Module- 2

Attention
Unit 1: Model of attention:
Attention is the process of selectively focusing on a limited amount of information
from the vast array available through our senses, memories, and cognitive processes.
 This selective focus allows us to engage deeply with certain stimuli while remaining
unaware of others
 Includes both conscious and unconscious processes

Attention's Role in Cognition:

 Perception: Increased attention improves perception.
 Memory: Better attention at the moment of an event enhances later memory.
 Language: Reading requires focusing on words sequentially.
 Problem Solving: Success can depend on what aspects of a problem capture
attention.

Types of Attention:
Active vs. Passive Attention:
 Active Attention: Controlled by individual goals and top-down processes.
 Passive Attention: Driven by external stimuli and bottom-up processes, which
are typically faster and more powerful.
Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention:
 Selective Attention: Ability to focus on one message while ignoring others
(e.g., listening to Susan while ignoring other conversations).
 Divided Attention: Involves responding to multiple stimuli simultaneously,
providing insights into processing limitations and attentional capacity.

Functions of executive
 Executive Attention: Involves monitoring and resolving conflicts among
internal processes like thoughts, feelings, and responses.
 Executive Attention Network: Responsible for managing attention during
tasks that involve conflict, such as the Stroop task, where one must inhibit the
automatic response of reading a word to name the color of the ink.
 Inhibition of Automatic Responses: The network inhibits automatic
responses to stimuli and is primarily active in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.
 Top-Down Control: The network is involved in top-down control of attention,
developing around age 3, later than the orienting attention network.
 Importance in Academic Skills: It is crucial for acquiring academic skills,
such as learning to read, and can be enhanced in adults through practices like
meditation.
  Learning and Intelligence: The executive attention network helps with
learning new ideas and is linked to areas of the brain associated with general
intelligence.
 Neurotransmitter: Dopamine plays a central role in executive attention
processes.
 Brain Areas Involved: Key areas include the anterior cingulate, lateral ventral
cortex, prefrontal cortex, and basal ganglia.
 Brain Activity and Attention Networks: Research shows different brain
regions are active for different attention networks: the orienting attention
network for object searching, and the executive attention network for inhibiting
automatic responses and learning.
 Dysfunction and Disorders: Dysfunction in the executive attention system is
linked to conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, borderline personality disorder,
and schizophrenia.

Conscious processing
According to Baars (1997), attention selects what we experience, while consciousness
involves being aware of these selected experiences.
 Consciousness includes both the feeling of being aware and the content of that
awareness, which can be influenced by attention.
 Overlap: Attention and consciousness overlap, but they are not the same. Some
attentional processes happen without conscious awareness. For example, writing
your name can become automatic and require less conscious effort, unlike writing
a new name which demands active attention.
Purpose of Conscious Attention:
 Monitoring Environment: Helps us stay aware of how we are interacting with our
surroundings and adapting to situations.
 Linking Past and Present: Connects memories with current sensations to
provide continuity of experience, which can be crucial for personal identity.
 Future Planning: Assists in controlling and planning future actions based on
current and past information.

Function and Benefits of Attention:

 Resource Management: Attention allows us to efficiently use our limited mental
resources by focusing on certain stimuli while ignoring others. This selective focus
helps us respond quickly and accurately.
 Memory Enhancement: Information that we attend to is more likely to be
remembered compared to information that we ignore.

Impact of Attention:
 Attention influences perception and our cognitive processes, making certain
aspects of our environment more prominent while others fade into the
background.
Preconscious processing
The concept of preconscious processing refers to the idea that information can be
available for cognitive processing even when it is not within our current conscious
awareness.
Preconscious Information: Includes stored memories or sensory inputs that we
are not actively aware of but can be brought into consciousness if needed.
For example, you might not always think about your bedroom, but you can recall it
when prompted.
Sensory Information: Sensations like those in your foot may be present at a
preconscious level, becoming noticeable only when specifically attended to.

Studying Preconscious Processing: Priming

A common method to study preconscious processing involves priming. Priming
affects how we recognize or respond to stimuli based on prior exposure.
For example, hearing about satellite dishes makes you more likely to think of a
satellite dish when you later hear the word "dish".
Priming usually facilitates recognition, but it can sometimes impede it.
For instance, if a word is presented briefly, it can affect how we respond to related or
unrelated stimuli based on whether we were consciously aware of it or not.
Marcel’s Studies on Preconscious Processing
Objective: To explore how stimuli presented so briefly that they are not
consciously perceived can still affect subsequent cognitive processes.

Methodology:
 Words were shown to participants for very brief periods (20-110 milliseconds),
followed by a visual mask to prevent conscious detection.
 Participants were then asked to guess the words they had seen.
 Because the words were presented too briefly to be consciously detected, guesses
were no better than chance.
For instance, if participants associated "palm" with "hand," it facilitated related word
classification like "wrist" but inhibited the classification of unrelated words.

Findings: Despite not consciously detecting the words, participants’ subsequent

cognitive tasks were influenced by the subliminal stimuli.
Cheesman and Merikle (1984)
Objective: Cheesman and Merikle aimed to replicate Marcel’s findings and address
some of the controversies surrounding subliminal perception.

Methodology: They used a color-identification task to test priming effects.

Participants were exposed to words under conditions similar to those in Marcel’s
studies but with a focus on how participants’ reports aligned with objective
measures of subliminal perception.

Findings:
 The study found that subliminal perception depended on how one defined the
threshold of awareness. If subliminal perception was defined as the level below
 which participants could report detecting a stimulus 50% of the time, subliminal
effects were observed.
 However, if subliminal perception was defined by a more stringent, objective
threshold that applied universally, then subliminal perception did not occur.

Implications: This study highlighted the importance of precise definitions in

psychological research. The occurrence of subliminal perception could vary
depending on the criteria used to measure it.
Dyad of Triads Task
Objective: The "Dyad of Triads" task is a psychological experiment designed to
investigate preconscious processing and intuition.

Methodology:
 Participants are presented with pairs (dyads) of three-word groups (triads).
 Each dyad consists of one coherent triad and one incoherent triad.
Coherent Triad: Words that can be related to a unifying fourth word. For example,
the triad "playing, credit, report" can be linked by the word "card" (playing card, credit
card, report card).
Incoherent Triad: Words that do not connect to a unifying fourth word. For example,
"still, page, music" does not have a unifying fourth word.
 Participant Task:
o Participants are shown these dyads and asked to identify which triad is
coherent and which is not.
o They also need to determine the fourth word that links the coherent triad.

Findings:
 Some participants could not identify the unifying fourth word for the triads but still
managed to identify the coherent triad at a level above chance.
 This suggests that even when participants could not consciously identify the linking
word, they had preconscious information guiding their choice.
 The ability to select the coherent triad despite not consciously knowing the unifying
word indicates that preconscious processing was at work.

Implications:
 The Dyad of Triads task provides evidence that preconscious information can
influence decision-making even when individuals are not consciously aware of
the information.
 This task demonstrates the role of preconscious processing in intuitive
judgments, highlighting that some cognitive processes can occur without
conscious awareness.
Auditory Priming:
Priming effects are not limited to visual stimuli. For example, patients under
anesthesia showed priming effects for words heard during the procedure when
completing word-stem tasks, even though they had no conscious recollection of
those words
Challenges in Accessing Preconscious Information:
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon: This phenomenon, where one struggles to
retrieve a known word, illustrates the difficulty in accessing preconscious
information. Studies like Brown & McNeill (1966) show that people can sometimes
provide partial information or characteristics of the word even if they cannot
recall it fully.
Blindsight:
Blindsight refers to the ability to respond to visual stimuli without conscious
awareness of them. Studies on patients with visual cortex damage, like D.B.
(Weiskrantz, 1986), show that they can "see" and respond to stimuli in their blind
field despite lacking conscious visual awareness.
Emotional Conditioning:
Fear Responses: In some cases, patients who cannot consciously see stimuli may
still exhibit emotional responses to them. For example, a patient who experienced
fear in response to a visual stimulus paired with an electric shock, despite not being
aware of the stimulus (Hamm et al., 2003), demonstrates preconscious processing
of emotional cues.

Alerting mechanism. (IPA model)

The alerting mechanism in attention refers to the brain's ability to achieve and
maintain a state of readiness to respond to stimuli. It is closely associated with
arousal and vigilance, which are different levels of attention related to our capacity
to stay focused and respond effectively to changes in the environment.

1. Arousal (Basic Alertness)

Definition: Arousal refers to the general state of wakefulness and physiological
activation. It is the foundational state required for any attention to take place.
Without a sufficient level of arousal, attention systems cannot function effectively. If
arousal is too low (as in drowsiness), attention is weak, and if it is too high (e.g., in
anxiety), attention might be unfocused or scattered.
Being drowsy and struggling to pay attention during a lecture, or feeling very alert
and wide awake after consuming caffeine.

2. Alerting (Phasic Alertness)

Definition: Alerting refers to the ability to rapidly achieve a heightened state of
readiness in response to a specific stimulus. It can be thought of as a transient
increase in attention to prepare the individual for quick response.
Phasic alertness is necessary for reacting quickly to sudden or important stimuli. It is
especially important in tasks where sudden shifts of attention are required.
Hearing a fire alarm and immediately becoming alert, ready to act.

3. Vigilance (Sustained Attention)

Definition: Vigilance refers to the ability to maintain attention and alertness over
prolonged periods, especially in situations where stimuli are rare or infrequent. It is
also known as sustained attention.
Vigilance ensures that an individual can maintain readiness and respond accurately to
stimuli over an extended period, especially in monotonous or low-stimulation
environments.
A security guard watching surveillance cameras for long periods, or an air traffic
controller monitoring planes on a radar.

Unit 2: Selective attention:

Selective attention refers to our ability to focus on a particular message or stimulus
while ignoring others. Early research into this concept, especially involving auditory
stimuli, demonstrated that our ability to process and remember multiple sources of
information simultaneously is limited.

Demonstration of Selective Attention

Hearing Two Messages at Once: To understand selective attention, try the
following experiment:
1. Materials: Two books on different topics.
2. Procedure: Have someone read one book aloud while you read the other to
yourself for about a minute.
3. Observation: Note how well you are able to remember both passages.
Expected Outcome: You will likely find it challenging to comprehend and recall
details from both passages simultaneously. This mirrors findings from early
experiments that show focusing on one auditory message while ignoring another
typically results in limited retention of the ignored message.

Key Experiments in Selective Attention - Dichotic Listening:

One of the foundational experiments in selective attention was conducted by Colin
Cherry (1953) using a technique called dichotic listening

 Method: In this procedure, different messages are presented simultaneously to

each ear through headphones. Participants are instructed to pay attention to
one message (the attended message) and ignore the other (the unattended
message).

 Shadowing: Participants repeat the attended message aloud to ensure focus

on it.

Findings:
 Attended Message: Participants could accurately shadow the attended message,
meaning they could repeat it accurately and were deeply engaged with it.
 Unattended Message: Participants had limited awareness of the unattended
message. They could only identify basic characteristics such as the gender of
the speaker and could not recall the content. For example, Neville Moray (1959)
found that even if a word was repeated 35 times in the unattended ear,
participants remained unaware of it.
These findings illustrate the cocktail party phenomenon: the ability to focus on one
conversation at a noisy party while ignoring others, demonstrating how we can
selectively concentrate on a desired message amidst background noise.

Implications and Applications

Selective attention research has significant implications for understanding various
everyday tasks and challenges:
  Learning and Memory: Effective learning often depends on the ability to focus
on relevant information while ignoring distractions.
 Workplace Efficiency: Jobs requiring high levels of concentration, such as air
traffic control or security screening, rely heavily on effective selective attention.
 Clinical Applications: Understanding attention deficits can help in diagnosing
and treating conditions like ADHD, where individuals struggle with maintaining
focused attention.

Steps
1. Target Specification
In this initial stage, the brain defines what we want to focus on—the “target.” This
involves setting the goal for attention based on relevant features like color, shape,
size, or location.
Mechanism: The brain uses top-down processes based on prior knowledge, goals,
and expectations to set these specifications.
If you're looking for a red car in a parking lot, the target specification would involve
deciding to focus on anything red and car-shaped.
2. Search (Target Detection)
Once the target is specified, the brain begins the process of searching for the object
within the visual field or environment. This involves scanning through the available
sensory information.
Mechanism: The brain uses both top-down attention (to focus on expected
features) and bottom-up attention (to detect unexpected stimuli that might match
the target) during the search.
As you walk through the parking lot, your eyes move from car to car, focusing on red-
colored objects to identify your vehicle.
3. Target Identification
Once a potential match to the specified target is detected, the brain must confirm
whether it is indeed the target. This involves comparing the detected object against
the criteria set during the target specification phase.
Mechanism: The process involves top-down verification, where the prefrontal
cortex confirms if the object fits all the necessary criteria. If it does, the target is
identified, and attention is fully allocated to it. If not, the search continues.
You spot a red car and compare its shape, size, and specific details to your memory of
your own car. If it matches, you identify it as your car and focus on it.

Bottom-Up Attention (Stimulus-Driven)

Bottom-up attention is a reflexive, automatic process driven by external stimuli.
It occurs when something in the environment catches our attention because it is
salient or noticeable, without us actively trying to focus on it.

Mechanism: The process is largely data-driven and occurs from sensory input
upward to higher cognitive processes.
 The Perceiver starts from the small bit of information from the environment that he
combines in various ways to form a perception
 The attention is given only to the information in the distal stimulus
 Bottom-up process emphasises the importance of the stimulus in the object
recognition
 The physical stimuli from the environment are registered on the sensory receptor
 The combination of simple, bottom level features allows us to recognise more
complex whole objects
 In bottom up processing is the perception that consists of the progression of the
recognizing / processing information from individual components of a stimuli
/moving into a perception of the whole
For example, a loud noise, a sudden movement, or a bright color can grab our
attention without conscious effort.
o A flashing light or a sudden loud sound might capture your attention.
o An unusual object or face in a crowd grabs your attention automatically.

Top-Down Attention (Goal-Directed)

Top-down attention, in contrast, is a voluntary, controlled process guided
by a person's goals, expectations, or prior knowledge. It is a deliberate
focusing of attention based on what is relevant to the task or objective.

Mechanism: This is a conceptually driven process that starts with higher

cognitive functions, such as goals or intentions, and then directs attention to
relevant stimuli. It involves more conscious effort and is guided by what you want to
focus on.
 In the top-down processing, the perceivers expectation, theories or concept guide
the at selection and combination of the information in a particular pattern
recognition process
 They are directed by the expectation derived from the context or past learning or
both
 Our expectations are the higher level of visual processing will work their way down
and guide our early processing of the visual stimulus in the top-down processing
 Top-down processing is especially strong when stimuli are incomplete or
ambiguous.
 Top-down processing is also strong when a stimulus was registered just for a
fraction of circuit
 Examples:
o Searching for a friend in a crowd at a concert by focusing on people’s faces.
o Trying to concentrate on reading while ignoring background noise in a café.

Interaction Between the Two

 These two mechanisms often work together. For example, you may be reading a
book (top-down attention), but a bright flash of light from the window might
distract you (bottom-up attention). Sometimes, bottom-up stimuli can override
top-down focus, depending on the intensity or salience of the external stimulus.
 The brain structures associated with bottom-up attention are more linked to
sensory systems and subcortical regions like the thalamus, whereas top-down
 attention involves higher-order brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex and
parietal lobes.
In summary, bottom-up attention is more about automatic, sensory-driven responses,
while top-down attention is about goal-directed, cognitive control over what we
choose to focus on.

Unit 3: Automaticity
The quality of a behavior or mental process that can be carried out rapidly and
without effort or explicit intention (an automatic process). In brain imaging studies,
automatic processes show dramatic decreases in cortical activity.
 As we practice a task, it requires less attention and mental effort to perform.
 Skilled tasks, like typing, become easier and allow multitasking, while unskilled
tasks demand more attention and lead to errors.
 The capacity required for a task depends on its difficulty and the individual's
familiarity with it.
 Practice reduces the mental effort required for a task, freeing up capacity for
other activities.
 A novice driver requires more mental focus on driving, making it difficult to
perform other tasks, but with practice, they can multitask (e.g., drive and talk).
 In complex situations, even experienced individuals need to focus more,
reducing their capacity for other activities.

The Stroop Task

 John Ridley Stroop (1935) demonstrated the effects of practice on cognitive task
performance with the Stroop Task, where participants were asked to name the ink
color of words (e.g., the word "red" printed in green ink).
 Participants found it easy to name the colors of bars but struggled with naming the
ink color when the word itself conflicted with the ink color.
 The difficulty arose because adults, especially literate ones, have practiced reading
to the point that reading the word is automatic, making it hard to inhibit this
automatic response.
 The task of naming colors, however, required less practice and was harder for
participants.
 Stroop’s experiments showed that with practice, participants became faster and
more efficient at naming colors, reducing interference from the words.
 Stroop interference is strongest when children learn to read, peaking around
second or third grade, and then decreases into adulthood, with some decline by
age 60.

Automatic Versus Attentional (Controlled) Processing

 Automatic Processing: Posner and Snyder (1975) defined automatic
processing with three criteria: it occurs without intention, without conscious
awareness, and without interfering with other mental tasks. An example is
driving a familiar route where actions can happen "automatically" without
conscious effort.
  Controlled Processing: In contrast, controlled processing involves conscious,
effortful, and attention-demanding tasks. For example, when driving in an
unfamiliar situation or focusing on a difficult task, you use controlled processing.
 Schneider and Shiffrin (1977) Study: They distinguished between automatic
and controlled processing in a search task. In the consistent-mapping condition
(targets and distractors were different), participants showed automatic
processing, which did not depend on memory set size or distractor count. In the
varied-mapping condition (targets could be distractors in later trials), controlled
processing was required, which was affected by memory set size, distractor
count, and display time.
 Automatic Processing in Familiar Tasks: Automatic processing is used for
easy, familiar tasks and works in parallel (multiple tasks at once) without taxing
attention. Controlled processing, on the other hand, is serial, requires attention,
and is capacity-limited.
 Practice and Learning: With enough practice, tasks that initially require
controlled processing can become automatic. This has been observed in tasks
like telegraphy (Bryan & Harter, 1899) and video games, where practice shifts
attention from individual actions to higher-level responses (e.g., from letter
detection to word recognition).
 Learning Effect in Video Games: Playing video games, initially a controlled
task, becomes automatic with practice. Experienced players can perform tasks
effortlessly while multitasking, such as engaging in conversation, while novice
players struggle with the same tasks.

Division of attention.
Attention to two or more channels of information at the same time, so that two or
more tasks may be performed concurrently. It may involve the use of just one sense
(e.g., hearing) or two or more senses (e.g., hearing and vision).
Divided attention refers to our ability to distribute cognitive resources to multiple
tasks simultaneously. While initially challenging, especially with complex or unfamiliar
tasks, practice can significantly improve our ability to handle multiple tasks
effectively.
Divided Attention: The capability to focus on and process multiple tasks or
sources of information simultaneously.
Examples:
 Driving while listening to music and thinking about upcoming plans.
 Engaging in conversations while performing a complex task like driving.

Factors Influencing Divided Attention:

 Task Difficulty: More complex or novel tasks demand more cognitive resources
and are harder to perform simultaneously.
 Practice: Repeated practice with specific tasks can improve the ability to divide
attention.

Multi-tasking
 Divided Attention: This occurs when people try to focus on two or more tasks at
once. In many cases, this leads to slower performance and reduced accuracy,
especially when the tasks are challenging.
 Multitasking and Its Limits: Multitasking strains attention, working memory, and
long-term memory. Research shows that people tend to perform tasks more slowly
and less accurately when multitasking. For example:
1. College students walk slower and read textbooks more slowly when talking
on cell phones or responding to instant messages.
2. Students’ grades tend to be lower when they multitask while studying or
reading.
 Passengers and Distractions: It is also more distracting to have a conversation
with a passenger who is on a cell phone than a passenger who is not. This is
because the unpredictability of half of a conversation distracts drivers more.
 Task Switching: When people are interrupted while engaged in a task, like writing
a paper, they tend to work more slowly and make more errors during transitions
between tasks.

Dual-Task Performance Study (Spelke, Hirst, and Neisser, 1976):

 Two students practiced writing dictated words while reading stories for 17 weeks,
and their reading comprehension and speed remained similar whether they were
reading alone or multitasking.
 Unexpected Results: Participants processed meanings of dictated words without
conscious attention, which surprised psychologists. Some suggested participants
might alternate attention between tasks, but evidence showed no significant lag in
performance, supporting continuous attention.
 Hirst et al. (1980) Study: Similar training was used with participants reading
either short stories or encyclopedia articles. Most participants adapted to new
material, suggesting they were not alternating attention between tasks but instead
combining them.
 Alternation vs. Automaticity: While automaticity (processing without
interference) was considered, participants still consciously recognized and intended
to copy the dictated words, challenging the idea of automatic processing.
 Task Combination Hypothesis: The researchers concluded that participants
learned to combine reading and dictation through practice, which allowed them to
perform both tasks efficiently.
 Role of Practice: The study highlights that practice plays a crucial role in
multitasking performance, changing how much attention is needed for each task.

Implications:
 Cell Phone Use: It's important to avoid multitasking, particularly with activities
that require attention, such as driving or studying, as it affects performance.
 Efficiency of Focus: Focusing on one task at a time is generally more efficient
and leads to fewer errors. Selective attention helps in narrowing down the
information we need to process, preventing cognitive overload.
Research Findings:
 The studies discussed highlight the cognitive costs of divided attention,
specifically with tasks like driving or multitasking while studying. Selective
attention allows people to avoid the chaos of trying to process all sensory
information simultaneously.

Unit 4: Major concepts in attention

Bottle-neck concept
 Early Theories of Attention: Theories
initially suggested that human attention
is limited in the amount of information
that can be processed at any given
time, with the "bottleneck" metaphor
being commonly used to describe this
limitation.
 Bottleneck Theories: These theories proposed that attention operates like a
narrow passageway, where only one message can be processed at a time, and
others must be ignored. Different variations of this theory were proposed by
researchers like Broadbent (1958) and Treisman (1964).
 Criticism of Bottleneck Theories: Researchers rejected these theories due to
their lack of flexibility in explaining attention. The bottleneck model
underestimated the adaptability of human attention.
 Neuroscience Findings: Research in neuroscience shows that information isn't
lost at a single phase of attention, as bottleneck theories suggest. Instead,
information is filtered or lost at multiple stages throughout the attention
process.

Spotlight concepts
 Cognitive psychologists now often compare attention to a spotlight, focusing on
what information is selected for processing rather than what cannot be
processed (as in the bottleneck metaphor).
 Spotlight Metaphor:
o Like a spotlight, attention can be directed and shifted from one area to
another.
o Cognitive processing is enhanced when attention is focused on a specific
task, similar to how a spotlight illuminates what is at its center.
o Attention has "fuzzy" boundaries, allowing for the focus on more than one
task, depending on the task's capacity demands.
 Criticism of the Spotlight Metaphor:
o Some researchers argue that the spotlight metaphor is limited, as it
assumes attention is always focused on a specific location, which may not
always be true.

The spotlight theory of attention

● Developed by Michael Posner and colleagues in the 1980s.
● The theory proposed that attention enhances the efficiency of detecting events
within its focus, effectively filtering out irrelevant information while concentrating
cognitive resources on the selected area.
● Posner explains that Attention operates similarly to a spotlight, stating that we can
move our attention around to focus on various parts of our visual field like a beam
of light that illuminates specific areas while leaving others in the dark.
● When we focus our attention on a particular area, we process information from that
area more efficiently and with greater detail, while information outside the
"spotlight" of our attention receives less processing.
● The spotlight can be moved to different areas, and its size and intensity can vary,
but only the information within the "illuminated" area receives focused attention.
● Psychologist William James suggested that this spotlight includes:
1. Focal point: The center of focus is known as the focal point. In this area, things
are viewed clearly.
2. Fringe: The area surrounding this focal point, known as the fringe, is still visible
but not clearly seen.
3. Margin: Finally, the area outside of the fringe area of the spotlight is known as the
margin.
The Posner Cueing Task involves participants responding to visual stimuli on a screen.
The task is designed to measure how quickly and accurately participants can shift
their attention in response to cues.
 Fixation Point: The participants were asked to sit in front of a computer and at
the center of the screen, there is a fixation point that participants are instructed to
focus on throughout the experiment.
 Cueing: Two boxes are placed on either side of the fixation point. A cue (brief
flash or an arrow) is presented to indicate where the target will likely appear.
 Target: After a short interval, a target stimulus (like a shape or letter) appears in
one of the boxes. Participants must respond as quickly as possible by pressing a
key corresponding to the location of the target.
There are 2 types of cueing : Valid cueing and invalid cueing.
 The response time taken by the participants to respond in invalid-cueing conditions
were slower than in valid-cueing conditions.
 The task demonstrates that you can focus your attention on a specific location, like
a spotlight illuminating a particular area.
 When your attention is directed to a location, you process information there more
efficiently, just like how a spotlight makes things clearer in its beam thus the
responses in valid-cueing conditions were faster and more accurate.

Early and late selection

Deutsch and Deutsch's Late Filter Model
Deutsch and Deutsch's Late Filter Model presents an alternative perspective to
Treisman's attenuation theory by proposing a different location for the signal-blocking
filter in the information processing sequence.
 In contrast to early-selection models that filter
information based on physical characteristics before
deeper processing, the late filter model posits that
the filtering occurs after some level of perceptual
and conceptual analysis.
 This means that both attended and unattended
information undergoes initial processing for
meaning before the filter blocks irrelevant
information.
Processing Stages:
o Sensory Analysis: Initial analysis of sensory
characteristics of the stimuli.
o Perceptual and Conceptual Analysis: Further processing to extract
meaning and recognize patterns or concepts.
o Late Filtering: After perceptual and conceptual processing, the filter blocks
or allows information based on its relevance or importance.

Recognition of Unattended Information:

This model explains why people can recognize their own names or familiar phrases
presented in the unattended ear. Such information might be processed enough to
be noticed and attended to if it is significant or meaningful (e.g., hearing one's
name or a translated version of the attended message for bilinguals).
Both early and late filter models propose an attentional bottleneck, which means that
only one stream of information can be processed at a time. The difference lies in the
timing of the filter:
 Early Selection: The bottleneck occurs early in the processing stream, before
meaning is fully analyzed.
 Late Selection: The bottleneck occurs later, after some perceptual and
conceptual processing has taken place.

Implications:
 Flexible Processing: The late filter model suggests that attention involves a
flexible process where information is first processed for meaning and then filtered
based on its importance.
 Recognition and Attention: It accounts for instances where seemingly
unattended information can capture attention if it has significant meaning or
relevance.
Concept of Late-Selection Models:
 Late-selection models argue that the selection of stimuli for final processing
happens after the information has been analyzed for its meaning, not just its
physical characteristics (Deutsch & Deutsch, 1963; Norman, 1968).

Supporting Experiment by MacKay (1973):

Procedure: Participants heard ambiguous sentences (e.g., “They were throwing
stones at the bank”) in one ear while biasing words (e.g., “river” or “money”) were
presented to the unattended ear.
 Findings: When later presented with pairs of sentences, participants' choices were
influenced by the biasing words, even though they were unaware of these words.
For instance, those who heard “money” were more likely to choose a sentence
related to financial institutions.
Implication: The influence of the biasing word on participants' judgments
suggests that the meaning of the unattended word was processed, supporting the
late-selection model.

Early vs. Late Selection:

 Early-Selection Models: According to these models, only physical characteristics
of stimuli are processed before selection. Meaning is not analyzed until after
selection.
 Late-Selection Models: These models propose that both physical characteristics
and meaning are processed before any selection occurs.

Task-Dependent Processing:
 There is evidence supporting both early and late selection models. The nature of
the task might determine how information is processed, suggesting that different
tasks might rely on different selection mechanisms (Kahneman, 1973).

Unit 5: Theories of attention

Filter model-Broadbent
Broadbent (1958) proposed that the physical characteristics of messages are used to
select one message for further processing and that all others are lost.
Purpose: To explain selective attention as an information processing mechanism.
The Filter Model of Attention
To explain how selective attention works, Donald Broadbent (1958) proposed the
filter model of attention:
 “Information are received to our brain through filtration”
 According to this theory, many stimuli simultaneously impinge upon our
receptors creating a kind of bottleneck situation based on physical
characteristics (such as pitch or location).
 Moving through the STM (Short term memory) they enter the selective filter
which permits only one stimulus to get through for further processing at the
higher level.
 Other impinging stimuli are thus filtered out or screened out at that moment of
time. Thus, we become aware of only that particular stimulus which gets
through the selective filter while the others remain out of our conscious
awareness.
 Mechanism: The filter acts early in the information processing stream, blocking
out unattended information before it undergoes deeper processing. This model
suggests that only the selected message is processed for meaning, while the
rest is discarded.
Early Selection: The filter operates early in the processing stream, before semantic
(meaning-based) processing occurs.
Selection Criteria: The filter selects information based on physical attributes, such
as voice pitch, loudness, or location of the sound source.
Limited Capacity: Because attention has limited capacity, only a subset of incoming
information is processed at any given time.

Stages:
1. Sensory Memory:
Function: Briefly holds all incoming sensory information (for about a fraction of a
second) before passing it to the next stage.
You briefly register every sound in your environment before focusing on one.

2. Filter:
Function: Selects which information to pass on based on physical characteristics
such as tone, pitch, or speed. This is akin to a sieve that lets through only certain
particles.
In a crowded room, you focus on your friend’s voice despite other noises, based on its
distinctive pitch and volume.

3. Detector:
Function: Analyzes the information from the filter for its meaning and higher-level
processing.
After filtering your friend's voice, you understand their message and respond
accordingly.

4. Short-Term Memory:
Function: Holds the processed information temporarily (10–15 seconds) and transfers
it to long-term memory for more permanent storage.
Remembering a phone number just long enough to dial it and then storing it in long-
term memory if needed.
Broadbent’s model suggests that the filter occurs early in the processing stream,
before the information is fully analyzed for meaning. This is like a sieve that lets
through only certain characteristics of information.
Broadbent wanted to see how people could focus their attention (selectively attend),
and to do this; he deliberately overloaded them with stimuli.
One of the ways Broadbent achieved this was by simultaneously sending one
message to a person’s right ear and a different message to their left ear. This is called
a split-span experiment.
Split-Scan Experiment:
Method: Participants heard pairs of letters in each ear and were asked to report
the letters in different orders.
Condition 1: Reporting all letters from one ear before switching to the other ear was
easier and resulted in 65% correct reporting.
Condition 2: Reporting letters in the order they were presented (across ears) was
more difficult, with only 20% correct reporting.

Conclusion: Switching attention between channels is challenging, supporting

Broadbent’s model that suggests a difficulty in alternating focus.

Challenges to Broadbent’s Model

Moray’s Study (1959):
 Participants detected their own names in the unattended ear, which
contradicted Broadbent’s claim that such information should be filtered out
before meaningful processing.
Gray and Wedderburn’s “Dear Aunt Jane” Experiment (1960):
Method: Participants wore headphones and listened to two different messages
simultaneously, one in each ear. This setup is known as a dichotic listening task.
The messages were designed to be presented in such a way that they would not be
straightforward to follow if each ear's message were considered in isolation. The
specific messages were:
 In the attended ear: "Dear 7 Jane"
 In the unattended ear: "9 Aunt 6"

Task: Participants were instructed to shadow (repeat out loud) the message from
the attended ear while ignoring the message in the unattended ear.
Findings - Participants reported “Dear Aunt Jane” instead of “Dear 7 Jane,” "—a
coherent sentence that combined parts from both ears. This showed that
participants integrated information from both the attended and unattended
messages.

Attenuation theory-Treisman
This is a modified form of Broadbent’s theory which states that the stimuli that do not
get access to the selective filter at a given moment of time are not blocked
completely. The purpose of selective filter is only to attenuate i.e. weakening the
strength of other stimuli.
Thus, some of the stimuli manage to clear away or escape from selective filter and
reach the higher levels of processing. This is the reason that often some stimuli which
are particularly relevant to the person are noticeable even at a very low level of
intensity.
For example, when one is attentively engaged in talking with a friend in a party and
somebody makes a reference of his name at some distance, even if it is fairly weak, it
is capable of drawing his attention by escaping through the filter.
Treisman carried out dichotic listening tasks using the speech shadowing method.

Dichotic Listening Task: Participants wore headphones and listened to two

different streams of speech, one in each ear.
 She played participants two messages, each presented to a different ear, and
asked the participants to shadow one of them.
  At a certain point in the middle of the messages, the content of the first
message and the second message was switched so that the second continued
the first and vice versa.
 Immediately after the two messages “switched ears,” many participants
repeated one or two words from the “unattended ear.”
 If participants processed the unattended message only when their attentional
filter “lapsed,” it would be very difficult to explain why these lapses always
occurred at the point when the messages switched ears.

Results: Treisman’s results supported the idea that while the attended message
was processed in full, some information from the unattended message was also
processed, but at a reduced strength. This led to the development of her
attenuation model, which proposed that rather than a complete filter, there was an
attenuator that reduced the strength of the unattended message.
Given her research findings, psychologist Anne Treisman (1960) proposed a modified
filter theory, one she called attenuation theory.
Treisman’s Attenuation Theory outlines a two-stage model of attention:

Attenuation Stage:
 Instead of a strict filter, Treisman proposes an attenuator that weakens unattended
messages while preserving the attended message.
 The attenuator analyzes incoming messages based on:
o Physical characteristics (e.g., pitch, speed).
o Language (e.g., syllables, words).
o Meaning (e.g., phrases).
Some meaningful units (such as words or phrases) tend to be processed quite easily.
Words that have subjective importance (such as your name) or that signal danger
(“Fire!” “Watch out!”) Have permanently lowered thresholds; that is, they are
recognizable even at low volumes. You might have noticed yourself that it is hard to
hear something whispered behind you, although you might recognize your name in
whatever is being whispered.
 Analysis proceeds only as far as needed to distinguish the attended message from
the unattended one. For example, if messages differ in pitch, the attenuator may
only need to process physical characteristics to separate them.

Dictionary Unit Stage:

 After attenuation, both messages pass through a dictionary unit, which contains
stored words with varying activation thresholds.
 Words with low thresholds (e.g., the listener’s name) are detected even when
presented weakly, while words with high thresholds require a stronger signal to be
noticed.
 This means that while the attended message is fully processed, some aspects of
the unattended message can still be perceived if they contain significant or familiar
words.
Treisman’s model is considered an intermediate-selection model because it allows for
further selection based on meaning and context later in the processing stage, unlike
Broadbent’s early-selection model which filters messages earlier.

Multimode theory-Johnston &Hainz

The Multimode Theory of attention, proposed by Johnston and Heinz (1978), suggests
that attention is adaptable and selection of information can occur at various points
during processing.
 Multimode Theory posits that attention is not fixed but flexible. Selection can occur
at different stages of processing, ranging from early to late stages.

Three Stages of Processing:

Stage 1: Sensory Representation – Initial sensory information is processed to
form basic sensory representations of stimuli. This stage is associated with early
selection, where attention can be focused on physical characteristics.
Stage 2: Semantic Representation – More complex semantic processing
occurs, creating meaning from the sensory input. This stage can be associated with
intermediate selection, where attention can start to focus on meaning.
Stage 3: Conscious Awareness – At this stage, sensory and semantic
representations become conscious. Late selection is associated with this stage,
where attention involves making decisions based on the full analysis of meaning.
Effort and Task Difficulty: The difficulty of a task involving selection depends on
when the selection occurs. Tasks that require late-stage selection (Stage 3) are
generally more effortful than those that rely on early-stage selection (Stage 1). This is
because late-stage selection involves
processing and evaluating more complex
and meaningful information.

Resource & capacity

allocation model-Kahneman
The Resource and Capacity Allocation
Model of attention, developed by Daniel
Kahneman in 1973, explains how
attention is managed as a limited
cognitive resource. According to this
model, attention is a finite pool of mental
resources that can be allocated to
different tasks based on demands and
priorities. This model emphasizes the
flexible and dynamic nature of attention,
where resource allocation depends on factors like task complexity, individual
motivation, and arousal.

Limited Capacity
Attention is viewed as a limited resource or "capacity." We have only so much mental
energy or cognitive effort available to devote to tasks. The more complex or
demanding a task is, the more of this limited resource it consumes.
Implication: When performing multiple tasks, the brain must allocate attention
resources accordingly. If tasks exceed the available capacity, performance may
degrade, leading to errors or slower responses.
If you're driving while having a conversation, both activities demand attention. If
something unexpected happens on the road, you may struggle to maintain the
conversation as more attention resources are required for driving.

Arousal Level
Arousal refers to the state of wakefulness and mental alertness. According to
Kahneman, arousal influences how much attention capacity is available for allocation.
Moderate arousal typically leads to optimal performance, while very low (drowsiness)
or very high arousal (stress, anxiety) can reduce attention capacity.
Implication: The more alert or engaged we are, the greater the pool of attentional
resources available. However, if arousal levels are too high, attention can become
unfocused, leading to poor task performance.
In a relaxed state, it might be easy to focus on reading. However, during an
emergency, arousal spikes, and attention becomes less controlled, leading to possible
panic or hyperfocus on one element.

Allocation of Attention
The allocation of attention is flexible and determined by task demands, goals, and
personal motivation. The model suggests that attention is distributed based on how
important or urgent the brain perceives different tasks to be. More important or
complex tasks get allocated more attention resources.
Factors Affecting Allocation:
 Enduring Dispositions: Natural tendencies to focus on certain things (e.g., loud
noises or personal interests).
 Momentary Intentions: Current goals or objectives that direct attention (e.g.,
trying to find a street address).
 Evaluation of Demands: The brain evaluates how demanding a task is and
adjusts attention allocation accordingly.
If you are writing an email and hear a loud noise, your attention may shift to the
noise, as it might be perceived as important or urgent, diverting resources away from
writing.

Attention and Task Performance

The amount of attention allocated to a task directly impacts performance. If enough
attention is devoted to a task, performance is typically effective. However, when too
many tasks compete for attention or when capacity is stretched too thin, performance
on one or more tasks will suffer.
Implication: Attention needs to be properly managed for optimal task performance.
Tasks that demand more attention will need a larger share of available resources,
leaving fewer resources for other tasks.
If you try to drive, talk on the phone, and eat at the same time, one or more of those
tasks will likely suffer because attention is spread too thin.

The Central Processor

Kahneman suggested that there is a central processor in the brain responsible for
allocating attention resources. This processor dynamically distributes attention based
on the task's urgency, complexity, and the individual's goals.
Application of Kahneman's Model
 Single-task Performance: If only one task is being performed, all attention
resources can be devoted to it, leading to better performance.
 Multitasking: When multiple tasks are performed simultaneously, attention must
be divided. Tasks with higher demands or perceived importance will receive more
attention, while less important tasks receive fewer resources, leading to potential
performance drops.
 Attention and Arousal Interaction: In real-life scenarios, the optimal level of
arousal is crucial for distributing attention effectively. For example, athletes often
perform best at moderate arousal levels, but too much anxiety or excitement can
cause attention to shift erratically, reducing performance.
Practical Examples
 Studying: When you're focused on studying (a single task), you can allocate most
of your attention to reading and comprehension. If music is playing in the
background, part of your attention may be diverted, potentially reducing study
effectiveness.
 Driving and Phone Use: Kahneman’s model explains why distracted driving is
dangerous. Talking on the phone consumes attention resources that could
otherwise be fully focused on driving, reducing the ability to react quickly to road
hazards.

Schema theory-Neisser.
A schema is a mental framework that helps individuals organize, process, and store
information about their environment.
 Ulric Neisser (1976) offered a completely different conceptualization of attention,
called schema theory.
 He argued that we don’t filter, attenuate, or forget unwanted material. Instead, we
never acquire it in the first place.
 Neisser compared attention to apple picking. The material we attend to is like
apples we pick off a tree—we grasp it. Unattended material is analogous to the
apples we don’t pick.
 Neisser and Becklen (1975) performed a relevant study of visual attention.
They created a “selective looking” task by having participants watch one of two
visually superimposed films.
 One film showed a “hand game,” two pairs of hands playing a familiar hand-
slapping game many of us played as children.
 The second film showed three people passing or bouncing a basketball, or both.
Participants in the study were asked to “shadow” (attend to) one of the films and to
press a key whenever a target event (such as a hand slap in the first film or a pass in
the second film) occurred.

Result
 Neisser and Becklen (1975) found, first, that participants could follow the correct
film rather easily, even when the target event occurred at a rate of 40 per minute
in the attended film.
 Participants ignored occurrences of the target event in the unattended film.
 Participants also failed to notice unexpected events in the unattended film.
For example, participants monitoring the ballgame failed to notice that in the hand
game film, one of the players stopped hand slapping and began to throw a ball to the
other player.
 Neisser (1976) believed that skilled perceiving rather than filtered attention
explains this pattern of performance.
 Neisser and Becklen (1975, pp. 491–492) argued that once picked up, the
continuous and coherent motions of the ballgame (or of the hand game) guide
further pickup; what is seen guides further seeing.
 It is implausible to suppose that special “filters” or “gates,” designed on the spot
for this novel situation, block the irrelevant material from penetrating deeply into
the “processing system.”
 The ordinary perceptual skills of following visually given events “are simply applied
to the attended episode and not to the other.”
Schema theory states that all knowledge is organized into units, and within these
units of knowledge, or schemata (plural), is stored information.
 A schema, then, is generalized description or a conceptual system for
understanding knowledge-how knowledge is represented and how it is used.
 According to this theory, schemata represent knowledge about concepts, objects
and the relationships they have with other objects, situations, events, and
sequences of events, actions and sequences of actions.
Shiffrin and Schneider's theory (1977) distinguishes between controlled and automatic
processes, explaining how they impact attention and performance.