PSY475 LECTURE 2

Question 1

What are filter theories of attention?

Answer 1

These theories say that our brains receive more information than we can process, so attention acts like a filter. It chooses what we focus on and what we ignore, helping us deal with only the most important information.

Question 2

What does “selecting a channel of information” mean?

Answer 2

It means focusing on one source of information while ignoring others.

Example: At a loud party, you focus on your friend talking to you instead of all the background noise. This is called the ‘cocktail party effect.’

Question 3

What is a dichotic listening experiment and what did it show?

Answer 3

In this experiment, people hear two different messages, one in each ear, and are told to repeat only one.

Result: They can do it, showing that we can select one message (one ‘channel’) and ignore the rest.

Question 4

What did Cherry’s experiments reveal about ignored information?

Answer 4

People do not notice most changes (like language or meaning) in the ignored ear. But they do notice basic features, like whether the voice is male or female, or if a steady tone is playing.

This shows attention filters information based on physical features before we understand meaning.

Question 5

What is Broadbent’s early selection model?

Answer 5

Broadbent said the filter happens early — right after the senses pick up information. We pick one ‘channel’ to pay attention to based on physical features (like sound or pitch). Everything else is blocked out and never processed for meaning.

Question 6

What happens to unattended information in Broadbent’s model?

Answer 6

It is discarded before we understand it. Our brains never process its meaning.

Question 7

What evidence goes against Broadbent’s model?

Answer 7

The cocktail party effect: Even when we’re not paying attention, we might still hear our name or something important.

This shows that some meaning is processed even without attention.

Question 8

What is Treisman’s attenuation theory?

Answer 8

Treisman said the filter does not completely block things — it just turns down the ‘volume’ on information we are not paying attention to. Important information (like your name) is still strong enough to get through, even if you’re not focusing on it.

Question 9

How do Broadbent’s and Treisman’s models differ?

Answer 9

Broadbent: The filter is all or nothing — unattended information is totally blocked. Treisman: The filter is like a volume knob — unattended information is weaker but can still get through if it is important.

Question 10

What is the late selection model of attention?

Answer 10

Proposed by Deutsch and Deutsch (1963), this model suggests that all information is processed for meaning before attention selects what enters conscious awareness or memory. Attention happens after semantic processing.

Question 11

How does the late selection model differ from early selection?

Answer 11

Early selection filters information before meaning is processed. Late selection allows all information to be processed for meaning, and attention decides later what is stored or used.

Question 12

What evidence supports the late selection model?

Answer 12

MacKay (1973) showed that unattended information can influence meaning. Participants heard “They were standing near the bank” in one ear and “river” or “money” in the other. Their interpretation of “bank” matched the unattended word, suggesting semantic processing occurred without attention.

Question 13

What is the key criticism of the late selection model?

Answer 13

Processing all incoming information to the semantic level would require significant cognitive resources and may not always happen. Evidence for full semantic processing without attention is mixed.

Question 14

Why is the evidence for late selection considered mixed?

Answer 14

Physiological responses like GSR and MMN support semantic processing without attention, but these effects often disappear when attention is tightly controlled. This suggests that attention can operate both early and late, depending on the situation.

Question 15

What did Neisser and Becklen (1975) find in their selective looking study?

Answer 15

Participants who focused on one video (like people passing a ball) often missed events in the overlapping video (like a hand game), even when they occurred simultaneously. This shows that attention strongly shapes what we perceive and that unattended visual information is often not consciously processed.

Question 16

What is inattentional blindness?

Answer 16

Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a visible but unexpected stimulus because attention is focused elsewhere. It shows that attention is necessary for awareness — without it, even obvious stimuli may not enter consciousness.

Question 17

What does Lavie’s perceptual load theory explain?

Answer 17

It reconciles the early vs. late selection debate by proposing that both occur depending on the perceptual demands of the task.

Question 18

What is the main idea of perceptual load theory?

Answer 18

All information is processed if perceptual capacity isn’t exceeded; attention then decides which information is relevant.

Question 19

When does early selection occur?

Answer 19

Under high perceptual load, where attention is fully utilized, filtering out irrelevant information early.

Question 20

When does late selection occur?

Answer 20

Under low perceptual load, where extra capacity allows for processing some unattended information later.

Question 21

What is perceptual load?

Answer 21

The amount of information needing processing, indicating the complexity or difficulty of a task.

Question 22

What does perceptual load theory shift the focus of attention research toward?

Answer 22

It shifts focus from when attention occurs to how efficiently attention is allocated based on task demands.

Question 23

What happens when perceptual capacity is not exceeded?

Answer 23

Irrelevant information can be processed automatically, leading to late selection.

Question 24

What happens when perceptual capacity is exceeded?

Answer 24

Attention filters information early, processing only the most relevant details, leading to early selection.

Question 25

How does executive control load differ from perceptual load in attention research?

Answer 25

Perceptual load reduces distractor processing; executive control load increases distractibility and makes it harder to inhibit irrelevant information.

Question 26

What role does working memory (WM) play in executive control load?

Answer 26

Increased WM capacity is linked to reduced distractibility and better inhibition of irrelevant stimuli.