Psychology Attention and Attentional Processes

Attention and Attentional Processes

• Attention allows focusing on a stimulus while ignoring others
• Attention is goal-directed (e.g., finding someone)
• Attention varies in effort (easy or hard)
• Attention can be shifted like a spotlight
• Visual search involves coordinated eye and attention movements; attention can be directed without eye movement
• Attention focuses on zoomed-in items
• Attention is selective, filtering out distractions
• Attention is limited, acting as a resource
• Attention can be captured and controlled, getting distracted by unexpected stimuli
• Attention can be divided (e.g., listening and looking)
• Inattentional blindness and change blindness are related to attention limitations.

Modern Attention Research

• Modern research shifts from behaviorism to cognitivism
• Relevant 1950s-60s studies exist

Broadbent's (1952) Study

• Aim: Examine processing of multiple messages simultaneously
• Task: Participants heard two simultaneous messages (e.g., "heart on Position 1?," "cross on Position 4?")
• Condition: Focus on one message while ignoring the other
• Results: 50% accuracy; accuracy decreased with similar stimuli
• Shows attention difficulty processing multiple messages simultaneously (bottleneck).

Cherry (1953): Cocktail Party Effect

• Investigated the cocktail party effect—the ability to selectively attend to one conversation in a noisy environment
• Method: Two conditions: Shadowing task and Dichotic listening.
• Results:
  • Shadowing: Participants initially found it difficult to focus, but possible with more practice and only one participant tested for this part.
  • Dichotic listening: Easier to attend to one ear.
  • Unnoticed: Message meaning, language changes
  • Noticed: Physical changes in voice or tone
• Conclusions: Attention is easier with notable physical cues; difficult without them.

Broadbent's Filter Theory

• An early selection model of attention
• Incoming sensory info enters the "sensory buffer"
• A "selective filter" identifies and blocks irrelevant stimuli based on physical properties (e.g., tone)
• The "limited capacity channel" (attention) processes one item at a time (bottleneck).
• Attention is required to process information

Evidence Against Early Selection Theory

• Own-name effect: People notice their name in the unattended ear
• Unattended information is analyzed automatically (contrary to early selection).
• Channel switching: Participants can notice info from the unattended ear as the message changes to another ear
• Conditioning: associating words with electric shocks; people show a physical (physiological) response to words associated with shocks even in the unattended channel
• These show that info in unattended channel is not fully blocked; it's partially processed and analyzed

Alternative Models of Attention

• Attenuation Model (Treisman, 1964): The filter weakens, not completely blocks, unattended stimuli, reducing their intensity. Attended stimuli are more intense. Information from irrelevant channels can leak through the filter (attenuation). Attenuated information can activate concepts in long-term memory.
• Late Selection Model (Deutsch & Deutsch, 1963): All info is processed fully and then filtered based on meaning and other factors.

Leakage, Slippage, and Spillover

• Leakage (Treisman, 1964): Information from unattended channels can still leak through, though reduced in intensity. Familiar information may cause leakage, leading to recognition of the stimulus.
• Slippage (Lachter et al., 2004): Attention resources cannot be precisely aimed; attention may unintentionally shift to irrelevant channels. Attention cannot always be controlled precisely.
• Spillover (Lavie): Attention will "spill over" to the irrelevant channel if the task is not resource-demanding. Attention cannot be stopped until all resources are used.

Own-Name Effect

• Own-name effect depends upon working memory capacity (WMC):
  • High WMC: Notice their own name <20% of the time
  • Low WMC: Notice their own name > 65% of the time; Difficulty focusing attention.

Repetition Priming

• Presented with a prime word (e.g., "cat") before a target word (e.g., "CAT"). Participants indicate if the target is a real word.
• When prime and target are the same, recognition speeds up.
• When different, the effect is less pronounced, and response times are longer. This finding supports early selection models.

Repetition Priming and Early Selection (Latcher et al., 200?).

• Prime and target were presented in different locations.
• Supports Broadbent’s theory: Attention is needed for identification, especially when the prime and target are not in the same location.

Identification Without Attention (Kouider et al., 2014)

• Auditory training: Participants learned to respond to words (animals vs. man-made objects).
• During sleep, new words were presented auditorily, and a response was detected by EEG.
• Suggests that word meaning processing is possible even without attention during the sleep cycle

Lavie's Hybrid Theory (Lavie, 1995)

• Combines early and late selection models.
• Perceptual processing is automatic and capacity-limited.
• Spillover happens if required attentional resources are not fully used in the attended task.
• Lavie and Cox (1997): High compatibility trials with low perceptual load lead to longer reaction times versus high perceptual load trials.

Lavie vs. Lachter

• Both agree that attention is necessary for irrelevant stimuli processing to occur.
• Lachter proposes that with correct attention focus, spillover is avoidable.
• Lavie argues that attentional processing capacity is a limited resource, and thus spillover is more likely during low perceptual load tasks.

Dawson and Schell (1982)

• Evidence for the slippage model. (Skin conductance experiment)

Inattentional Blindness and Change Blindness

• Change blindness: Inability to notice changes in a scene being attended to
• Inattentional blindness: Failure to notice changes in a visual field due to attention being elsewhere.
• Simons and Chabris (1999): Gorilla experiment demonstrating inattentional blindness
• Hayman et al. (2010): Unicycling clown experiment demonstrating change blindness

Early vs. Late Selection Models

• Early selection: Unnoticed stimuli never processed

• Late selection: Stimuli processed, but not remembered.

• Both mechanisms tied to attention and processing limitations.

Memory's Role

• Memory may contribute to change or inattentional blindness but isn't universally necessary.

Subliminal Influences

• Subliminal priming: Exposure to a stimulus below the threshold of awareness influencing subsequent responses to a related stimulus.
• Priming: Short exposure to a stimulus influences responses to a related stimulus.
• Successful examples of subliminal priming: Karremans et al. (2006)
• Dextro example: Subliminally primed participants took dextro pills.

Evaluation of Subliminal Priming Studies

• Low ecological validity: Often artificial conditions.
• Motivation: Tasks might be difficult, leading to decreased participant motivation

Explore the fascinating concepts of attention and its processes in this quiz. Learn how attention allows us to focus on specific stimuli while filtering out distractions and adjusting to various cognitive tasks. Delve into modern research and key studies that have shaped our understanding of this essential cognitive function.