Descriptive of how attention plays a role in everyday human function

1. ATTENTION AND HUMAN
FUNCTION
HENRY KAZADI MWANZA
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2. INTRODUCTION
 Attention is a psychological process that we apply in
our everyday lives.
 Attention does not refer to the implied aspect of
concentrating on a particular task.
 It refers to a process in which an individual takes
possession of information in a progressive manner
that allows for its storage and retention.
 Attention can be understood as part of the
perceptual processes and also as part of the
memory.
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3. INTRODUCTION
 James,; defines attention as “taking possession of the
mind in clear, vivid form out of what seems several
simultaneously possible objects or trains of
thoughts” (1890;P,403).
 Our environment is ever dominated with different
simultaneous stimuli and there is need to focus on
the stimuli both in perception and cognition.
 Human communication system has a limited capacity
to process all the stimuli in the environment.
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4. INTRODUCTION
 The human communication selects what to attend to and
focus attention to.
 Selective attention is a situation in which individuals try
to attend to only one source of information while
ignoring other stimuli (Eysenck & Keane, 2010).
 a situation in which two
 Divided Attention is when two tasks are performed at the
same time.
 Attention has being categorized to occur at two levels;
consciously and unconsciously.
 Bourguignon (2000), Consciousness refers to the feeling
of awareness and the content of awareness.
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5. INTRODUCTION
 Unconsciousness is the feeling of not being
aware of the content or the focus of attention.
 Attention has also being classified as active
and passive.
 Active attention occurs in a top down way
which is controlled by the individual’s goals
 while passive attention occurs in a bottom-up
approach in which it is controlled by the
stimuli.
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6. THEORIES OF ATTENTION
BROADBENT’s FILTER THEORY
 Humans have a sensory buffer that allows only one
sensory stimulus at a time even when two stimuli are
presented simultaneously.
 The theory suggests that attention is as a result of a
limited capacity of the information processing
system, which occurs through the sensory buffer
(filter).
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7. THEORIES OF ATTENTION
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8. THEORIES OF ATTENTION
 The theory suggest that focus on a particular stimuli
occurs via the sensory system is that processes
stimuli with highlighted physical features holding
back the other stimuli for later processing.
 It is assumed that the filter operates on a pre-
categorical stage whereby the information is
attended to before assigning any mental category or
meaning.
 sensory stimulation is gathered through a parallel
model while the interpretation and processing occurs
in a serial model.
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9. THEORIES OF ATTENTION
ATTENUATION THEORY (TRIESMANN)
 Suggests that irrelevant or unattended information is not
completely filtered out.
 The strength of the information is the one that
determines its processing (attenuation).
 Messages differ in “subjective loudness”
 Attention modulates subjective loudness: attended
channel is louder
 Individual words have different thresholds of subjective
loudness to be noticed e.g. the cocktail phenemonon.
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10. THEORIES OF ATTENTION
LATE SELECTION THEORY (Deutsch & Deutsch)
 This holds that all information is being processed at
same level, but Selection occurs late in processing
(after information enters STM).
 Listeners can access the meaning of unattended
information.
 The limitation is in the response system, not the
perception, e.g. When we have auditory and visual
stimuli we can process both but only respond to one.
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11. AUTOMATIC ATTENTION
 Automatic attention is defined as effortless,
unconscious & involuntary processing of information
which proceeds without our conscious awareness
(Posner, 1978).
 This does not entail that the person is not aware of
what they are doing but it simply means that a
person does not need to think about the process in
order to perform a task.
 Automatic attention does not just become automatic
in the literally sense but it involves practice and
association of information.
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12. AUTOMATIC ATTENTION
 The early process of attention involves the conscious
awareness before it becomes unconscious.
 Automatic attention involves practice and association of
information that enables the creation of a cognitive map
for the information.
 Automatic processing has a direct link with memory
because in order for someone to be able to perform a
task.
 Logan (1988), suggested that automatization occurs
because we gradually accumulate knowledge about
specific responses to specific stimuli.
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13. AUTOMATIC ATTENTION
• Automatic processes occur in no particular sequence
because they involve less of control and conscious
awareness.
• Automatic attention is termed as a parallel processes.
• Automatic attention has three attributes that
characterize any automatic process these are (Posner &
Snyder, 1975);
1. Not part of consciousness,
2.Unintentional
3. Consumer few resources
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14. AUTOMATIC ATTENTION
 Practice reduces the need for attention by reducing
central cognition, making a task automatic.
 Controlled processes require intentional efforts,
conscious awareness and also sequencing.
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15. VISUAL ATTENTION
 Yantis (2008), Human visual attention system can
divided into two systems which is; voluntary (goal-
directed) and also involuntary (stimulus-driven).
 Visual attention is either driven by our interest or the
attraction of the stimulus.
 The goal directed system is based on expectations,
knowledge and current goals.
 Stimulus driven is based on unexpected, potentially
important stimulus which redirects the focus of
attention.
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16. VISUAL ATTENTION
 Goal directed system has being linked to the
operation of a spotlight in the sense that visual
attention highlights only a small part of the visual
space.
• visual attention can be object- or location-based, and
can be used flexibly.
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17. VISUAL ATTENTION
Visual Search
 visual search is a task involving the rapid detection of a
specified target stimulus within a visual display.
 Feature integration theory, suggests that features of an
object are processed in a parallel model and then
combined by focused attention.
 This theory makes a distinction between the features of
objects (e.g. colour, size, lines in particular orientation)
and the objects themselves.
 The visual features of objects in the environment are
processed together; this does not depend on attention.
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18. VISUAL ATTENTION
 Feature combination can be influenced by stored
knowledge.
 Feature integration theory assumes that lack of
focused attention can produce illusory conjunctions
(random combinations of features).
 Visual attention is processed in the visual cortex.
 Neglect (unilateral neglect), is a condition in which
there is a lack of awareness of stimuli presented to
the side of space on the opposite side of the brain.
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19. VISUAL ATTENTION
 The brain damage is in the right hemisphere and
there is little awareness of stimuli on the left side of
the visual field.
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20. CONCLUSION
 Attention can both be perceptual and memory
oriented.
 Human attention accounts for the acquisition
of information and knowledge.
 Attention is performed both consciously and
unconsciously through the different human
senses.
 Human attention occurs in an integrated
fashion of all the senses.
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21. REFERENCES
 James, W. (1890). Principles of psychology. New York: Holt.
 Logan, G.D. (1988). Toward an instance theory of
automatization. Psychological Review, 95, 492 – 527.
 Micheal W. Eysenck & Mark T. Keane. (2010) Cognitive
Psychology 6th Students Handbook. NewYork: Pyschology
Press
 Yantis, S. (2008). The neural basis of selective attention:
Cortical sources and targets of attentional modulation.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 86 – 90.
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