Lesson 5 Attention and Consciousness

LESSON 5: ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS ATTENTION - Attention is the means by which we actively process a limited amount of information. CONSCIOUSNESS - Consciousness includes both the feeling of awareness and the content of awareness, some of which may be under the focus of attention (Bourguignon, 2000; Farthing, 1992, 2000; Taylor, 2002) 1. It helps monitor our interactions with the environment 2. It assists us in linking our past memories and our present (sensations) to give us a sense of continuity of experience. 3. It helps us control and plan for our future actions based on the information from monitoring and from the links between past memories and present sensations Main Functions of Attention 1. 2. 3. 4. Signal detection and vigilance Search Selective attention Divided attention Signal Detection Theory (SDT) - Measure sensitivity to a target’s presence Vigilance and SDT - Vigilance is attending to a set of stimuli over a length of time in order to detect a target signal Vigilance decreases rapidly over time (fatigue), thus misses and false alarms increase - Search - Actively searching for a target Number of targets and distracters influence accuracy Feature search versus conjunctive search  Conjunctive Search - Find the letter T – Which panel is easier? (same characteristics)  Feature Search - Find the letter O – Easier or harder than the previous one? (different characteristics) Feature-Integration Theory (FIT) - Individual feature processing is done in parallel – Simultaneous processing is done on the whole display and if feature is present, we detect it Conjunctive searching requires attention to the integration or combination of the features – Attention to particular combination of features must be done sequentially to detect presence of a certain combination Another Feature Search (colors instead of characteristics)    Is there a red T in the display? Target is defined by a single feature According to feature integration theory, the target should “pop out” No attention required Another Conjunction Search     Is there a red T in the display? Target is defined by two features: shape and color According to FIT, the features must be combined and so attention is required Need to examine one by one Similarity Theory - Similarity between targets and distracters is important, not number of features to be combined More shared features = more difficult to detect a target - Guided Search (Cave & Wolf 1990) - All searchers have two phases  Parallel phase (simultaneous)  Serial phase (one at a time) Selectivity of Attention - Cocktail party phenomenon Cherry’s Shadowing Technique  Attended ear and unattended ear (listening to two different conversations and repeat one of the messages; may be binaural or dichotic)  Noticed in unattended ear – change in gender, change to a tone  Did not notice in unattended ear – changed language, changed topic, same speaker; if speech was played backwards MODELS OF SELECTIVE ATTENTION 1. Broadbent’s model – we filter information right after we notice it at the sensory level - Had trouble explaining:  Why participant’s name gets through; why participants shadow meaningful message that switches from one ear to another; effects of practice on detecting information in unattended ear (e.g., detect digit in unattended ear for naïve and practiced participants) 2. Selective Filter Model - Moray (1959) found that even when participants ignore most other high-level (e.g., semantic) Selective Filter Model aspects of an unattended message, they frequently still recognize their names in an unattended ear (Wood & Cowan, 1995). - Moray suggested that the reason for this effect is that messages that are of high importance to a person may break through the filter of selective attention (e.g., Koivisto & Revonsuo, 2007; Marsh et al., 2007). But other messages may not. - According to Moray, the filter blocks out most information at the sensory level. But some personally important messages are so powerful that they burst through the filtering mechanism. 3. Treisman’s Attenuation Model - Instead of blocking stimuli out, the filter weakens the strength of stimuli other than the target stimulus 4. Late Selection Theory - All stimuli is processed to the level of meaning; relevance determines further processing and action 5. Neisser’s Synthesis - Preattentive processes (parallel, note physical characteristics) - Attentive processes (controlled processes occur serially, occur in working memory) DIVIDED ATTENTION - How many tasks can you do at once? Dual-task paradigm  The researchers would compare and contrast the response time (latency) and accuracy of performance in each of the three conditions.  Of course, higher latencies mean slower responses. As expected, initial performance was poor for the two tasks when the tasks had to be performed at the same time. Dual-task paradigm  Spelke, Hirst, and Neisser, however, had their participants practice to perform these two tasks five days a week for many weeks (85 sessions in all). To the surprise of many, given enough practice, the participants’ performance improved on both tasks. They showed improvements in their speed of reading and accuracy of reading comprehension, as measured by comprehension tests. They also showed increases in their recognition memory for words they had written during dictation. Eventually, participants’ performance on both tasks reached the same levels that the participants previously had shown for each task alone CAPACITY MODELS OF ATTENTION Real-life dual task - Driving and cellphones; adjusting to music; watching the scenery Almost 80% of crashes and 65% of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds of the event  Strayer and Drews (2007) – naturalistic observation of phone use and driver behavior  Conclusion: impact of hands-free cell-phone conversations on simulated driving – cell-phone conversations led to inattentional blindness; even if they looked at an object, participant did not remember the object FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE OUR ABILITY TO PAY ATTENTION 1. 2. 3. 4. Anxiety Arousal Task difficulty Skills THREE SUBFUNCTIONS OF ATTENTION 1. Alerting - Being prepared to attend to some incoming event and maintaining this attention - Involves right frontal and parietal cortexes as well as the locus coeruleus 2. Orienting - The selection of stimuli to attend to; needed when we perform a visual search; involves the superior parietal lobe, the temporal parietal junction, the frontal eye fields, and the superior colliculus 3. Executive attention - Processes for monitoring and resolving conflicts that arise among internal processes; involves the anterior cingulate, lateral ventral, and prefrontal cortex as well as the basal ganglia When attention fails us: ADHD; change blindness and inattentional blindness; spatial neglect 1. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - Symptoms: inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity; not everyone who is overly hyperactive, inattentive, or impulsive has ADHD - Behavior must be demonstrated to a degree that is inappropriate for the person’s age 2. Change blindness - An inability to detect changes in objects or scenes that are being viewed - Inattentional blindness: people are not able to see things that are actually there 3. Spatial neglect - Lesion on one side of brain causes person to ignore half of their visual field HABITUATION - Decrease in responsiveness when exposed to a repeated stimulus  People who smoke do not notice the smell of cigarettes on their clothes, but nonsmokers do; people get used to hearing the chiming of their clocks DISHABITUATION - Change in familiar stimuli causes one to notice it again  Smokers who quit suddenly notice how much their clothes smell of smoke; if clock breaks, owner suddenly notices the clock isn’t chiming HAIBUATION/DISHABITUATION PARADIGM - Allows psychologists to test abilities of infants and animals; measure subject’s arousal to see if a change occurs when pattern or sound changes  If animal or infant dishabituates to a change, they can detect the change; if the animal or infant does not dishabituate to a change in stimuli, they do not detect the change CONTROLLED VS AUTOMATIC PROCESSING 1. Automatic processing – requires no conscious control 2. Controlled processing – requires conscious control AUTOMIZATION: TWO EXPLANATIONS 1. 2. - Integrated components theory (Anderson) Practice leads to integration; less and less attention is needed Instance theory (Logan) Retrieve from memory specific answers, skipping the procedure; thus less attention is needed EFFECTS OF AUTOMATIZATION - PRACTICE ON Negative-acceleration curve – rate of learning slows as amount of learning increases STROOP EFFECT - Say the color of the words are printed in as quickly as you can Reading interferes with your ability to state the color, and your reaction time is slower CONSCIOUSNESS - The Consciousness of Mental Processes People have good conscious access to their complex information processes. Second view is that people’s access to their complex mental processes is not very good (e.g., Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). In this view, people may think they know how they solve complex problems, but their thoughts are frequently erroneous Preconscious processing - Information that is available for cognitive processing but that currently lies outside conscious awareness  Priming, TOT phenomenon, blindsight 1. Priming can speed or slow down processing - Facilitative priming (target stimuli – BUTTER) are processed faster if preceded by a related word (BREAD) - Negative priming effect (target stimuli – PINE) processed slower if preceded by a word related to target’s alternate meaning (PALM relating to hand) 2. Tip-of-the-Tongue Experiences (TOT) - You know you know the word, but you cannot fully retrieve the word; paradigms used to generate TOT  Show pictures of famous people or politicians and have participants name them  Ask general knowledge questions to generate TOTs 3. Blindsight - Person cannot consciously see a certain portion of their visual field but still behave in some instances as if they can see it - Being aware of doing something is distinguishable from doing something IMPLICIT VS. EXPLICIT MEMORY TASKS 1. Explicit Memory - Participants engage in conscious recollection. Ex. They might recall recognize words, facts, or pictures from a particular prior set of items.