14:13 Chapters 4 & 13: Attention & Emotion Multiple Meanings of Attention Attention is very hard to define The term “attention applies to a wide range of phenomena: 1. Arousal 2. Alertness 3. Consciousness awareness First identification of the pattern relies almost exclusively on data-driven processing whereas later identification relies heavily on conceptually driven processing. 1 14:13 Basics of Attention Attention as a limited mental resource – Limited mental energy that powers cognition • – A mental commodity necessary to run cognition – A filter or funnel Alertness and Arousal • Explicit Processing: – Involving conscious processing, conscious awareness that a task is being performed, and usually conscious awareness of the outcome of that performance – Easy to communicate – Declarative/episodic • Implicit Processing: The Orienting Response and Attention Capture • Habituation • Posner: – Work on visual attention focus 2 14:13 The Orienting Response and Attention Capture Posner’s Spatial cuing task YOU WILL SEE A FOCUS POINT, “+ AND AN ARROW, FOLLOWED BY A BOX SIMPLY SAY WHETHER THE BOX IS ON THE LEFT OR RIGHT OF THE SCREEN Posner’s spatial cuing task Posner Experiments on Response Time 3 14:13 The Orienting Response and Attention Capture Posner’s Spatial cuing task • Benefit/Facilitation: – Useful cue = fast RT • Cost: – Misleading cue = slow RT • Spotlight attention: The Orienting Response and Attention Capture Visual Search Treisman examined spotlight attention in visual search and pattern recognition. ON THE NEXT SLIDES, SIMPLY SAY “T AS SOON AS YOU FIND THE BOLD-FACED T SAY IT AS FAST AS YOU CAN, BUT MAKE SURE YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED IT BEFORE YOU SAY IT Input vs. Controlled Attention • Remember feature detectors? 4 14:13 A Disorder of Attention: Hemineglect • Hemineglect: Drawings copied by a patient with hemineglect Object-based neglect is demonstrated by the copying performance of a patient with left hemineglect Draw Black Draw White 5 14:13 Selective Attention and the Cocktail Party Effect • Filtering or selecting: – The mental process of eliminating those distractions is called filtering or selecting Selective Attention and the Cocktail Party Effect • Dual Task or Dual Message Procedure: – Two tasks or messages are presented such that one task or message captures attention as completely as possible. Selective Attention and the Cocktail Party Effect Shadowing task – With headphones, listen and repeat a message in real-time while ignoring message in other ear – High success (after lots of practice) – Participants remembered physical characteristics of ignored message but not content 6 14:13 Broadbent’s filter theory of selective attention (Attention) Problems with Broadbent Unattended info filtered out early - Ignored based on physical characteristics - Is it? Treisman All incoming messages get some anaylsis Treisman’s Attenuation Theory 7 14:13 Both Broadbent and Treisman are Selection Models • Two things about selective attention: 1. Selective attention can occur very early in processing, based on very low-level, physical characteristics, as Broadbent proposed. 2. It can be influenced by both permanent and temporary factors. Permanent factors include important information such as your name, as well as overlearned and personally important factors. Selective Attention • Inhibition irrelevent info gets pushed down or suppressed. • Irrele ant information suppressed Ex. mind wandering, zoning out Selective Attention • Priming – Respond faster when cued to expect a stimulus (concept is mentally activated) • Negative Priming Slower responding to a target when that target was to be ignored item on the previous trial. 8 14:13 Attention as a Mental Resource • Psychological Refractory Period or Attentional Blink: A brief slow-down in mental processing due to having processed another very recent event. A Synthesis for Attention and Automaticity • Attention = mental capacity – Can’t use more than you have ADHD, normal attentional limits, or lots of explicit processing depletes resources – More practice -> more automaticity -> more resources available to do more stuff Stimulants can help with mental capacity. Ex. Adderall Automaticity! • Posner characteristics: – Occurs without intention, without a conscious decision – Not open to conscious awareness or introspection – Consumes few if any conscious resources (attention) – (Informal fourth criterion) Operates very rapidly, usually with 1s. 9 14:13 Automatic and Conscious Processing Theories • Conscious Processing: – Occurs only with intention, with a deliberate decision. – Open to awareness and introspection. Disadvantages of Automaticity • Can’t always turn it off • Action Slips: • Also, Highway Hypnosis The Stroop Task 10 14:13 Emotion Emotions are Universal • Babies born blind • Blind Runners Emotions are Physiological (in part) 11 14:13 Emotion and Attention • Emotional Stroop Task – Words presented in various colors – The task is to name the colors. – Naming times are slowed for emotion-inducing items. Emotion and Attention • Suppression vs. Cognitive reappraisal – Effect on feeling, problem solving, brain activity Emotion and Memory • Yerkes-Dodson Law – Why? – Weapon focus/Band-aid robbers 12 14:13 Choking • Outcome-based pressure • Monitoring pressure Ok Fine, But What ARE Emotions? • Where do they come from? Body Sensations & Emotions • Common sense theory 13 14:13 Body Sensations & Emotions • James-Lange Theory Body Sensations & Emotions • Schacter s Cognitive Arousal Theory – Happy vs. Angry man experiments – Attraction in dangerous situations – Coffee dates & scary movies Body Sensations & Emotions • Facial Feedback Hypothesis – Somotosensory cortex & facial processing – The key to happiness! – Also, mirror neurons 14