attention

• Kahneman's Capacity Model: Attention is a limited resource, and allocation depends on task demand.
• Easier tasks can be done simultaneously.
• Demanding tasks decrease performance on both tasks.

Automatic vs. Controlled Processing

• Automatic Processing: Routine tasks needing little attention (e.g., reading, typing).
• Controlled Processing: Requires conscious attention for novel/complex tasks.

Stroop Effect

• Demonstrates the difficulty in controlling automatic processes.
• Naming ink color of words (that are color names) is harder because of the automatic process of reading.

Attention and Visual Perception

Visual Scanning and Eye Movements

• Overt Attention: Attention guided by eye movements.
• Eye movements use saccades (rapid eye movements) and fixations (pauses to process information).
• Covert Attention: Attention can be directed without moving eyes.

Spotlight Metaphor

• Visual attention is like a spotlight, shifting focus on visual scene parts, even without eye movement.

Posner's Precueing Task

• Demonstrates attention's enhancement of processing at cued locations, even without eye movement.
• Cued locations are processed more quickly.

Attention and the Brain

Parietal Cortex

• Posterior parietal cortex is crucial for shifting and focusing visual attention.
• Damage can cause hemispatial neglect (ignoring one side of space).

Frontal Eye Fields (FEF)

• Control eye movements and attention shifts.

Attention Networks

• Dorsal Attention Network: Voluntary, goal-directed attention.
• Ventral Attention Network: Involuntary, reflexive attention (e.g., responding to sudden stimuli).

Theories of Attention

Feature Integration Theory

• Visual processing has two stages:
  • Preattentive stage: Automatic parallel processing of basic features (color, shape).
  • Focused attention stage: Combining features to form coherent objects.
• Illusory conjunctions: Combining features from different objects when attention is overloaded.

Load Theory of Attention

• Perceptual load: Task difficulty determines attentional capacity use.
• High-load tasks use more attention, leading to less distraction.
• Low-load tasks leave more attention for irrelevant stimuli.

Attentional Failures and Disorders

Inattentional Blindness

• Failing to notice fully visible but unexpected objects when attention is elsewhere (e.g., Gorilla experiment).

Change Blindness

• Inability to detect changes in a visual scene, especially with brief interruptions.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

• A neurodevelopmental disorder causing inattention and/or hyperactivity.
• Individuals may struggle to sustain attention.

Everyday Applications of Attention Research

Driving and Attention

• Divided attention is dangerous in driving.
• Multitasking like texting while driving compromises performance.

Advertising

• Using bright colors, motion, novelty to attract attention.

Designing Work Environments

• Considering attention's limitations (e.g., minimizing distractions in critical tasks).

This quiz explores the cognitive process of attention, focusing on its types and models, specifically Broadbent's Filter Model. Understand selective, divided, and sustained attention to better grasp how we process information in our environment. Test your knowledge on how attention shapes perception and memory.