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Unit 3: Cognitive Psychology Attention Spring 2010 Lecture 8

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Learning outcomes <ul><li>On completion of the module you will be able to: </li></ul><ul><li>Demonstrate an understanding of empirical research and theories in: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Developmental Psychology </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Abnormal Psychology </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Cognitive Psychology </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Demonstrate an ability to present, explain and summarise information. </li></ul>

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The module team <ul><li>Module Lecturers </li></ul><ul><li>Simon Bignell : Room N208; Telephone: 01332 593043; email: s.bignell@derby.ac.uk (Module Leader) </li></ul><ul><li>Anna Maria DiBetta : Room N208; Telephone: 01332 593080; email: a.di-betta@derby.ac.uk </li></ul><ul><li>Lovemore Nyatanga: Room N204a; Telephone: 01332 593057; email: l.nyatanga@derby.ac.uk </li></ul><ul><li> </li></ul><ul><li>Module Seminar Leaders </li></ul><ul><li>Above plus the following Post-Graduate Teaching Assistants </li></ul><ul><li>Atiya Kamal : Room N302; email: a.kamal@derby.ac.uk </li></ul><ul><li>Lauren Kelly : Room N302; email: l.kelly2@derby.ac.uk </li></ul>

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Recommended textbooks <ul><li>Passer, M, Smith, R., Holt, N., Bremmer, A., Sutherland, E. and Vliek, M. (2008). Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour, London: McGraw Hill. </li></ul><ul><li>For Unit 3: Chapters 5, 12 & 17. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Pages 201-203, 550-551 & 831 </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Additional / Alternative texts: </li></ul><ul><li>Eysenck, M. W., & Keane, M. T. (2010). Cognitive Psychology. A student's handbook. 6th edition. Hove: Psychology Press. (or 5th Edition) </li></ul>

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Components of the module <ul><li>Unit 3: Cognitive Psychology: </li></ul><ul><li>Attention (SB) </li></ul><ul><li>Perception (AMD) </li></ul><ul><li>Memory (AMD ) </li></ul><ul><li>Language (AMD) </li></ul>

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What is Cognitive Psychology <ul><li>Cognitive Psychology : is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn. </li></ul>As part of the larger field of cognitive science, this branch of psychology is related to other disciplines including neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics.

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Attention Topics <ul><li>The Role of Attention </li></ul><ul><li>Visual Attention </li></ul><ul><li>Auditory Attention </li></ul><ul><li>Theories of Selective Attention </li></ul><ul><li>Everyday & Clinical problems of Attention. </li></ul>

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The Role of Attention <ul><li>Sternberg (1999): ‘Attention acts as a means of focusing limited mental resources on the information and cognitive processes that are most salient at a given moment’. </li></ul><ul><li>Attention is a mental process that requires mental resources to direct and focus mental processes </li></ul><ul><li>These mental resources are limited; the more attention one tasks requires the less available for performing others </li></ul>

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The Role of Attention <ul><li>“ Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession of the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalisation, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence.” </li></ul><ul><li>James (1890), pp 403-404. </li></ul>

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The Role of Attention <ul><li>Focused attention - ability to respond to specific visual, auditory or tactile stimuli in a discrete manner. </li></ul><ul><li>Sustained attention - ability to maintain a consistent behavioral response during continuous and repetitive activity. </li></ul><ul><li>Divided attention - paying attention to more than one thing at one time. This ability is limited, which has an impact on how much we can process at once </li></ul><ul><li>Selective attention - focusing on specific objects and filtering out others. The ability to attend to one source of information while ignoring or excluding ongoing messages around us. </li></ul>

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The Role of Attention <ul><li>Inattentional Blindness: a stimulus is not perceived even when the person is looking directly at it (e.g. Simons and Chabris) </li></ul><ul><li>Change Blindness: difficulty in detecting changes in scenes </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Cannot take in all visual information at once. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Therefore shift attention around environment to focus on important sources of information. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>‘ Spotlight’ metaphor </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Attention is like a spotlight which moves about and allows us to selectively attend to parts of the visual world. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Michael Posner (1980) suggested that enhanced processing/detection occurs within this ‘spotlight’. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>So attention is directed towards ‘space’ according to the spotlight model. It is a space-based model of attention. </li></ul>Visual Attention

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Pop-out (texture) + V V V V V V V V V V V T V V V V V

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Pop-out (more texture) + V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V T

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Pop-out (harder texture) + V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V Y

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Pop-out (color) + V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V

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Pop-out (color + texture) + T V V V V V V V V V T V V V V V T V V T V T V V V T T T V T V

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Pop-out (layout) + T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T

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Visual Pop-Out: RT does not increase with Display Size Find the blue “S” <ul><li>Easy: </li></ul><ul><li>X T X T X T S X T X X X T T X T </li></ul><ul><li>Just as Easy: </li></ul><ul><li>X T X T T T X T </li></ul><ul><li>X T X X T X T T </li></ul><ul><li>T X S T X X T X </li></ul><ul><li>X X T X T X T X </li></ul><ul><li>T X T T X T X T </li></ul>

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No Visual Pop-Out: RT increases with Display Size Find the green “T” <ul><li>Hard: </li></ul><ul><li>X T X T </li></ul><ul><li>X T T X </li></ul><ul><li>T X X X </li></ul><ul><li>T T X T </li></ul><ul><li>Even Harder: </li></ul><ul><li>X T X T T T X T </li></ul><ul><li>X T X X T X T T </li></ul><ul><li>T X X T X T T X </li></ul><ul><li>X X T X T X T X </li></ul><ul><li>T X T T X T X T </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Attentional shifts from one target to another can be achieved: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Overtly : overt movement of head and/or eyes </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Covertly : internal shift of attention, in conditions where there is no time for eye movements. </li></ul></ul>Visual Attention

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Auditory Attention <ul><li>In contrast to visual attention (where you are looking), auditory information is received simultaneously. </li></ul><ul><li>Need to focus on information that is important and ignore information that is not important - listen selectively. </li></ul><ul><li>Auditory attention “filters” information. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Illustrated by the Cocktail Party Effect (Cherry, 1953): </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Ability to listen selectively to one conversation during a party while ignoring the noise going on around you . </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Imagine you are talking to some people at a party. Suddenly someone says your name in another part of the room. </li></ul><ul><li>You are able to immediately detect this, and switch your attention to that part of the room. </li></ul>Auditory Attention

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<ul><li>Dichotic listening task : </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Different messages are presented to each of a participant’s ears </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>S/he is asked to shadow or repeat one of the messages ‘on-line’ </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Questions about the message in the un attended ear. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Only the physical characteristics of unattended message could be reported, e.g. gender of voice (Cherry, 1953). </li></ul>Auditory Attention

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Demonstrating Selective Attention <ul><li>Only read the words in capitals: </li></ul><ul><li>IT what is IS most QUITE surprising AMAZING is that HOW not only PEOPLE can ARE you ABLE focus TO attention SELECTIVELY on FOCUS one of THEIR the messages ATTENTION but ON you PARTICULAR are SOURCES completely OF unaware INFORMATION of AND the IGNORE other one OTHERS. </li></ul>

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Theories of Selective Attention <ul><ul><li>1. Early Selective Attention, ‘Filter theory’ (Broadbent, 1958) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>2. Attenuation theory (Treisman, 1960) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>3. Late-selection theory (Deutsch & Deutsch, 1963) </li></ul></ul>

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Theories of Selective Attention <ul><li>1. Different sources of information detected and filtered early . </li></ul><ul><li>2. Different sources of information detected and some sources attenuated . </li></ul><ul><li>3. No filtering, but conscious selection between alternatives. </li></ul>

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1. Early Selective Attention (Broadbent, 1958) <ul><li>Filter is bottleneck that prevents system exceeding capacity by blocking some input. </li></ul>Filter based on physical characteristics of signal: location of source; pitch; loudness; speed. Only filtered material is analysed for meaning.

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<ul><li>In Broadbent’s view, the auditory mechanism acts as a selective filter; regardless of how many competing channels or messages are coming in. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>The filter can be tuned, or switched, to any one of the messages, based on characteristics such as loudness or pitch. </li></ul></ul>1. Early Selective Attention (Broadbent, 1958)

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2. Attenuation theory (Treisman, 1960) <ul><li>Input processed in terms of physical and linguistic properties and meaning. </li></ul><ul><li>Some inputs are attenuated (or backgrounded). </li></ul><ul><li>Some aspects of meaning (i.e. words that have high subjective importance) are easily attended to in attenuated messages. </li></ul>

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2. Attenuation theory (Treisman, 1960) <ul><li>Treisman rejected the ‘early selection’ notion embodied in Broadbent’s theory. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>She claimed that all incoming messages receive some amount of low-level analysis, including the analysis of the physical characteristics of the message. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>When the unattended messages yield no useful or important information, those messages are attenuated ; they are weakened in their importance to ongoing processing. </li></ul></ul>

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3. Late selection theory (Deutsch & Deutsch, 1963) <ul><li>Rejects assumption that limited capacity processor needs a filter. </li></ul><ul><li>Selection for action rather than selection for attention. </li></ul>Sensory inputs are processed completely & analysed in terms of current importance. Important inputs are consciously “perceived”.

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A Disorder of Attention: Hemineglect <ul><li>Hemineglect : A disruption or decreased ability to look at something in the (often) left field of vision and pay attention to it. </li></ul><ul><li>Thus, hemineglect is a disorder of attention in which one half of the perceptual world is neglected to some degree and cannot be attended to as completely or accurately as normal. </li></ul>

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Drawings copied by a patient with contralateral neglect

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Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder Impulsiveness Inattention Combined type Hyperactive- Impulsive type Inattentive type Hyperactivity 61% 30% 9%

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<ul><li>Problems with response inhibition </li></ul><ul><li>Hyperactivity/Impulsivity </li></ul><ul><ul><li>poor self-monitored behaviour. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>always ‘on the go’, fidget, restless. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>cannot sit still, doesn’t wait for others. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Impatient, always talking, difficulty delaying responses. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Inattention </li></ul><ul><ul><li>chronic problems with sustained attention. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>poor concentration and attention to detail. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>does not settle to anything, completing things. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>poor ability to organise activities or to engage in tedious activities, or tasks requiring sustained mental effort. </li></ul></ul>Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder

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Summary <ul><li>The Role of Attention </li></ul><ul><li>Visual Attention </li></ul><ul><li>Auditory Attention </li></ul><ul><li>Theories of Selective Attention </li></ul><ul><li>Everyday & Clinical problems of Attention. </li></ul>