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Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Chapter 4: Attention and Consciousness
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Attention Is…
• The concentration of mental energy that must be used to process incoming information– Selective
– Limited
– Both conscious and preconscious
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Preconscious Attention
• Items that lie outside our conscious awareness, some may be made conscious, some not
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
PrimingBREAD
BUTTER
• How quickly do you process the second word?
• Faster if you have been primed with a related word.
NURSE
DOCTOR
CAT
DOG
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Marcel (1983)
Condition Subliminally Present Prime
Consciously Present Prime
Prime PALM PALM
Mask XXXX
Target PINE OR WRIST PINE OR WRIST
Response Body part or Plant? Body Part or Plant?
Reaction time How fast? How fast?
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Marcel’s Procedure with Participants
PALM PALMXXXXPINE PINE
It’s a Plant. Umm, It’s a Plant.
Subliminal Condition Conscious Condition
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Marcel (1983) ResultsCondition Subliminally
Present Prime
Consciously Present Prime
Targets:PINE or WRIST
Found faster RT for both target words
Found faster RT for one of two target words, slower RT for the other target
Interpretation Both meanings were primed
Only one meaning is primed, the other inhibited
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Priming Can Speed or Slow Processing
• Facilitative Priming– Target stimuli (e.g., BUTTER) are
processed faster if preceded by a related word (e.g., BREAD)
• Negative Priming Effect– Target stimuli (e.g., PINE) is processed
slower if preceded by a word related to target’s alternate meaning (PALM relating to hand)
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Bowers, Regehr, Balthazard & Parker (1990)
Triad A Triad B
Basket Swan
Room Army
Foot Mask
Which of these triads is coherent?
What is the 4th word that ties them together?
BALL
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Bowers (et.al.) Results
• Even if participants could not generate the 4th word, they still selected the coherent triad
• Results demonstrate preconscious processing
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Tip-of-the-Tongue Experiences (TOT)
• You know you know the word but you cannot fully retrieve the word
• Paradigms used to generate TOT states– Show pictures of famous people or
politicians and have participants name them
– Ask general knowledge questions to generate TOTs
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
TOT Demonstration
• What is the name of Dagwood Bumstead’s dog?
• Who wrote Paradise Lost?
• What is a wheeled hospital cart called?
• Do any of these questions put the answer on the tip of your tongue?
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
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
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Controlled vs. Automatic Processing
• Automatic processing– Requires no conscious control
• Controlled processing – Requires conscious control
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Is Typing Automatic or Controlled for You?
• Do you type without thinking where your fingers are? Are you a search-and-peck typer?
• If you do type without using attention, what happens when you think about the letters as you are typing them?
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Automatization - Two Explanations
• 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
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Effect of Practice on Automatization
• Rate of learning slows as amount of learning increases
Negative- Acceleration Curve
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
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
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
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, suddenly owner notices the clock isn’t chiming
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Habituation/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 is changed – If animal or infant dishabituates to a change,
then they can detect the change– If the animal or infant does not dishabituate to a
change in stimuli, they did not detect the change
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Functions of Conscious Attention
• Signal Detection
• Searching
• Selective Attention
• Divided Attention
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Signal Detection Theory (SDT)
Present Absent
Present HitFalse Alarm
Absent MissCorrect
Rejection
Decision
Signal
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
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
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Search
• Actively searching for a target
• Number of targets and distracters influence accuracy
• Feature search versus conjunctive search
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Conjunctive vs. Feature Search
L L L L L L L
L L L L L L L
L L L L T L L
L L L L L L L
L L L L L L L
L L L L L L L
L O L L L L L
L L L L L L L
Which box is it easier to detect a letter that is different?
The box on top is a feature search
The box on the bottom is a conjunction search
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Treisman’s Feature-Integration Theory
• 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.
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Another Feature Search
T
T
T
TT
TT
Is there a red T in the Display?
T
T
Target is defined by a single feature
According to featureintegration theory the Target should “pop out”
No attention required
T
T
T
T T
TT
T
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Another Conjunction Search
X
T
T
X
T T
TIs there a red T in the Display?
X
XTarget 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
X
XT
XTT
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Similarity Theory
• Disagrees with Treisman’s FIT theory
• Similarity between targets and distracters is important; not number of features to be combined– The more shared features among items in
display, the more difficult to detect a particular target
• Some findings cannot be explained by FIT
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Guided Search
• Cave and Wolf (1990)
• All searches have 2 phases– Parallel phase
– Serial stage
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Selectivity of Attention
• Cocktail Party Problem– How are we able to follow one
conversation in the presence of other conversations?
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Cherry’s Shadowing Technique
The lawyer defended his client as the trial began. He was able
The doctor went to the park to find the homeless man. He was
…..The doctor went to the park…..
Listen to two different conversations and repeat one of the messages, may be binaural or dichotic
Attended Ear Unattended Ear
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Cherry’s Study Results
• 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
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Models of Selective Attention
• Do they have a filter?
• Where does the filter occur?
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Broadbent’s Model
LongTerm Memory
WorkingMemory
SensoryFilter
Sensory Stores
• Only one sensory channel is allowed to proceed• Stimuli filtered at sensory level
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Broadbent’s Model Could Not Explain
• Participant’s name gets through
• Participants can shadow meaningful messages 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)
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Treisman Attenuation Model
LongTerm Memory
WorkingMemory
Attenuation of Unattended
Sensory Stores
Filter weakens the strength of unattended information. Arrow colors represent different levels of strength
If arrow reaches circle, info will be activated in working memory
Note some circles are closer due to different thresholds of information
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Late Selection Theory
LongTerm Memory
WorkingMemory
Sensory Stores
All stimuli is processed to the level ofmeaning; relevance determines furtherProcessing and actionDeutsch & Deutsch (1963)
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Multimode Theory
• Johnston & Heinz (1978)
• Difficulty of a task is determined by when the selection takes place
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Neisser’s Synthesis
• Preattentive Processes– Parallel
– Note physical characteristics
• Attentive Processes– Controlled processes occur serially
– Occur in working memory
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Attentional-Resource Theories
• Model A represents Kahneman (1973) model
• Model B represents individual pools for each modality
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Stroop Effectredyellowgreenblueredblueyellowgreenbluered
Say the color the words are printed in as quickly as you can
What errors do you make?
Reading interferes with your ability to state the color and your reaction time is slower
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Divided Attention
• How many tasks can you do at once? – e.g. driving & talking, radio, phone...
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Dual Task Paradigm
• Task 1 may require a verbal response to an auditory stimulus
• Task 2 may require a participant to push a button in response to a visual stimulus.
• Results indicate that responses to the second task are delayed
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Real Life Dual Task
• Driving and– Cell phones
– Adjusting 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
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Strayer & Drews (2007)
• Naturalistic Observation of cell phone use and driver behavior
Failed to stop
Stopped properly
On Cell Phone 82 28
No Cell Phone 352 1286
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Strayer & Drews (2007) Results
• Impact of hands free cell phone conversations on simulated driving:
– Cell-phone conversation led to inattentional-blindness
– Even if they looked at an object, participant did not remember the object
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Complex Mental Processes
• Access to conscious Mental Processes– Some say we do (Ericsson & Simon)
– Some say we do not (Nisbett & Wilson)
• Evidence on both sides:– Protocol analysis
– Change Blindness
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
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
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Spatial Neglect
• Lesion on one side of brain causes person to ignore half of their visual field
Cognitive Psychology, Fifth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 4
Posner & Attention
• Two attention systems; two functions– Anterior frontal lobe system
• Tasks requiring awareness (planning or writing)
– Posterior parietal lobe system• Tasks involving visuospatial abilities
(playing Tetris, vigilance tasks)