Psychology: Attention and Perception

Attention

• Attention is the process of actively processing a limited amount of information from a large amount of information.

Vigilance

• Refers to the ability to attend to a field of stimulation over a prolonged period to detect a particular target stimulus of interest.

Conjunction Search

• Involves looking for a particular combination of features.

Signal Detection Theory (SDT)

• Used to measure sensitivity to a target's presence, involving three processes: attention, perception, and memory.

Display Size

• Refers to the number of items in a visual array, which slows down the search process.

Feature Search and Feature Integration Theory

• Feature search: a distinctive feature stands out in a display.
• Feature integration theory: explains the ease of feature searches and the difficulty of conjunction searches.

Similarity Theory

• States that the difficulty in detecting target stimuli increases as the similarity between target and distractor stimuli increases.

Guided Search Theory

• Suggests that all searches involve two consecutive stages, with serial processing allowing only one object to be processed at a time and parallel processing allowing multiple objects to be processed simultaneously.

Selective Attention

• The cognitive process of focusing on a particular aspect of the environment while ignoring others, involving filtering out irrelevant information.
• Also known as the cocktail party problem, where one conversation is tracked amidst distractions.

Selective Filter Model

• Suggests that the impact of media messages is shaped by an individual's personal experiences, values, and beliefs, as well as their social and cultural context.

Attenuation Model

• Proposes that there is a decrease in the perceived loudness of an unattended message, which may not reach its threshold unless it has a low threshold or there is a general momentary decrease for all messages.

Deutsch and Deutsch Model

• A late selection model, proposing that all information (attended and unattended) is analyzed for meaning to select an input for full awareness.

Divided Attention

• The ability to pay attention to two tasks at once, such as cooking a meal while talking to a friend.