Cognitive Psychology: Visual Attention

Inattentional Blindness

• Failing to see visible objects when attention is elsewhere.
• Stimulus is completely missed/unnoticed.
• Supports load theory predictions.

Change Detection

• Cognitive tests involving multiple images and requiring participants to report changes.

Change Blindness

• Failing to detect changes in a visual scene.
• Often occurs with seemingly obvious alterations (e.g., film/TV cuts).

Binding

• Combining features (color, form, motion, location) to perceive a unified object.

Feature Integration Theory (FIT)

• Two-stage model of scene perception:
  • Preattentive stage: automatic feature extraction (no attention needed).
  • Focused attention stage: combining features into objects (attention required).
• Binding errors can happen during the focused attention stage (misplacing features).

Illusory Conjunctions

• Result of FIT tests where features of different objects are incorrectly combined.
• Participants might mix up colors or shapes while correctly naming numbers.
• Fewer illusory conjunctions with instructions to ignore irrelevant features.

Memory

• Process of retaining, retrieving, and using information after original input is no longer present.
• Impacts current thoughts and behavior.
• Involves conscious and unconscious control.

Modal Model of Memory

• Atkinson & Shiffrin's model describing memory stages.
  • Sensory memory: brief sensory information storage (seconds).
  • Short-term memory (STM): limited capacity, maintains info for 20 seconds. Determines if info moves to long-term memory (LTM).
  • LTM: permanent storage of large amounts of information.

Control Processes

• Active processes supporting encoding (e.g., rehearsal).
  • Maintenance rehearsal: minimal retention benefits (repetition).
  • Elaborative rehearsal: optimal strategy (relating to existing knowledge).

Sensory Memory

• Brief retention of sensory information.
  • Iconic memory: visual sensory memory (e.g., sparkler trails).
  • Echoic memory: auditory sensory memory (e.g., hearing a word in its entirety).

Measuring Iconic Memory

• Sperling's paradigm measuring capacity and duration of iconic memory using partial and full reports.
• Partial reports showed better memory than full reports until a significant delay occurred (partial report advantage).

Measuring Short-Term Memory

• Peterson & Peterson's experiment using a counting-back task to measure STM duration.
• Accuracy decreased significantly with increasing delay, indicating a limited duration of STM.

Decay

• Reduction in STM performance over time, due to the fading of memory trace.
• Related to decreased neural activity or neurotransmitter activity

Digit Span Test

• Measures STM capacity by presenting numbers and asking for recall (capacity estimates ~7 +/- 2 digits).

Change Detection Paradigm

• Examines the capacity of STM, exploring whether it's different for numbers than shapes.

Chunking

• Combining individual items into larger, meaningful units to improve encoding in STM.
• Meaningful units improve encoding, based on prior memory knowledge.

Complexity of Stimulus in Short-Term Encoding

• Ongoing debate on whether STM capacity is fixed or dependent on the complexity of stimuli.
• Different stimuli may have different encoding demands.

Working Memory (WM)

• Newer understanding of STM, involving active manipulation and processing of information.
• WM is like a buffer (manipulating & processing info without commiting it to LTM).
• Performance in various tasks (e.g., reading comprehension) reflects WM capacity.

Baddeley & Hitch Working Memory Model

• Proposed that mental operations can be performed on information consciously, independently from LTM.
• Dual task performance is similar to single tasking if tasks are independent.

Components of Baddeley & Hitch's Model

• Phonological loop: verbal/auditory info.
• Visuospatial sketchpad: visual/spatial info.
• Central executive: controls information flow and allocation of resources.

Signal Detection Theory

• Measuring the ability to distinguish "signal" (info) from "noise" (distractors) in a sensory context.

Phonological Loop

• WM component handling verbal/auditory information.
  • Phonological store: limited capacity, holds info briefly.
  • Articulatory rehearsal process: maintains info in store, prevents decay.

Phonological Similarity Effects

• Worse recall for similar-sounding words (compared to dissimilar), reflecting phonological encoding.

Word Length Effects

• Better memory for shorter words than longer, as longer words take longer to rehearse and are more prone to forgetting.

Visuospatial Sketchpad

• WM component for visual and spatial information.
  • Mental imagery: creating visual images in the mind.

Mental Rotation Task

• Task to test the visuospatial sketchpad by determining if 2 shapes at different angles are the same (increased reaction time for larger differences).

Central Executive

• WM component controlling information flow, focusing & switching attention, and suppressing irrelevant info.

Issues with the Central Executive

• Perseveration: repeating actions despite being unnecessary/ineffective.
• "Black box": theoretical nature and lack of specific/direct mechanisms.

Episodic Buffer

• WM component for temporary storage of information from WM, allowing for integration of disparate information.

Prefrontal Cortex

• Brain region associated with processing info from different sources to support encoding in WM.
• Damage is associated with difficulty in holding information in WM.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

• Main archival repository for memories and knowledge learned over time.
• Encompasses a vast range of material and experiences.

Serial Position Curve

• Graph showing memory performance for a list of items.
  • Primacy effect: better recall for items at the beginning.
  • Recency effect: better recall for items at the end.

Coding

• Form of information representation (visual, auditory, semantic) in both STM and LTM.

Visual Coding

• Representation of visual information in STM & LTM.

Auditory Coding

• Representation of auditory information in STM & LTM.

Semantic Coding

• Representation of meaning/concepts in STM & LTM

Proactive Interference

• Old learning interfering with new learning.

Retroactive Interference

• New learning interfering with old learning.

Wickens Experiment

• Proactive interference study. Release from PI (proactive interference) can result.

Neuropsychological Approach

• Studies of brain damage (double dissociation between STM & LTM) contributing to our understanding of memory systems.

Categories of LTM

• Explicit: conscious memory (episodic & semantic).
• Implicit: unconscious memory (procedural, priming, conditioning).

Episodic Memory

• Memory for personal events.

Semantic Memory

• Memory for facts and general knowledge.

Distinctions in Explicit Memory

• Episodic details can be lost over time, leaving only semantic elements.
• Semantic knowledge may initially be episodic to become more semantic.
• Semantic info benefits from episodic association.

Explicit Memory Interactions

• Autobiographical memory: blend of episodic and semantic elements.
• Personal semantic memory: significant semantic memories.

Interactions (Remember/Know Procedure)

• Remember response: recalling context of experience.
• Know response: familiarity, without specific context.

Implicit Memories

• Procedural memory: skill-based memory.
• Priming: stimulus exposure affecting subsequent response.
• Conditioning: learned association between stimuli and responses.

Expert-Induced Amnesia

• Expertise can lead to automatic performance with little conscious recollection of the associated actions.

Mere Exposure Effect

• Repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking.

Classical Conditioning

• Another example of procedural memory-based behavior.

Control Processes (revisited)

• Act on information in STM/WM (maintenance & elaborative rehearsal).

Levels of Processing

• Shallow processing: poor memory (focused on physical features).
• Deep processing: superior memory (focused on meaning).

Circular Reasoning

• Fallacious argument repeating the claim as evidence (e.g., arguing deep processing leads to better memory because it involves deeper LOP).

Beneficial Factors for Encoding

• Self-reference, visual imagery, generating information, organization, survival value, retrieval practice

Testing Effect

• Testing improves learning more than rereading.

Cued Recall and Free Recall

• Cued Recall: using cues to aid retrieval.
• Free recall: recall without cues.
• Cues improve learning and memory by connecting to LTM information.

Encoding Specificity

• Memory is better when retrieval conditions match encoding conditions.

State-Dependent Learning

• Memory enhances if internal state (mood, feelings) at retrieval matches encoding state.

Transfer Appropriate Processing

• Memory transfer is better when encoding and retrieval contexts match.

Consolidation

• Transforming new memories into a stable, permanent state.
  • Synaptic consolidation: in neurons.
  • Systems consolidation: in brain regions.

Amnesia

• Retrograde amnesia: loss of memory before trauma.
• Anterograde amnesia: loss of memory after trauma.

Multiple Trace Model

• Hippocampus remains involved in retrieving memories, even distant ones (contrasts the single initial encoding view).

Reminiscence Bump

• High memory for adolescence/early adulthood. Possible explanations: self-image, rapid change, culturally shared experiences.

Flashbulb Memories

• Vivid memories associated with shocking events, often involving contextual aspects (location, feelings)
• Not necessarily accurate, as repeated questioning can alter them.

Narrative Rehearsal Hypothesis

• Repeated discussion of events can inflate memory confidence.

Source Monitoring

• Source memory: attributing origins of memories.
• Source monitoring errors: misidentifying the sources of memories.

Pragmatic Interference

• Memory incorporating implied, but unstated, information.

Schemas

• Knowledge structures about the environment (e.g., about birds).

Scripts

• Knowledge of sequences of actions in an event (e.g., going to a restaurant).

Misinformation Effect

• Incorporating misleading information into a memory of an event (e.g., Loftus & Palmer's car crash studies).

Eyewitness Testimony

• Can be highly convincing despite potential inaccuracies. Errors in eyewitness testimony due to narrowing of attention, or familiarity.

Implanting False Memories

• Suggestive information can create vivid yet false memories.

Reinterpreting Memories

• Techniques (e.g., propranolol, MDMA) can potentially allow for reinterpretation of traumatic events.

Knowledge Concepts and Categories

• Conceptual knowledge enables recognition, inference.
• Concept: mental representation for various functions.
• Category: examples of a concept.
• Categorization: grouping items into categories

Categories

• Help process new information through label use.

Definitional Approach

• Categorization based on defining features.

Family Resemblance

• Shared features among category members, but not all members have all features.

Prototype Approach

• Typical examples representing concepts (not a single specific example).

Typicality Effect

• Faster judgments for highly prototypical objects.

Exemplar Approach

• Multiple examples represent a concept

Hierarchical Organization

• Categories organized in nested levels.

Inheritance

• Properties of higher-level categories are inherited by lower-level categories.

Multiple Factors Hypothesis

• Categorization based on various features, potentially including motion/color.

Semantic Categories Hypothesis

• Specific brain circuits for processing categories of objects.

Embodiment Hypothesis

• Concepts based on sensory and motor codes.

Imagery

• Mental experiencing of sensory impressions.

Visual Imagery

• Accessing visual representations without sensory input.

Explore the fascinating concepts of inattentional blindness, change detection, and binding in visual perception. This quiz delves into key theories like Feature Integration Theory and the phenomenon of illusory conjunctions. Test your knowledge on how attention influences our perception of the world around us.