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    ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS CogPsych

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    Maricris Gatdula
    Attention allows us to actively process limited information from our senses and memories. Consciousness includes both awareness and the content of awareness under attention's focus. Conscious attention serves three purposes: monitoring our environment, linking past and present experiences, and planning future actions. Attention has four main functions: signal detection, search, selective attention, and divided attention. Signal detection theory explains how we detect important stimuli among irrelevant ones. Selective attention allows us to focus on one conversation despite distractions. Divided attention influences our ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.

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    ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS CogPsych

    Uploaded by

    Maricris Gatdula
    828 views8 pages
    Attention allows us to actively process limited information from our senses and memories. Consciousness includes both awareness and the content of awareness under attention's focus. Conscious attention serves three purposes: monitoring our environment, linking past and present experiences, and planning future actions. Attention has four main functions: signal detection, search, selective attention, and divided attention. Signal detection theory explains how we detect important stimuli among irrelevant ones. Selective attention allows us to focus on one conversation despite distractions. Divided attention influences our ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.

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    ATTENTION-AND-CONSCIOUSNESS-CogPsych

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    Attention allows us to actively process limited information from our senses and memories. Consciousness includes both awareness and the content of awareness under attention's focus. Conscious attention serves three purposes: monitoring our environment, linking past and present experiences, and planning future actions. Attention has four main functions: signal detection, search, selective attention, and divided attention. Signal detection theory explains how we detect important stimuli among irrelevant ones. Selective attention allows us to focus on one conversation despite distractions. Divided attention influences our ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pdf or txt
    828 views8 pages

    ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS CogPsych

    Uploaded by

    Maricris Gatdula
    Attention allows us to actively process limited information from our senses and memories. Consciousness includes both awareness and the content of awareness under attention's focus. Conscious attention serves three purposes: monitoring our environment, linking past and present experiences, and planning future actions. Attention has four main functions: signal detection, search, selective attention, and divided attention. Signal detection theory explains how we detect important stimuli among irrelevant ones. Selective attention allows us to focus on one conversation despite distractions. Divided attention influences our ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.

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    of 8

    ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS

    THE NATURE OF ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS

    Attention
    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 (DeWeerd, 2003a; Rao, 2003).

    Consciousness
    Consciousness includes both the feeling of awareness and the content of awareness, some of which
    may be under the focus of attention (Bourguignon, 2000; Farthing, 1992, 2000; Taylor, 2002).

    CONSCIOUS ATTENTION SERVES THREE PURPOSES IN PLAYING A CAUSAL ROLE FOR COGNITION:
    1. It helps in monitoring our interactions with the environment.
    2. It assists us in linking our past (memories) and our present (sensations) to give us a sense of continuity
    of experience.
    3. It helps us in controlling and planning for our future actions.

    FOUR MAIN FUNCTIONS OF ATTENTION:


     Signal detection and vigilance
     Search
     Selective attention
     Divided attention

    ATTENDING TO SIGNALS OVER THE SHORT AND LONG TERMS

    SIGNAL DETECTION: FINDING IMPORTANT STIMULI IN A CROWD


    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 target’s presence.
    WHEN WE TRY TO DETECT A TARGET STIMULUS (SIGNAL), THERE ARE FOUR POSSIBLE OUTCOMES
     Hits
     False alarms
     Misses
     Correct Rejections

    SIGNAL-DETECTION THEORY CAN BE DISCUSSED IN THE FOLLOWING CONTEXT:


     Attention
     Perception
     Memory

    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.

    NEUROSCIENCE AND VIGILANCE

    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. Search is made more difficult by distracters, non-target stimuli
    that divert our attention away from the target stimulus.
    Display Size
     Feature search, in which we simply scan the environment for that feature
     In a conjunction search, we look for a particular combination (conjunction— joining together) of
    features.

    THREE THEORIES THAT TRY TO EXPLAIN SEARCH PROCESSES

    Feature-Integration Theory
    Feature-integration theory explains the relative ease of conducting feature searches and the
    relative difficulty of conducting conjunction searches.

    Similarity Theory
    According to similarity theory, Treisman’s data can be reinterpreted. In this view, 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.
    Guided Search Theory
    The guided-search model suggests that all searches, whether feature searches or conjunction
    searches, involve two consecutive stages

     Parallel stage: the individual simultaneously activates a mental representation of all the potential
    targets.
     Serial stage, the individual sequentially evaluates each of the activated elements, according to the
    degree of activation

    SELECTIVE ATTENTION
    Cocktail party problem, the process of tracking one conversation in the face of the distraction of
    other conversations.
    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.
    2. Sound intensity (loudness).
    3. Location of the sound source (Brungard & Simpson, 2007).

    THEORIES OF SELECTIVE ATTENTION


     Broadbent’s Model According to one of the earliest theories of attention, we filter information right
    after we notice it at the sensory level

     Selective Filter Model Selective filter that blocks out most information at the sensory

     Attenuation Model Treisman proposed a theory of selective attention that involves a later mechanism.
    Instead of blocking stimuli out, the filter merely weakens (attenuates) the strength of stimuli other
    than the target stimulus.

     Late-Filter Model Deutsch and Deutsch (1963; Norman, 1968) developed a model in which the
    location of the filter is even later (Figure 4.10). They suggested that stimuli are filtered out only after
    they have been analyzed for both their physical properties and their meaning. This later filtering would
    allow people to recognize information entering the unattended ear.
    A SYNTHESIS OF EARLY-FILTER AND LATE-FILTER MODELS

     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.

     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.

    DIVIDED ATTENTION
    FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE OUR ABILITY TO PAY ATTENTION
     Anxiety
     Altering
     Orienting
     Executive Attention

    INTELLIGENCE AND ATTENTION


    Researchers have considered both the speed and the accuracy of information processing to be
    important factors in intelligence. Attention always plays a role because people must pay attention to a
    stimulus and then decide how to react to it.

    HOW ATTENTION INFLUENCES PROCESSING TIME AND ACCURACY OF RESPONSES?


     Inspection time
     Reaction time

    ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD)


    People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulties in focusing their
    attention in ways that enable them to adapt in optimal ways to their environment

    There are three main types of ADHD, depending on which symptoms are predominant:
    (a) hyperactiveimpulsive
    (b) inattentive, and
    (c) a combination of hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive behavior

    CHILDREN WITH THE INATTENTIVE TYPE OF ADHD SHOW SEVERAL DISTINCTIVE SYMPTOMS:
     They are easily distracted by irrelevant sights and sounds.
     They often fail to pay attention to details.
     They are susceptible to making careless mistakes in their work.
     They often fail to read instructions completely or carefully.
     They are susceptible to forgetting or losing things they need for tasks, such as pencils or books.
     They tend to jump from one incomplete task to another

    CHANGE BLINDNESS AND INATTENTIONAL BLINDNESS


    It thus may be surprising to discover that people can show remarkable levels of change blindness,
    an inability to detect changes in objects or scenes that are being viewed (Galpin et al., 2009; O’Regan,
    2003). Closely related to change blindness is inattentional blindness, which is a phenomenon in which
    people are not able to see things that are actually there (Bressan & Pizzighello, 2008).

    SPATIAL NEGLECT—ONE HALF OF THE WORLD GOES AMISS


    It is an attentional dysfunction in which participants ignore the half of their visual field that is
    contralateral to (on the opposite side of) the hemisphere of the brain that has a lesion.

    DEALING WITH AN OVERWHELMING WORLD—HABITUATION AND ADAPTATION


    Habituation involves our becoming accustomed to a stimulus so that we gradually pay less and less
    attention to it. The counterpart to habituation is dishabituation. In dishabituation, a change in a familiar
    stimulus prompts us to start noticing the stimulus again. Both processes occur automatically.

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