Attention!
Chapter 4
Some things to think about…
 Is it possible to focus attention on more than
one thing?
 What does attention research tell us about the
effect of talking on cell phones while driving a
car?
Attention
Attention is…
 mental effort or concentration
 on specific features
 that has limitations
 can be used in differing amounts
 and is affected by the complexity of a task
Topics on Attention
 How we focus attention (selective attention)
 What happens to attention when a task becomes
automatic
 How we can divide our attention (or fail to)
Shadowing procedure
Theories of Attention
1. Filter Theory (Broadbent)
bottleneck
“Split-scan” experiment
Problems with Filter Theory
 “cocktail party effect”
 Teisman’s experiment: switching messages
Treisman’s experimental paradigm.
The two messages “switch ears” at the point indicated by the
slash mark.
attended
unattended
What they should say:
“but did not know which way to go. The trees on the
left term refers to the relationships among the”
What they do say:
“but did not know which way to go. The trees on the
left side of the relationships among the”
Theories of Attention
2. Attenuation Theory
 Three kinds of processing
 Physical properties (fastest, easiest)
 Linguistic properties
 Semantic properties (slowest, hardest)
Theories of Attention
3. Late-Selection Theory
 Decision of what to attend to happens after
meaning extracted
Flanker-Compatibility Task
Flanker-Compatibility Task
Increasing Load
Other factors that affect attention:
 Personality
 Arousal
 Intentions
 Capacity
 Complexity of task
Theories of Attention
4. Schema Theory
 No “filter”
 We “pick” what to attend to, other information not
perceived or analyzed at all
Theories of Attention
5. Anatomy Model
(visual attention)
Posner & Raichle model
1.
2.
3.
1 – parietal
lobe
Disengage
Move
Enhance
3 - pulvinar
2 – superior
colliculus
Theories of Selective Attention
 Filter theory
 Attenuation theory
 Late-selection theory
 Schema theory
 Anatomy model
Automaticity
Automaticity
 Automatic processing
 Occurs without intention
 Occurs without conscious awareness
 Does not interfere with other mental activity
Automaticity
 Automatic processing
 Controlled Processing
 Attention hypothesis of automatization
Condition 2
Condition 1
Tree
River
Tree
Cat
River
Paper
Tree
River
Cat
Paper
Tree
Paper
Automaticity
 Practice: decreases amount of attention needed to
complete a task
 The Stroop task
Attention & Perception
 Feature Integration Theory
 Preattentive: features
 “Gluing” features together into an object
 Attentional capture
Divided Attention
 Dual-Task performance
 Alternating attention?
 One task performed automatically?
 Combining tasks?
Divided Attention
 Cell phone use
Caption: In Posner et al.’s (1980) precueing procedure, (a) a cue signal inside
the square indicates where the light will be flashed; (b) then one of the lights is
illuminated.