Memory and Cognition

1. Memory and Cognition Topic: Attention Dr. Ellen Campana Arizona State University

2. Attention • Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention • Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes • High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load • Visual Attention • Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention • Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention • Overt: Bottom-up vs. Top-down control • Covert: Location-based vs. Object-based

3. Attention Vocabulary • Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention • Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes • High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load • Visual Attention • Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention • Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention • Overt: Bottom-up vs. Top-down control • Covert: Location-based vs. Object-based

4. Selective Attention Part I

5. Selective Attention “Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem like several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought… It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.” - William James (1890)

6. Selective Attention • Selective Attention: The ability to focus in on one message and ignore all others • Attention is involved in many aspects of cognition • Perception • Memory • Language • Problem-Solving

7. Dichotic Listening Blah blah blah blah blah… Blah blah blah blah blah…

8. Dichotic Listening What does it feel like to shadow something??? Say exactly what the speaker is saying as quickly as you can. Don’t wait for him to finish – start doing it while he is still talking. Did you hear anything that was going on around you while doing it?

9. Attention Models / Theories • Early Models of Selective Attention • Early Filter (Broadbent) • Attenuator Model (Triesman) • Late Filter • Load Model (Lavie)

10. Early Filter Model (Broadbent) • Dichotic Listening Studies • Cherry – participants could only report male / female voice (nothing about meaning) • Moray – participants failed to notice a word repeated 35 times in the unattended ear • Interpretation: Attention acts as a filter or bottleneck • Attended information gets through • Unattended information does not get through

11. Early Filter Model (Broadbent) Messages Sensory Memory Filter Detector To Memory Attended Message • Information processing model from chapter 1 • Not physiological

12. Attenuator Model (Triesman) • Dichotic Listening Studies • Moray – participants heard their own names in unattended ear (Cocktail party effect) • Gray and Wedderburn – Dear Aunt Jane

13. Dichotic Listening 9 Aunt 6 Dear 7 Jane Attended Ear or Attended Channel (Shadowing) Unattended Ear or Unattended Channel (Ignoring) Dear Aunt Jane

14. Attenuator Model (Triesman) • Dichotic Listening Studies • Moray – participants heard their own names in unattended ear (Cocktail party effect) • Gray and Wedderburn – Dear Aunt Jane • Interpretation: Attention acts as a “leaky filter” • Attended information is full strength • Unattended information is attenuated (not blocked)

15. Attenuator Model (Triesman) Unattended Message Messages Attenuator Dictionary Unit To Memory Attended Message • Attenuator • Uses whatever aspects of the messages are necessary in order to separate them (surface characteristics + meaning) • Output = all messages, with the attended message being strongest (unattended messages attenuated)

16. Attenuator Model (Triesman) Unattended Message Messages Attenuator Dictionary Unit To Memory Attended Message • Dictionary Unit • Contains all words, with different activation thresholds • Common or important words have lower thresholds so it doesn’t take much to recognize them

17. START HERE ELLEN!

18. Late Filter Models • Dichotic Listening Study • McKay – Bank (River or Money)

19. Dichotic Listening RIVER He threw stones at the bank. Attended Ear or Attended Channel (Shadowing) Unattended Ear or Unattended Channel (Ignoring) He threw stones at the bank.

20. Dichotic Listening MONEY He threw stones at the bank. Attended Ear or Attended Channel (Shadowing) Unattended Ear or Unattended Channel (Ignoring) He threw stones at the bank.

21. Late Filter Models Unattended ear: RIVER / MONEY Shadowed: They were throwing stones at the bank. • Memory task (afterward) They threw stones toward the side of the river vs. They threw stones at the savings and loan association

22. Late Filter Models • Dichotic Listening Study • McKay – Bank (River or Money) • Interpretation: Much more processing (for meaning) much be happening before the filter • Whole class of models about different mechanisms • Detail beyond scope of this class • Soon to end anyway

23. Attention Models / Theories • Early Models of Selective Attention • Early Filter (Broadbent) • Attenuator Model (Triesman) • Late Filter • Load Model (Lavie)

24. Load-Dependent Processing (Lavie) • There was a lot of evidence for each type of model, and no clear “winner” • Lavie made a critical observation • When tasks were difficult or stimuli were complex, experiments supported the early filter model • When tasks were easy or stimuli were simple, experiments supported attenuator / late filter models • Interpretation: Attention is Load-dependent

25. Attention Vocabulary • Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention • Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes • High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load • Visual Attention • Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention • Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention • Overt: Bottom-up vs. Top-down control • Covert: Location-based vs. Object-based

26. Cognitive Load • Attention has limited capacity • High-load tasks use all resources, leaving nothing for other tasks • Low-load tasks use fewer resources, leaving some available for other things • One way to study attentional load is by using a flanker compatibility task

27. Flanker Compatibility Task • Participants have to look for a particular target item within the circles (say it’s a square) • Push a key whenever you see a square within the circle areas, as quickly as possible • Ignore anything outside the circle areas (distractors) • BUT keep eyes focused on the cross in the center

28. Flanker Compatibility Task

29. Flanker Compatibility Task

30. Flanker Compatibility Task

31. Flanker Compatibility Task • Participants have to look for a particular target item within the circles (say it’s a square) • Push a key whenever you see a square within the circle areas, as quickly as possible • Ignore anything outside the circle areas (distractors) • BUT keep eyes focused on the cross in the center • Compatible distractors: same as target • Incompatible distractors: different from target

32. Flanker Compatibility Task • It took less time for people to correctly respond when there was a compatible distractor • What does that tell us about model of attention? LATE FILTER C = Compatible I = Incompatible

33. Flanker Compatibility Task • That was the low-load condition, because only one circle had an object in it that participants needed to compare against the target • In the high-load condition, there are more objects that might be targets • Task is harder, therefore consumes more resources

34. Flanker Compatibility Task

35. Flanker Compatibility Task • Now people did NOT respond more quickly when there was a compatible distractor • What does that tell us about model of attention? EARLY FILTER C = Compatible I = Incompatible

36. Lessons from the Flanker Task • Low load = late filter, High load = early filter • Just like Lavie’s theory predicts • When the task is easy, it becomes hard to ignore irrelevant information • Resources left over, so unattended info leaks in • When the task is hard, it becomes easy to ignore irrelevant information • No resources left over, so unattended info does not interfere

37. Reading and Coglab Now pause the video and re-read pages 82-91 in the book, from the start of the chapter to “Divided Attention” If you haven’t already done it, do the Stroop Experiment on Coglab

38. Divided Attention Part II

39. Attention Vocabulary • Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention • Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes • High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load • Visual Attention • Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention • Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention • Overt: Bottom-up vs. Top-down control • Covert: Location-based vs. Object-based

40. Divided Attention • Selective attention is the ability (or at least intention) to attend to just one thing • Divided attention is the ability to pay attention to multiple things at once • Driving while talking, listening to music, and thinking about what to do that day • Walking and chewing gum • Depends on: Practice, Task Difficulty

41. Automatic Processing • If you practice a task over and over it can become automatic • Can be done without intention • Consume few resources • Can be combined with other tasks that do consume resources • Reading for comprehension and taking dictation • Impossible at first • Could be done after 85 hours / 17 weeks of practice

42. The Stroop Effect • Name the colors out loud as fast as you can, going from left to right

43. The Stroop Effect

44. The Stroop Effect

45. The Stroop Effect • Which case was faster? • Is naming colors automatic? • How about reading?

46. Automaticity & Intentionality • Schneider and Shiffrin (1977) • Consistent mapping condition • Targets = numbers, distractors = letters • Nothing both target and distractor

47. INSERT VIDEO Consistent Mapping Condition

48. Automaticity & Intentionality • Schneider and Shiffrin (1977) • Consistent mapping condition • Targets = numbers, distractors = letters • Nothing both target and distractor • Became automatic (even with 4 in set)

49. Automaticity & Intentionality

50. Automaticity & Intentionality • Schneider and Shiffrin (1977) • Consistent mapping condition • Targets = numbers, distractors = letters • Nothing both target and distractor • Became automatic (even with 4 in set) • Varied mapping condition • Targets = letters, distractors = letters • Target in one trial could be distractor in the next • Never became automatic