1. Cognitive Psychology
Chapter 4:
Attention

2. Outline Chapter 4: Attention Study Question.
4/4/2019
Chapter 4: Attention
Quiz 1
Orienting visual attention
The spotlight metaphor
Visual search
Attentional blink
Filtering and Selection
Bottleneck theories
Early and late selection
(Fun with exogenous orienting)
Study Question.
• Compare and contrast endogenous and exogenous orienting.

3. Quiz 1 Mean = 66%, s = 13.3 Question A B C D Answer 1 4 3 27 11 C

4. Quiz 1 Question A B C D Answer 17 31 8 6 0 A 18 4 30 6 5 B

5. Quiz 1 Jeopardy style Behaviourism Introspection
Sentence verification task
Independent variable
Cerebral Cortex
Laterality
Resource driven processing
Data driven processing
Hippocampus
Lexical decision
Feature theory
Geons
Visual Persistence
Pandemonium
Prosopagnosia

6. Attention Orienting The orienting reflex or response
The what and where pathways
WHERE
WHAT

7. Attention Orienting The orienting reflex or response
Covert and Overt orienting
Overt orienting - directing one’s heads and eyes towards a stimulus
Covert orienting - directing attention, without shifting the head or eyes towards a stimulus

8. Attention Orienting The spotlight model
“Attention is a like a spotlight that enhances
the efficiency of detection of events within
its beam”. Posner et al. (1980)

9. Attention Orienting The spotlight model Spatial structure
Spatially restricted
Eriksen’s zoom lens metaphor
Unitary (McCormick & Klein, 1990; McCormick et al. 1998)
Orienting mechanisms
Selection for spatial locations can be allocated willingly or automatically
Endogenous and exogenous orienting
Endogenous orienting: Effortful, controlled, resource driven.
e.g., an arrow cue
Exogenous orienting: Effortless, automatic, data driven
e.g., a bright flash

10. Attention Orienting The spotlight model Four modes of orienting +
Endogenous
Bottom-up
Reflexive
Top-down
Voluntary
Overt
Covert
Exogenous
Gaze
Shift
Attention

11. Attention Orienting The spotlight model
Posner’s cuing procedure: Endogenous orienting +
--> X
Valid (80%) +
<-- X
Invalid (20 %) +
<-> X
Neutral

12. Attention Orienting The spotlight model
Posner’s cuing procedure: Exogenous orienting + | X
Valid (50%) + | X
Invalid (50 %) +
| | X
Neutral

13. Attention Orienting The spotlight model Posner’s cuing procedure
Condition
RT (ms)
450
400
350
300
Valid
Neutral
Invalid

14. Attention Orienting The spotlight model
The cost of misdirecting attention
Three-part process:
Disengage
Move attention
Engage

15. Attention Orienting The spotlight model
Inhibition of return - a characteristic of exogenous orienting where attention is disinclined to return to a previously attended location.

16. Attention Orienting The spotlight model
The spotlight and visual search
Disjunction search
Search for a simple feature
Either S or blue letter
Conjunction search
Search for a combination of features
T and green (T)

17. Attention Orienting The spotlight model
The spotlight and visual search
IOR facilitates search by discouraging reinspection

18. Attention W C N G H A 3 8 T K V B F D Orienting
Orienting attention in time.
The attentional blink phenomenom W C N G H A 3 8 T K V B F D

19. Attention W C N G X A 4 6 T S R B F D Orienting
Orienting attention in time.
The attentional blink phenomenom W C N G X A 4 6 T S R B F D

20. Attention Orienting Orienting attention in time.
The attentional blink phenomenom
Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP)
Second target performance as a function of ‘lag’

21. Attention Filtering and selecting Selective versus divided attention
Doughnuts TV
Pork rinds
Football
Cheap meat
Beer
Work
Dieting
Romantic movies
Literature
Opera
Ballet
Filtering and selecting
Selective versus divided attention
Dual message vs. dual task
Shadowing experiments
Doughnuts ,TV,
Pork rinds, Football,
Cheap meat, Beer ...

22. R Attention Filtering and selecting The bottleneck metaphor
Cherry (1953): What do we perceive in the ignored ear?
Physical characteristics, but not meaning
What happens to the unattended message? R
Sensory
Memory
Long-
term F I L T E
Pattern
Recognition S C O N
Short-

23. Attention Filtering and selecting Broadbent’s all-or-nothing filter 61 7 4 6 8 3

24. Attention Filtering and selecting
Table, horse,
chair, Homer,
doohh!.
Filtering and selecting
Problems with the all-or-nothing filter
Moray’s Experiment
Table
Horse
Chair
Desk
Paper
House
Tree
Rock
Homer
Barn
Street

25. Attention Filtering and selecting Treisman’s Experiment
I saw the girl song was wishing
Hand me that big jumping in the street
I saw the girl jumping in
... Dooohhh! was wishing

26. Attention
Filtering and selecting
Treisman’s Attenuation Model

27. Attention Filtering and selecting Late Selection Theory
The Deustch - Norman model
All inputs are recognized
Inputs are forgotten easily unless attended
The bottleneck occurs in STM
Two determinants of selection
Strength of input
importance (i.e., pertinence)
Item with the highest combination of both gets activated

28. Attention
Filtering and selecting
The Deustch - Norman model