PSYC305-Attention_L1 Broadbent’s model.ppt

Attention Mariana V. C. Coutinho, PhD Week 6 Outline Attention Definition Attributes Tests Attention Class Activity Research Activity II Attention Attention Attention enables us to become aware of mental content. Attention controls our mental environment by choosing/selecting the events that will en...

Attention Mariana V. C. Coutinho, PhD Week 6 Outline Attention Definition Attributes Tests Attention Class Activity Research Activity II Attention Attention Attention enables us to become aware of mental content. Attention controls our mental environment by choosing/selecting the events that will enter consciousness. There are many different aspects of attention which we will study: Selective attention Divided attention Attentional capture Historical Background Attention became an important topic of research in the 1950s, partially for a practical reason: Technology developed during World War II placed humans in situations in which they were overwhelmed with information often for long periods of time. Models of Attention Broadbent’s Model Treisman’s Attenuation Model Dichotic Listening Task (Cherry 1953) Peaslee and Swartz, Virginia Government © 2014 CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. Dichotic Listening Task Participants are presented with a different message in each ear delivered over stereo earphones. They are told to pay attention to a message delivered to one ear, the attended ear. And to repeat what they heard out loud. The procedure of repeating the sentences as they are heard is called shadowing. Results Participants were then asked if they knew what was said in the unattended ear. What do you think the main findings were? Results Participants could not report the content of the message delivered in the unattended ear. They were unaware of what was said in the unattended ear. Based on results such as these, Broadbent (1958) created a model of attention designed to explain how it is possible to explain how it is possible to focus on one message only and why information isn’t taken in from the other message. BROADBENT’S FILTER MODEL OF ATTENTION Here is an illustration of Broadbent’s model! This model proposed that information passes through the following stages: 1. Sensory buffer/memory holds all of the incoming information for a fraction of a second and the transfers all of it to the filter. 2. The filter identifies the message that is being attended to based on its physical characteristics—like the speaker’s tone of voice, pitch, speed of talking, and accent— and lets only this attended message pass through to the detector in the next stage. 3. The detector processes the information from the attended message to determine higher-level characteristics of the message, such as its meaning. Because only the important, attended information has been let through the filter, the detector processes all of the information that enters it. The output of the detector is sent to shortterm memory, which holds information for 10– 15 seconds and also transfers information into long-term memory, which can hold information indefinitely. Here is an illustration of Broadbent’s model! Information from the world detected by receptors in the sense organs the enters the sensory buffer. Sensory buffer = temporary storage place for information coming from our senses. Here is an illustration of Broadbent’s model! Subsequently, the attended information is selected by a filter based on its physical properties. Only the attended message passes the filter. Here is an illustration of Broadbent’s model! Here is an illustration of Broadbent’s model! Here is an illustration of Broadbent’s model! Subsequently, the information is stored in shortterm memory.