Divided Attention
the ability to pay attention to, or carry out two or more tasks simultaneously
Selective Attention
the ability to focus on one message while ignoring others
Distraction
When one stimuli interferes with attention or the processing of another stimulus
Attentional Capturing
the rapid shifting in attention, usually caused by a sudden movement, bright light, loud noise
Visual Scanning
movement of the eyes from one location or object to another
Broadbent’s Filter Model
proposes that a filter lets the attended message through and blocks out all or some of the unattended message
- first flow diagram
- explains how we can focus on one message and info isn’t taken in from another
Dichotic Listening
a procedure in which one message is presented to one ear, and another message is presented to the other ear
Shadowing
procedure of repeating a message out loud as it is hard
- used with dichotic listening in studies of selective attention
Colin Cherry Found:
- easily shadow message in attended ear
- knew whether message in unattended ear was a male or female
- did not know what was being said in unattended ear
Cocktail Party Effect
the ability to focus on one stimulus, while filtering out others, especially in a loud party with lots of stimulus and you need to focus on one conversation
Stages of Broadbent’s Model
- Sensory Memory - holds info for a fraction of a second and then sends to the filter
- Filter - identifies physical characteristics of the attended message and then only the attended message passes through to the detector (voice,pitch, speed, accent)
- Detector - analyzes information of the message to determine higher-level characteristics, like meaning
- Transfers to short-term memory which is held for 10-15 seconds
- Sent to Long-Term Memory
Early Selection Model
- selective attention is explained by the filtering out of the unattended message
- filtering occurs before the message is analyzed to determine its meaning
Attenuator Model of Attention
- selective attention occurs in two stages
first stage: Attenuator - analyzes message and lets through the attended message at full strength and the unattended message at a lower (attenuated) strength
*leaky filter model
Attenuator
- Analyzes the message in terms of:
1. Physical Characteristics (pitch, speed)
2. Language (how it groups into syllables or groups)
3. Meaning (how words create meaningful phases)
Dictionary Unit
the processing unit contains stored words and thresholds for activating the words.
- explains why we can sometimes hear a familiar word in uattended message
common words -> low thresholds
uncommon words ->higher thresholds
Study that Led to Late Selection Model
- Presented them with a sentence in one ear
- Presented with a biasing word in unattended ear
- given the choice between two sentences
- THE BIASING WORD INFLUENCED THEIR CHOICE
- even though they were unaware of it
*BECAUSE THE MEANING OF THE WORD INFLUENCED THEIR JUDGEMENT -> IT MUST HAVE BEEN PROCESSED ON THE LEVEL OF MEANING
Late Selection Model
the selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur until after the info in the message has been analyzed
Processing Capacity
the amount of info person can handle. Sets limits on ability to process info
Perceptual Load
relating to the difficulty of the task
How do People Ignore Distracting Stimuli while trying to focus on task?
- Processing Capacity
- Perceptual Load
High Load Task
- uses most of or all of persons processing capacity and leaves little capacity/cog resources for other tasks
Low Load Task
- uses fewer resources/small amount of persons processing capacity so leaves resrouces availible to handle other tasks
Load Theory of Attention
the persons ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli depends on the task the person is carrying out. High load task results in less distraction.
low load task -> more cognitive resources available to process task-irrelevant stimuli
high load task -> uses all of persons cog capacity, do not have resources available to process task irrelevant stimuli
Scanning a Scene
- need to look directly at something to see it in good detail
- central vision - area you are looking at, falls on fovea, more clear
peripheral - off to the side - creates patterns of fixations seperated by saccatic eye movemts
- when viewing something without searching -> eye mvoes 3 times in a second
