Selective Attention What theories do we have for how information actually gets weeded out?

Three types of theories Filter theories Attention filters out extraneous information so that only the relevant stuff gets through to consciousness Bottleneck theories Similar to filter theories. Instead of a filter, there is a bottleneck in the information stream where information gets through based on prioritization. Attentional resource theory We have a limited amount of cognitive processing capabilities. Different tasks draw on this differently. Once it’s used up, performance starts to suffer.

Filter theories Basic filter theory (Broadbent) Only information relevant to the current task gets processed. Ex: At a party, we filter out the other conversations, so we don’t really process them much. Attenuation theory (Triesmann) We don’t completely filter irrelevant information out. Rather, it’s strength is attenuated (weakened). The mind mostly ignores this attenuated information, but if it is initially strong enough it can get through. Ex: You will still hear your name at the party, even if you don’t know who said it or what the context was. Late Filter theory (Deutsch & Deutsch) Similar to attentuation. Allows for the possibility that all information is being processed at some level, but only the important stuff gets into consciousness.

Attentional resource theory Filter and bottleneck theories always have the problem of being unable to specify the nature of the filter. Resource theory posits that attention is a quantity of stuff (think RAM), and we each have a limited amount Different tasks consume different amounts of this stuff in different ways. We can attend to multiple tasks so long as we have extra stuff available. Once the stuff is used up….. Ex: Driving and talking to the person next to you vs. driving and talking on the cell phone.

The Stroop effect, revisited Why does the Stroop effect happen? Presumably, the automatic process of reading interferes with the controlled process of color naming. But what about driving and talking on your cell phone? There, the controlled process of using your cell phone interferes with the automatic process of driving. Put another way, do automatic processes really not require any attention?