Outline• Attention

» Categorizing Attention

» Visual attention◊ The spotlight metaphor

» Selection models◊ Early vs. late selection

» Attention as a resource

» Driven to distraction

» Hemineglect

» Consciousness

Study Question.• Describe four different meanings of Attention.• Compare and contrast endogenous and exogenous orienting.• What is the red dot test and how is it used to test for self-awareness.

04/19/23

Attention

• Attention, everyone knows what it is» Magicians know how to use it

◊ The amazing colour changing card trick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dL-bMorTFI

Attention

• Ashcroft’s six meanings of attention» Input Attention

◊ Alertness and arousal

◊ Orienting reflex

◊ The spotlight metaphor and search

» Controlled Attention◊ Selective attention

◊ Mental resources and conscious processing

◊ Supervisory attentional system

Attention

• Updated to four meanings of attention» Alertness and arousal

» Orienting and searching

» Filtering and selecting

» Mental resources and conscious processing

• Attention as a process» Attention is an activity within the cognitive system

• Attention as a resource» Attention is a mental commodity that fuels the cognitive system

Attention

Easy Task

Medium Task

Difficult Task

ArousalLow High

Per

form

ance

High

Low

• Alertness and Arousal» Tonic arousal and the Yerkes-Dodson law

Attention

• Alertness and Arousal» Phasic arousal: Alertness

◊ Posner & Boies’ (1971) dual task experiment

Time (sec)

Warning

RT

(m

s)

600

500

400

300First

LetterSecondLetter

-2-4 0 0.5 1 1.5 2

Attention

• Orienting» The orienting reflex or response

◊ The what and where pathways

WHEREWHERE

WHATWHAT

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)

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

Attention

• Orienting» The spotlight model

◊ Posner’s cuing procedure: Endogenous orienting

+

-->

--> X

Valid (80%)

+

<--

<-- X

Invalid (20 %)

+

<->

<-> X

Neutral

Attention

• Orienting» The spotlight model

◊ Posner’s cuing procedure: Exogenous orienting

+

|

X

Valid (50%)

+

+

+

|

X

Invalid (50 %)

+

+

+

| |

X

Neutral

+

+

Attention

• Orienting» The spotlight model

◊ Posner’s cuing procedure

Condition

RT

(m

s)

450

400

350

300

Valid Neutral Invalid

Attention

• Orienting» The spotlight model

◊ The spotlight and visual search– Johnson et al.’s (1995) suggestion

Pop-out -> Input attentionConjunction search -> Controlled

attention– Relation to endogenous and exogenous attention

Doughnuts ,TV, Pork rinds, Football, Cheap meat, Beer ...

Doughnuts TV

Pork rindsFootball

Cheap meatBeer

WorkDieting

Romantic moviesLiterature

OperaBallet

Attention

• Filtering and selecting» Selective versus divided attention

◊ Dual message vs. dual task

» Shadowing experiments

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?

RSensoryMemory

Long-term

Memory

FILTER

PatternRecognition

SELECTION

Short-term

Memory

S

Attention

• Filtering and selecting» Broadbent’s all-or-nothing filter

174

683

Attention

• Filtering and selecting» Problems with the all-or-nothing filter

◊ Moray’s Experiment

TableHorseChairDeskPaperHouse

TreeRock

HomerBarnStreet

Table, horse, chair, Homer,

doohh!.

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

Attention

• Filtering and selecting» Treisman’s Attenuation Model

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

Attention

• Filtering and selecting» The Deustch - Norman model

Daniel Kahneman

Attention

• Attention as a mental resource» Kahneman’s model

• Attention as a mental resource » Resolving the locus of the bottleneck » Johnston & Heinz’s (1978) multimode theory

◊ Measured shadowing resources using a dual task procedure.◊ Shadowing based on pitch (early) or semantic category (late)◊ Hit a button when a dot appeared on a screen (detection).

» Results

433 ms 5.3%

310 ms n/a

No list 1 list 2 lists 2 lists (pitch)

(semantic)Detection timeShadowing errors

370 ms 1.4%

482 ms 20.5%

Attention

(Exogenous Orienting?)

Attention

• Automaticity» Posner & Snyder’s characterization

Automatic Controlled (Conscious)– Without intention - With intention

– Awareness is not necessary - Awareness is necessary

– Requires few resources - Resource demanding

• Awareness and Automaticity» Approaches to dissociations

◊ Simple dissociations– H.M. and procedural memory– E.g., Sidis’ Dissertation

◊ Double dissociations– Complete separability of two processes

• Clinical dissociations• The processes in opposition approach

Attention

• Acquiring Automaticity» Mowbray’s Study» Spelke et al.’s study» The disadvantages of Automaticity

◊ It can be hard to undo– C.f. Spontaneous recovery.

◊ There are times when we ought to be attending, but do not.– Barshi and Healy’s study (Automatic proof-reading)

Attention

• Acquiring Automaticity» The disadvantages of Automaticity

◊ Inattentional blindness

◊ The original study

Attention

Demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkn3wRyb9Bk

Attention

• The cell phone diversion» Strayer’s Research

◊ Used a driving simulator– Single vs. dual task

– Hands free vs. hand held

No difference

◊ Can drivers recognize objects that they have fixated on?– Recognition accuracy for fixated objects about half when conversing

Even when fixation duration is equated performance was far worse

◊ The inattentional blindness hypothesis– Cell-phone conversation disrupts performance by diverting attention

from the external environment associated with the driving task to the cellphone converstation.

Attention

• The cell phone diversion» Strayer’s Research

◊ What about strategic reallocation?– There are important and unimportant objects

◊ Two-Alternative forced choice recognition – Drivers rated the importance of the items.

◊ Performance was significantly poorer in the dual task. – even when fixation duration is controlled.

– Absolutely no effect of the importance of the object on the inattentional blindness effect.

Attention

• The cell phone diversion» Strayer’s Research

◊ ERP study– The P300: Related to attentional allocation.

• Larger P300 leads to better memory.

• Decreases in P300 is associated with complex tasks that draw resources.

◊ Car tailing paradigm. – EEG starts measuring when car ahead breaks (randomly)

Attention• The cell phone diversion

» Strayer’s Research◊ ERP study

– 50% reduction in the amplitude of the P300 • Slower reactions and fewer processing

resources.

Attention• The cell phone diversion

» Strayer’s Research◊ Conversing on the phone vs. with a passenger

◊ Instructed to drive 8 miles down a freeway and exit at a truck stop.

– Only 12% of drivers with a passenger missed the exit.

– About 50% talking on a cell phone missed the exit

• The passengers assisted the drivers

Attention• The cell phone diversion

» Strayer’s Research◊ Conversing and driving vs. drinking and driving

– Car-tailing paradigm

– Compared .08% alcohol intoxication with hands held and hands free.

No differences were observed between the cell phone conditions

Attention• The cell phone diversion

» Strayer’s Research◊ Conversing and driving vs. drinking and driving

– Summary of results

• Hemineglect (hemi-inattention)» “A disruption in the ability to look at something in the (often) left

visual field of attention and pay attention to it.”◊ From Phantoms… : The Lost World

Attention

See previous links to Phantoms in the Brain

• Anasognosia (denial of illness)» From “Phantoms”… The Sound of One Hand Clapping

Consciousness

See previous links to Phantoms in the Brain

Consciousness

• Some definitions» Sentience: Refers to the subjectivity of consciousness» Qualia: The properties of our subjective, phenomenology

awareness» Unconscious: Processes that are outside of

consciousness.» Self -knowledge: First person awareness

Consciousness

• Cartesian dualism» The theater of of the mind

• Materialism» The brain enables the mind» But can it be studied?

◊ Thomas Nagel: What is it like to be a bat?– Subjective nature of consciousness

Consciousness

• Can consciousness be studied empirically?» Four Answers

1. No - it is metaphysical– Dualism

– The colour-blind neurophysiologist

– Thomas Nagel

2. No - it is beyond our cognitive ability– Not a full self-observing system

– New Mysterians

Cognitive Closure - We do not have the intellectual ability to solve extremely complicated problems.

Consciousness

• Can consciousness be studied empirically?» Four Answers

3. Yes - but we do not have the technology yet4. Yes - and we are very close to an acceptable answer

◊ Neuro-philosophy◊ The ‘hard’ problem

(From Wikipedia)Why should physical processing give rise to a rich inner life at all?How is it that some organisms are subjects of experience?Why does awareness of sensory information exist at all?Why do qualia exist?Why is there a subjective component to experience?Why aren't we philosophical zombies?Phenomenal Natures are categorically different from behavior

Consciousness

• Awareness» Helmholtz’s Unconscious Inference

◊ Unconscious influences vs. cognitive control– Cognitive product vs. cognitive process distinction

– Memory as an object vs. memory as a tool

◊ Jacoby’s false recognition experiment– Full versus divided attention

– Nonfamous names learned (Sabastian Weisdorf)

– Probability of Judging a name famous

Famous Name Nonfamous NameNew New OldCondition

Full Attention .54 .18 .13Divided Attention .49 .14 .28

Consciousness

• Awareness» Typology of implicit processing

◊ Classical conditioning

◊ Priming– Spreading activation

◊ Motor skills– Procedural memory

◊ Non-associative learning– Implicit learning of grammar

» The objective - subjective threshold distinction» Blindsight

• Self awareness» Self-recognition in humans

◊ The Paint test– 16 - 18 months

◊ Recognition in pictures– 2 yrs

» In other species◊ Chimps other great apes

◊ Some sea mammals

◊ Elephants

◊ Magpies

Consciousness

Consciousness

• Intentionality» Pain is in brain.

◊ Phantom limb sensation

» Free will◊ An illusion? Libet’s research

– Stimulate skin on right hand, stimulate right cortex (left hand area)

– Judge when the two are occurring simultaneously

– Counterintuitive finding

The cortex needs to be stimulated 1/2 s earlier

– Same differential when the thalamus is stimulated instead of skin

Consciousness

• Intentionality» Free will

◊ An illusion? Libet’s research– Used EEG to measure activity in motor cortex

– Observers indicated when they had decided to make a movement

You start making a movement 1/2 s before you decide to make it!

◊ Soon (2008)– Used MRI to find activity that could predict future decisions

◊ Conscious experience as ad hoc revisionism– Stalinistic vs. Orwellian revisionism

» The executive veto◊ Free “won’t”?