Attention as a Limited Capacity Resource Chapter 9 Attention as a Limited Capacity Resource Concept: Preparation for and performance of motor skills are influenced by our limited capacity to select and attend to information ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Defining “Attention” Attention refers to characteristics associated with ______________________ _______________________ When related to the performance of skills, particular reference to the limitations associated with those characteristics on the Simultaneous performance of multiple skills _____________________________________ ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

__________________________________________________________________ When we simultaneously perform multiple tasks (e.g. driving a car, listening to a CD, and talking with a passenger), we sometimes experience no difficulties in performing all the tasks, but cannot do all the tasks as well as we would like WHY? Answer relates to “attention” as a performance limiting factor ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Attention Theories ___________________________________ Difficulty doing multiple tasks simultaneously because of limitation due to inability to serially process multiple stimuli [see Fig. 9.1] ______________________________________________________________________ Difficulty doing multiple tasks simultaneously because of limitation due to availability of resources needed to carry out tasks i.e., ______________________________________ Simultaneous successful performance of multiple tasks can occur when resource capacity limits not exceeded ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

Attention Theories, cont’d ___________________________________ Propose one central (i.e., CNS) source of attention resources for which all activities requiring attention compete See Figure 9.2 ____________________________: An Example of a Central Resource Capacity Theory _____________________________________ Proposed flexible attention capacity limits See Figure 9.3 ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

Kahneman’s Attention Theory, cont’d _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Amount of attention resources available (i.e. capacity) varies in relation to a person’s arousal level Maximum amount available only when arousal level is optimal for the situation Related to inverted-U function of arousal – performance relationship ______________________________________________________________________________ Critical factor for determining whether sufficient attention resources available – given capacity limits set by arousal level ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

Kahneman’s Attention Theory, cont’d 3 “rules” people use to allocate attention resources when performing multiple tasks ___________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ Novel for the situation Meaningfulness of the event (e.g., “cocktail party phenomenon”) ____________________________________ Allocate attention according to instructions ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

__________________________________ Alternative to theories proposing one central resource Propose that we have several sources for attention Each source has a limited capacity of resources The multiple sources based on specific information processing component ______________________(e.g. visual, proprioceptive) ______________________(e.g. verbal, motor) _______________________(e.g. spatial, verbal) Performance of simultaneous multiple tasks depends on competition for attention resources within and between the multiple sources ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

__________________________________________________________________ Dual-task procedure ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________ Secondary task performance is the basis to make inferences about the attention demands of the primary task ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Focusing Attention Attentional focus ________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Focus can be broad or narrow Focus can be external or internal __________________________ The changing of attentional focus characteristics in a performance situation ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

Focusing Attention on Movements vs. Movement Effects Concern here is the direction of attentional focus – _____________ ___________________________ Action effect hypothesis (Prinz, 1997) Proposed benefit of external focus during performance _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

Attention and Automaticity __________________________________ ___________________________________ In Kahneman’s theory, relates to evaluation of task demands ___________________________________________________________________ Neural components associated with automaticity for motor skill performance e,g, Poldrack (2005) fMRI based research ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

_________________________________ The 2nd aspect of the study of attention as it relates to motor skills performance: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Referred to as visual selective attention Visual search is the process of directing visual attention to locate relevant information (i.e., cues) in the environment ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

Visual Selective Attention, cont’d __________________________________ Commonly used technique to investigate visual selective attention What a person is visually attending to inferred from “point of gaze” (i.e., locus of central vision) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What is the relationship between eye movements and visual selective attention? Does what a person is “looking at” (i.e., point of gaze) indicate where visual selective attention is directed? ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

Visual Selective Attention, cont’d 2 answers: ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Remember, eye-movement recordings track central not peripheral vision ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

How We Select Visual Cues? ________________________________ An active search for “regulatory” conditions based on action goal e.g. Bekkering & Neggers (2002) showed different visual search patterns for action goals of picking up an object and grasping the object __________________________________ Initial search based on specific features (e.g., color, shape) Direct “attentional spotlight” on environment (wide or narrow focus) features of interest “pop out” ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

Visual Search and Action Preparation Visual search picks up cues that influence 3 aspects of action preparation _________________________ __________________________________ _________________________________ Note how these three preparation processes influenced by visual search in Open motor skills Closed motor skills See examples in the textbook ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved

Training Visual Search Strategies To what degree is successful visual search determined by visual acuity? Research suggests very little relationship Visual search success is based on experience in specific performance situations Success often results from learning relevant visual cues without conscious awareness of them (i.e., implicit learning) ©2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved