Slide 1

ATTENTION
EXP3604C




Slide 2

Attention
Selective (focused) or Divided
Focused: attend to 1 thing, ignore the others
Divided: attend to multiple things (multitask)
Overt or Covert
Overt: look directly at
Covert: attend w/out looking


Two main themes in research on attention are 1) the ability to focus our attention selectively on
a primary task or object, while at the same time trying to avoid attending to other information.
Other times we wish to multi-task, and have to try to attend to many things at the same time. It
is interesting that we can decide how focused or split we wish our attention to be depending on
context.

Theme 2) is related to the fact that even though we often point our eyes toward what were
trying to attend to, or move our head to orient our ears, -- i.e., overt actions that are an
indication of what were paying attention to we dont have to make these overt (observable)
actions. In fact, attention can be directed covertly since it actually resides in the brain and not
in the sensory system. Imagine having a conversation with someone but trying to listen to
someone else behind you, or to sounds outside, without your conversation partner noticing.



Slide 3

Selective or Divided?


An example of divided attention. The player has to attend to several things on screen at once.



Slide 4

Selective or Divided?


The only way to reliably find Waldo is to focus attention (selectively) on the spot youre
currently looking at while ignoring everything else



Slide 5

Overt or Covert?


Clearly, they are all paying attention to something up high. Theyre eyes and other body
language can be used to infer what they are focusing on. This is overt attention.



Slide 6

Overt or Covert?


Even though her eyes give her away from the front, she is being careful to prevent her body
language from indicating from behind that shes listening to their conversation (covert
attention)



Slide 7

SELECTIVE ATTENTION
Focus on one thing, ignore everything else


We selectively attend often in tasks like those pictured



Slide 8

Selective Attention
Ignoring unwanted information
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyVjd8TpOXs


Some examples

- Al Gore can get some work done despite the distracting clutter.
- The video shows what its like talking to people in a crowded convention center a difficult
place to focus your attention on the conversation youre trying to have.



Slide 9

Filtering Tasks
Dichotic Listening
Filter out some information
Shadowing
Repeat 1 message aloud


We study selective attention by having people do filtering tasks.

The participant hears 2 messages 1 in each ear and is tasked with ignoring one and paying
attention only to the other. This is called dichotic listening (which is a type of filtering task).

They are also instructed to shadow the message they are supposed to be selectively attending
to (i.e., to repeat it out loud see image) thats how the researcher knows they are actually
doing the task as requested.

Later, the experimenter will ask questions about what they heard in order to study selective
attention



Slide 10

Theories of Selective Attention
Early Selection
Bottom up processing
No meaning analyzed before consciousness
Late Selection
Bottom up processing
meaning is processed, but may not reach consciousness


Early selection models of selective attention filter out unwanted information shortly after it is
perceived. i.e., important perceptual details are selected early (while unwanted perceptual
information is filtered out) and the selected content gets to go further into the brain for
additional processing (e.g., the meaning of the words heard).

Late selection theories suggest that ALL the incoming perceptual information is processed, and
then meaning is processed (e.g., word meaning), and ONLY THEN does some of it get selected to
make its way into consciousness.



Slide 11

Broadbents Filter Model
An early selection model
a.k.a. A bottleneck theory


The most prominent theories of attention are collectively referred to as bottleneck theories.
They all assume that a lot of information comes in from the environment, but due to our
processing capacity limits, only a little of this information gets processed and into consciousness
at a time.



Slide 12

Broadbents Filter Model
1. Sensory Memory
Incoming info store
E.g., visual, auditory processing
2. Filter
Allows through only attended message
3. Detector
Processes meaning (semantics)
All info that gets through is processed
4. Short-term Memory
i.e., into consciousness


One of the most prominent bottleneck theories is Broadbents filter model.

This is an early selection model.

All the sensory information from the environment comes in through our senses (stage 1), and
then is immediately filtered in stage 2 to prohibit all but the stuff we want to get through for
additional processing (i.e., we can direct our attention, and that is what determines what gets
through).

Only then does meaning get processed (the detector in stage 3), and only after that does this
information make its way into our consciousness



Slide 13

Evidence to the Contrary
Cocktail Party Effect
Processing meaning!
9
7
6
Dear
Aunt
Jane


BUT if selective attention relies on early selection of important information for further
processing, then how do we explain the cocktail party effect? Imaging having a conversation
at a party, focusing attention on the people in front of you and ignoring all the noise behind you,
when someone on the other side of the room says your name. You notice! How can that
happen if the other information in the room isnt getting processed for meaning (as in
Broadbents early selection model)?

Another example: the Dear Aunt Jane Study. During the dichotic listening task, information
like that above (in the slide) would be presented. If the participant is tasked with listening to
the left ear, they should hear: Dear 7 Jane. But when asked later what they heard, they reply
Dear Aunt Jane. So the unattended information coming in from the right ear must be getting
some processing for meaning. This isnt predicted by Broadbents early selection model it is a
contradiction to that theory.



Slide 14

Treismans Attenuation Theory
Selection takes place at needed level
Example:
Male vs. female voice early filtering based on sound
Female vs. female voice later filtering based on
meaning


Treisman suggests a theoretical modification to allow early selection models to remain viable.
She argues that we can do early selection based on stimulus surface features e.g., male vs.
female voice. But if this information isnt available (e.g., 2 female voices) then it is not possible
to selectively attend based on this feature, and both voices go on for further processing. Once
meaning is processed it becomes possible to filter from then on (i.e., filter out what you dont
want to enter consciousness and memory).





Slide 15

Treismans Attenuation Theory
Unattended messages are attenuated
Made thinner
Attended message gets more processing
Is amplified
Dictionary unit processes meaning if needed
Thresholds
Some words always get processed (Fire!, your name)


Treisman suggests that some information always gets through for meaning processing. Your
name or important words like fire always get processed. But for the most part you can limit
the processing in terms of meaning to what you want to focus on.



Slide 16

Late Selection Models
Meaning is always processed at some level
Can influence if attended to
then Which is closer to what you
heard?
They threw stones toward
The side of the river
They threw stones at the
savings and loan
They threw
stones at the
bank
Attended
money
Unattended


Other theorists argue that ALL incoming information first gets perceptual processing, and then
gets meaning processing, and only THEN does filtering occur (i.e., late selection of information
to get into consciousness and memory)

This is demonstrated by the example study above.



Slide 17

Attention & Cognitive Resources


Attention interacts with the amount of cognitive resources we have available at a given time.

The circles above represent the total cognitive capacity we have at our disposal. The colored
part indicates how much of this capacity is being used by the task were primarily engaged in.
So the image on the left shows that if our primary task is a low cognitive load task (i.e., an easy
task), then we have a lot of cognitive capacity left to think about other things. A high cognitive
load task (right) eats up all our available resources, and we are unable to multi-task.



Slide 18



Some real world examples. Driving on a country road or relaxing in front of the TV leaves
enough resources to think about other things. Not so for biking in the city or driving and talking
on the phone.



Slide 19

B A B
A B A
X C X
B C B
D A D
X B X
B D B
A C A
X A X
Flanker task
Respond to A or B with left hand
Respond to C or D with right hand
Respond based on MIDDLE letter!


The flanker task is a simple experimental task designed to examine our ability to selectively
attend. The participant is to quickly respond with their left hand if the center letter is either an
A or B. If a C or D, they are to quickly respond with their right hand as they go through the
sequence of letter triplets one by one (i.e., imagine each row of 3 letters is shown on the screen
one at a time, and the participant is to respond as soon as they can once the letters appear)





Slide 20

0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
e.g., XAX, XCX e.g.,ABA, DCD e.g., BCB, DAD
neutral compatible incompatible
R
e
s
p
o
n
s
e

t
i
m
e

(
m
s
)
Implies early or late selection? (write
answer)
Attention & Cognitive Resources
Unintentional processing!


Response time is fastest if the letters that surround the target (center letter) are in the same
response category (i.e., compatible). See the middle bar in the chart.

Response time is slowest if the flankers (i.e., the letters that flank the target on each side) are
from the opposite response category (see the right-most bar).

These results indicate that even when we try to ignore irrelevant information, it is difficult.

This argues for late selection models, since the flanker meaning is clearly being processed in
order to provide this interference.



Slide 21

Task Irrelevant Stimuli
Interfere: you process anyway!!


The Stroop task is a classic example of interference from irrelevant information.

Try naming the color of the font from each word in the list as fast as you can. Dont read the
words, just say the colors as fast as possible! (Really, try it!)

Did the word meaning slow you down? (I.e., did that automatic process of reading interfere
with what you were trying to focus attention on?)



Slide 22

A
B
O
O
O
O
O
C
B
O
O
O
O
O
B
D
O
O
O
O
O
B
A
P
F
R
S
K
D
A
J
P
L
M
G
A
C
H
N
F
Q
Y
compatible
incompatible
incompatible
compatible
incompatible
incompatible
Cognitive Load Reduces Interference!!
Flanker task: target (A,B,C, or D) in the circle, distractor alongside


Amazingly, if you make the flanker task more difficult like on the right (the participant has to
respond quickly to the target that appears in the circle, although there are a lot of other
irrelevant letters) people actually experience less interference from the flanker (the letter
appearing outside the circle).

Can you guess why this might happen?! (Really, try to answer this before going on)





Slide 23

0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
compatible incompatible compatible incompatible
low load low load high load high load
Hi-load: Flanker Interference Gone!!


These are hypothetical average response times for the 4 conditions shown in the previous slide.

Under low cognitive load (the easy task in RED), there is a big difference between compatible
and incompatible flankers (compare the height of each red bar).

In the high load conditions (YELLOW), though, the compatibility or incompatibility of the flanker
becomes irrelevant.

Why??






Slide 24



Some real world examples.

Along the top sitting in the bar watching a game doesnt require much of your cognitive
resources. In this case, the person could become distracted by the people celebrating behind
him.

Along the bottom playing a video game can consume most of our available resources. In this
case, the person wouldnt be distracted by other things going on behind him.

This explains the flanker task data in the previous slide. If all your cognitive resources are
already occupied, other things in the environment cant distract us as much. In fact, we might
miss them almost entirely. If you have a lot of free resources, you have extra capacity to notice
and be distracted by other things.





Slide 25

Endogenous/Exogenous Attention
Endogenous
Internally initiated
i.e., goals
Exogenous
Externally initiated
i.e., environment


Attention can be directed either from internal thoughts or by external events.

In the endogenous examples, you initiate where your attention goes (find a word, find
something in briefcase). In the exogenous example, the ball flying at your face will dictate
where your attention is! (exogenous means an external event)



Slide 26

OVERT, COVERT
ATTENTION




Slide 27

Overt Attention
Obvious attention shifting
Eyes move (other parts of body?)
Saccades, fixations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsU1Yb6wkJ0&feature=related
Eye Tracking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo_a2cfBUGc


Eye movements indicate where a person is focusing attention.

Eye tracking devices can be used to record where a person is looking and for how long. From
this we infer when and where the persons attention was! This is valuable for design and for
understanding cognition as it unfolds in time.

Watch the videos to see examples of saccades (individual eye movements) and what can be
recorded with eye tracking devices.



Slide 28

Overt Attention Bottom-up
Feature salience (prominence)
Drives attention
Corners, edges


Overt attention can be driven by exogenous factors.

This is a bottom up processes (i.e., driven by the visual system, not by higher-level thoughts).
Certain features are more telling than others. While looking at a face, for instance, we focus
mostly on eyes and mouth this is where the most variation lies from moment to moment. The
image on left shows eye-tracker data red means more time spent looking at these spots.

The image on the right shows the features tracked by software designed to classify the emotion
a person is expressing. Notice its mostly eyes and mouth information.



Slide 29

Overt Attention Top-down
Make Tea (fill the kettle)
just in time eye movement


Endogenous goals can also exert control over where our overt attention cues (e.g., eye
movements) are directed.

When placed in this scene and asked to make tea, peoples eyes first look for the pitcher, and
then look at the faucet only when it is needed. This is opposed to planning these things out in
advance and looking back and forth to see where everything is. This indicates something
valuable about how attention and cognition progress over time.



Slide 30

DIVIDED ATTENTION
Attend to multiple things at once




Slide 31

Can we Really Divide Attention?
Sure we can
But not always!


We divide our attention all day long.

But some types of divided attention are very difficult. Can we really listen to talk radio and
read at the same time (not really)? Or listen to 2 conversations at the same time (not really)?

We can rapidly switch back and fourth between tasks, but it is difficult.



Slide 32

Automatic vs. Controlled Processing
Controlled Processing
Have to think about what youre doing!
Automatic Processing
Dont have to think about it
Examples?


One of the reasons were able to divide our attention between tasks is because some things
become easier as we gain experience with them.

All tasks start out as controlled tasks- they require active attention to what were doing.
Imagine when you were first learning to type how slow, effortful and mistake prone this was.
Eventually it becomes an automatic process and you can do it without thinking about it.

In fact, thinking about what were doing too much during an automatic processing task can
actually cause us to make mistakes!!



Slide 33

Controlled vs. Automatic


Making a sandwich likely doesnt become automatic, although if you work at Subway it might
move in that direction!

Flying a plane likely involves a combination of controlled and automatic tasks.





Slide 34

Divided Attention Lab Study
Do 2 tasks simultaneously
Hold info in memory
Look at other info (and make a decision)
7 4
8
TARGET
X R
T Y
Any target items?


A classic study of divided attention looks at our ability to do multiple things at once, especially
when transitioning from a controlled to an automatic task.

The participant first briefly sees the target square (which can have 1-4 items in it), followed by a
long series of squares with letters and numbers. These are presented at an extremely fast rate!
The task is to then decide whether any of the elements from the target square were shown in
the rapid sequence.



Slide 35

7 4
8
K R
M G
T U
X J
G P
W U
L A
Q C
S Z
B N
J N
W M
R 4
G P
E F
S L
E G
K X
A H
T B


(This demo works in the PPT version of these slides just use an arrow key to move through the
squares rapidly)



Slide 36

From Controlled to Automatic Processing


People are initially terrible at this task. In fact their performance is at chance (like a coin flip;
see trial 0 in the chart).

Over a long series of trials, they actually become able to do the task, and in fact it becomes
effortless (automatic).

At that point they are very good at doing these 2 things at once holding the target in memory
while viewing the series of items that follow it, and then making a decision. (the up arrow at
trial 600 shows the point where the task probably becomes automatic)



Slide 37

From Controlled to Automatic Processing
Dividing attention gets easier with experience!
Performance gets better!




Slide 38

ATTENTION & VISUAL
PERCEPTION


Attention can interact with what we actually perceive visually



Slide 39

Inattentional Blindness


Inattentional blindness means that we will not see details that appear in places where our
attention is not focused.

See the video for a classic demonstration! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pK0BQ9CUHk

This indicates that our attention is strikingly limited in scope, even though we dont realize it!!!



Slide 40

Inattentional Blindness
If not paying attention, you can miss things in plain sight!


See next slide



Slide 41

Change Blindness


What is different in these 2 images?





Slide 42



If the images are made to overlap, and one were to toggle back and forth between them, it is
immediately obvious what the difference is between the images (a flower appears/disappears
in the bottom right portion of the image; see previous slide)

(in the PPT version of these slides, you can see the difference easily on this slide by using an
arrow key to go back and forth between images)



Slide 43

What does this tell us about attention?
Write answers
Need focused attention to detect change (if orienting response
isnt available)
In mental representation rather than in the visual system!
http://www.youtube.com/v/vBPG_OBgTWg


The results of studies like these tell us something about how attention works.

They suggest attention is like a spotlight a narrow beam that we can point and fix on a
location or object for cognitive processing. And it is slow and effortful to move it around a
scene, as opposed to some of the rapid/automatic things that the visual system does.

The video shows the now classic demonstration of change blindness actually swapping out 2
different people in a conversation!!!!