Reviewer Chapter 4 - Summary Cognitive Psychology PDF

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[Attention] 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 thoughts. ... It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.—William James, Principles of PsychologyAttention - is...

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- as when we are involved in a conversation at a party. [Attention] 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 thoughts. … It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.

4. Divided attention: We prudently allocate our available attentional resources to coordinate our performance of more than one task at a time, - as when we are cooking and engaged in a phone conversation at the same time.

—William James, Principles of Psychology

Signal Detection: Finding Important Stimuli in a Crowd Attention - is the means by which we actively process a limited amount of information from the enormous amount of information available through our senses, our stored memories, and our other cognitive processes. It includes both conscious and unconscious processes. - Attention allows us to use our limited mental resources judiciously. By dimming the lights on many stimuli from outside (sensations) and inside (thoughts and memories), we can highlight the stimuli that interest us. Consciousness includes both the feeling of awareness and the content of awareness, some of which may be under the focus of attention

Signal-detection theory (SDT) is a framework to explain how people pick out the few important stimuli when they are embedded in a wealth of irrelevant, distracting stimuli. - SDT often is used to measure sensitivity to a presence. Four possible outcomes: - Hits or “true positives” (correctly identifies the presence of a target) - False alarms or “false positives” (incorrectly identifies the presence of a target that is actually absent) - misses or “false negatives” (fails to observe presence of a target)

* Therefore, attention and consciousness form two partially overlapping sets. Conscious attention serves three purposes in playing a causal role for cognition:

target’s

the

- correct rejections or “true negatives” (correctly identifies the absence of a target Sensitivity is measured in terms of hits minus false alarms.

1. it helps in monitoring our interactions with the environment.

Signal-detection theory perception, or memory:

in the context of attention,

- Through such monitoring, we maintain our awareness of how well we are adapting to the situation in which we find ourselves.

• attention—paying enough attention to perceive objects that are there

2. it assists us in linking our past (memories) and our present (sensations) to give us a sense of continuity of experience.

• perception—perceiving faint signals that may or may not be beyond your perceptual range (such as a very high-pitched tone) • memory—indicating whether you have/have not been exposed to a stimulus before, such as whether the word “champagne” appeared on a list that was to be memorized.

- Such continuity may even serve as the basis for personal identity. 3. it helps us in controlling and planning for our future actions. - We can do so based on the information from monitoring and from the links between past memories and present sensations.

Vigilance: Waiting to Detect a Signal Vigilance - refers to a person’s ability to attend to a field of stimulation over a prolonged period, during which the person seeks to detect the appearance of a particular target stimulus of interest.

Attention Neuroscience and Vigilance Four main functions of attention: 1. Signal detection and vigilance: We try to detect the appearance of a particular stimulus. - Air traffic controllers, for example, keep an eye on traffic near and over the airport. 2. Search: We try to find a signal amidst distracters, - for example, when we are looking for our lost cell phone on an autumn leaf-filled hiking path.

all

Increased vigilance is seen in cases where e motional stimuli are used (e.g., when somebody is confronted with a threatening stimulus). - The amygdala plays a pivotal role in the recognition of emotional stimuli. Thus, the amygdala appears to be an important brain structure in the regulation of vigilance. - The thalamus is involved in vigilance as well.

3. Selective attention: We choose to attend to some stimuli and ignore others,

Two specific activation states: - burst state is the result of relative hyperpolarization of the resting membrane potential - tonic state results from relative depolarization

The more difficult a search task was, the more the occipitotemporal cortex was activated in younger adults but not in older adults.

Search: Actively Looking Search - refers to a scan of the environment for particular features—actively looking for something when you are not sure where it will appear. Distracters - nontarget stimuli that divert our attention away from the target stimulus. *false alarms usually arise when we encounter distracters while searching for the target stimulus

such

Display size is the number of items in a given visual array. The display-size effect is the degree to which the number of items in a display hinders (slows down) the search process. Feature search - in which we simply scan the environment for that feature. Featural singletons - which are items with distinctive features, stand out in the display. Conjunction search - we look for a particular combination (conjunction— joining together) of features. 3 theories of search processes: Feature-integration theory explains the relative ease of conducting feature searches and the relative difficulty of conducting conjunction searches.

Selective Attention Cocktail party problem (Colin Cherry) - the process of tracking one conversation in the face of the distraction of other conversations. *shadowing, you listen to two different

messages

*separate message to each ear, known as dichotic presentation (dichotic-listening tasks) *you are to follow one message (think of a detective “shadowing” a suspect) but ignore the other Three factors help you to selectively attend only to the message of the target speaker to whom you wish to listen: 1. Distinctive sensory characteristics of the target’s speech. (Examples of such characteristics are high versus low pitch, pacing, and rhythmicity) 2. Sound intensity (loudness). 3. Location of the sound source

*Treisman’s model Similarity theory - the data are a result of the fact that as the similarity between target and distracter stimuli increases, so does the difficulty in detecting the target stimuli. *Targets that are highly disparate from are relatively easy to detect.

The older adults seem to have this brain region activated at a higher level even during easier search tasks, apparently trying to compensate for the age-related decline; but they did not recruit other brain regions outside the visual pathways to compensate for age-related decline.

distracters

Theories of Selective Attention: A filter blocks some of the information going through and thereby selects only a part of the total of information to pass through to the next stage. A bottleneck slows down information passing through.

Guided-search model (theory) - suggests that all searches, whether feature searches or conjunction searches, involve two consecutive stages: 1. Parallel stage: the individual simultaneously activates a mental representation of all the potential targets (The representation is based on the simultaneous activation of each of the features of the target). 2. serial stage: the individual sequentially evaluates each of the activated elements, according to the degree of activation. Then, the person chooses the true targets from the activated elements. * According to this model, the activation process of the parallel initial stage helps to guide the evaluation and selection process of the serial second stage of the search. Neuroscience: Aging and Visual Search Older adults’ cortical volume was lower than that of the younger adults, which is consistent with an approximate decline in volume of 2% per decade. The most difficult search (conjunction search) led to activation in the dorsal and ventral visual pathways as well as the prefrontal cortex in both young and older adults.

Broadbent’s Model According to one of the earliest theories of attention, we filter information right after we notice it at the sensory level. Multiple channels of sensory input reach an attentional filter. Those channels can be distinguished by their characteristics like loudness, pitch, or accent. The filter permits only one channel of sensory information to proceed and reach the processes of perception. We thereby assign meaning to our sensations. Other stimuli will be filtered out at the sensory level and may never reach the level of perception. Selective Filter Model Moray found that even when participants ignore most other high-level (e.g., semantic) aspects of an unattended message, they frequently still recognize their names in an unattended ear. The reason for this effect is that messages that are of high importance to a person may break through the filter of selective attention. But other messages may not.

To modify Broadbent’s metaphor, according to Moray, the selective filter blocks out most information at the sensory

Although there was less activation in the right occipital cortex in older adults, the activation was about the same in both age groups in the prefrontal and superior parietal regions.

level. But some personally important messages are so powerful that they burst through the filtering mechanism.

Attenuation Model (Anne Treisman) Her findings suggested that at least some information about unattended signals is being analyzed. Treisman proposed a theory of selective attention that involves a later filtering mechanism. Instead of blocking stimuli out, the filter merely weakens (attenuates) the strength of stimuli other than the target stimulus. So when the stimuli reach us, we analyze them at a low level for target properties like loudness and pitch. If the stimuli possess those target properties, we pass the signal on to the next stage; if they do not possess those target properties, we pass on a weakened version of the stimulus. In a next step, we perceptually analyze the meaning of the stimuli and their relevance to us, so that even a message from the unattended ear that is supposedly irrelevant can come into consciousness and influence our subsequent actions if it has some meaning for us.

- If a target stimulus appears in an attended region of the visual field, the occipital P1 (a wave of positive polarity) is larger than when the target appears in an unattended region. The P1 effect also occurs when participants’ attention is drawn to a particular location by a sensory cue, and the target subsequently appears in just that location. If the interval between the appearance of the cue and the target is very small, the P1 wave is enlarged and the reaction time is faster than for targets that appear with a significant delay after the cue. In fact, a delay between cue and target can even lead to a delay in reaction time and decreased size of P1 wave. Divided Attention Anytime you are engaged in two or more tasks at the same time, your attention is divided between those tasks. Theories of Divided Attention Two different kinds:

Late-Filter Model Deutsch and Deutsch (1963; Norman, 1968) developed a model in which the location of the filter is even later. They suggested that stimuli are filtered out only after they have been analyzed for both their physical properties and their meaning.

1. there is one single pool of attentional resources that can be divided freely 2. there are multiple sources of attention (a) the system has a single pool of resources that can be divided up, say, among multiple tasks

This later filtering would allow people to recognize information entering the unattended ear. Note that proponents of both the early and the late-filtering mechanisms propose that there is an attentional bottleneck through which only a single source of information can pass.

(b) model that allows for attentional resources to be specific to a given modality

A Synthesis of Early-Filter and Late-Filter Models Ulric Neisser synthesized the early-filter and the late-filter models and proposed that there are two processes governing attention:

Attentional resources may involve either a single pool or a multiplicity of modality-specific pools. Although the attentional resources theory has been criticized for its imprecision, it seems to complement filter theories in explaining some aspects of attention.

• Preattentive processes: These automatic processes are rapid and occur in parallel. They can be used to notice only physical sensory characteristics of the unattended message. But they do not discern meaning or relationships.

Filter and bottleneck theories of attention seem to be more suitable metaphors for competing tasks that appear to be attentionally incompatible, like selective-attention tasks or simple divided-attention tasks.

• Attentive, controlled processes: These processes occur later. They are executed serially and consume time and attentional resources, such as working memory. They also can be used to observe relationships among features. They serve to synthesize fragments into a mental representation of an object.

Resource theory seems to be a better metaphor for explaining phenomena of divided attention on complex tasks. In these tasks, practice effects may be observed.

Neuroscience and Selective Attention Event-related potentials (ERPs) (Hillyard) - When the target stimuli occurred in the attended ear, the first negative component of the ERP was larger than when the target occurred in the unattended ear. N1 is a negative wave that appears about 90 milliseconds after the onset of the target stimulus. The researchers hypothesized that the N1 wave was a result of the enhancement of the target stimulus. At the same time, there was a suppression of the other stimuli. This result is consistent with filter theories. - Later studies (Woldorff & Hillyard, 1991) found an even earlier reaction to the target stimulus in the form of a positive

According to this metaphor, as each of the complex tasks becomes increasingly automatized, performance of each task makes fewer demands on limited-capacity attentional resources. Additionally, for explaining search related phenomena, theories specific to visual search (e.g., models proposing guided search or similarity seem to have stronger explanatory power than do filter or resource theories. However, these two kinds of theories are not altogether incompatible. Although the findings from research on visual search do not conflict with filter or resource theories, the task-specific theories more specifically describe the processes at work during visual search. Divided Attention in Everyday Life - Single task condition - Dual task condition Factors That Influence Our Ability to Pay Attention:

wave that occurs about 20–50 milliseconds after the onset of a target. The wave originates in the Heschl’s gyri, which are located in the auditory cortex.

• Anxiety: Being anxious, either by nature (trait-based anxiety) or by situation (state-based anxiety), places constraints on attention

• Arousal: Your overall state of arousal affects attention as well. You may be tired, drowsy, or drugged, which may limit attention. Being excited sometimes enhances attention • Task difficulty: If you are working on a task that is very difficult or novel for you, you’ll need more attentional resources than when you work on an easy or highly familiar task. Task difficulty particularly influences performance during divided attention. • Skills: The more practiced and skilled you are in performing a task, the more your attention is enhanced. Neuroscience and Attention: A Network Model According to Michael Posner, the attentional system in the brain “is neither a property of a single brain area nor of the entire brain” Three subfunctions of attention: Alerting: Alerting is defined as being prepared to attend to some incoming event, and maintaining this attention. Alerting also includes the process of getting to this state of preparedness. The brain areas involved in alerting are the right frontal and parietal cortexes as well as the locus coeruleus. The neurotransmitter norepinephrine is involved in the maintenance of alertness. If the alerting system does not work properly, people develop symptoms of ADHD; in the process of regular aging, dysfunctions of the alerting system may develop as well. Orienting: Orienting is defined as the selection of stimuli to attend to. This kind of attention is needed when we perform a visual search. You may be able to observe this process by means of a person’s eye movements, but sometimes attention is covert and cannot be observed from the outside. The orienting network develops during the first year of life. The brain areas involved in the orienting function are the superior parietal lobe, the temporal parietal junction, the frontal eye fields, and the superior colliculus. The modulating neurotransmitter for orienting is acetylcholine. Dysfunction within this system can be associated with autism. Executive Attention: Executive attention includes processes for monitoring and resolving conflicts that arise among internal processes. These processes include thoughts, feelings, and responses. The brain areas involved in this final and highest order of attentional process are the anterior cingulate, lateral ventral, and prefrontal cortex as well as the basal ganglia. The neurotransmitter most involved in the executive attention process is dopamine. Dysfunction within this system is associated with Alzheimer’s disease, borderline personality disorder, and schizophrenia. Intelligence and Attention Attention also plays a role in intelligence. Planning, Attention, and Simultaneous–Successive Process Model of Human Cognition (PASS)- one model of intelligence that takes attention into account. Luria’s theory of intelligence-assumes that intelligence consists of an assortment of functional units that are the basis for specific actions. PASS model- there are three distinct processing units and each is associated with specific areas of the brain: arousal and

Arousal and Attention-primarily attributed to the brainstem, diencephalon, and medial cortical regions of the brain. -Arousal is an essential antecedent to selective and divided attention. -Attention always plays a role because people must pay attention to a stimulus and then decide how to react to it. -Inspection time is the amount of time it takes you to inspect items and make a decision about them. The length of time for presentation of the target stimulus after which the participant still responds with at least 90% accuracy. Nettelbeck found that shorter inspection times correlate with higher scores on intelligence tests among differing populations of participants. -Reaction time is the time it takes to select one answer from among several possibilities. One needs to attend in a focused and concentrated way on visual displays. Participants with higher IQs are faster than participants with lower IQs in their choice reaction time (CRT). (Jensen) (speed of the patellar reflex (knee-jerk response) to be significantly correlated with intelligence) When Our Attention Fails Us Attention Deficits have been linked to lesions in the frontal lobe and in the basal ganglia. Visual Attentional Deficits have been linked to the posterior parietal cortex and the thalamus, as well as to areas of the midbrain related to eye movements. Split-brain Patients- the right hemisphere seems to be dominant for maintaining alertness and that the attentional systems involved in visual search seem to be distinct from other aspects of visual attention. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) -...