Attention & Consciousness

Outline & Themes

• 4 Attention processes– Divided attention– Selective Attention– Sustained Attention– Saccadic Eye Movements during reading

• Attention is as limited resource and its capacity depends on: the individual and type of task– Automatic or controlled processes

Divided Attention• trying to pay attention to two or more simultaneous messages or perform two tasks at the same time

–Simulated-driving studies•Usually there’s a cost associated with divided attention• Levy and coauthors (2006)

–braking & tone

• Strayer and colleagues (2003)–hands-free cell phones, traffic, braking

• Ecological Validity

Divided Attention• Divided attention usually leads to RT

or performance costs, but there are exceptions…

1) Hemispheric specialization

2) Skills changing from controlled to automatic

Divided Attention

Automatic• Process occurs w/o

intention• Mental process is not

open to introspection• Process consumes few

if any conscious resources

• Process operates rapidly

Controlled• Process occurs w/

intention• Process is open to

conscious awareness• Process consumes

conscious resources (esp. attention)

• Process operates slower

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Selective Attention

• respond selectively to certain kinds of information, while ignoring other information

• Examples:– Stroop effect– Dichotic listening task & Shadowing– Visual search

Methodology• Dichotic Listening Task

– 2 auditory messages played simultaneously— one message presented to left ear and a different message presented to right ear

• Shadowing Task (Broadbent & Cherry)• 2 messages played, but participant

instructed to repeat aloud only one.• Researchers interested in what (if anything)

gets through the other (unattended) ear.

Dichotic Listening

•Selective Attention•people notice very little about the unattended message

•in general, we can process only one message at a time•may process the unattended message when

–1. both messages are presented slowly–2. the task is not challenging–3. the meaning of the unattended message is relevant»Cocktail party phenomenon

Selective Attention Visual Search

– Before next class go to:– http://www.gocognitive.net/demo/visual-search – Select 1 of 4 tasks (colored shapes, line orientation, etc.),

do some practice trials, & then choose 96 trials.– Take a screen shot of your results and answer these

questions:

1) What happens when we search for a single, isolated feature versus a combined set of features (conjunction search)?

2) What happens when the feature is present vs. absent?

3) Are your results the same or different from what is traditionally found?

Next class hand in 1 sheet of paper w/ results & answers.

Sustained attention (Vigilance):

• ability to maintain the focus of attention for prolonged periods • observer searches for target among non-targets (e.g., airport baggage check, enemy planes on a radar, tumors in radiology)

Sustained attention (Vigilance):

•McCarley et al. (2004) asked:– Does training enhance search skills,

recognition skills, or both? – Can training vigilance on one set of objects

transfer to a novel set of objects?