Chapter 4: Attention and Consciousness

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Chapter 4: Attention and Consciousness

Two Main Categories of Attentional Theories

​​​​​​​Filter Theories (selective attention)= trying to select one piece of information and ignore the rest

Broadbent, Treisman, Deutsch & Deutsch

Capacity Theories (divided attention)= multitasking, doing multiple things at the same time

Kahneman, Wickens

Broadbent's Early Selection Model (1958)

says you can only pay attention to one piece of information at a time; the filter blocks out all but one stimulus and only one stimulus gets processed

"All or None"

Data:

Split Span Task: present digits (6-1-8) to left ear at 1/2 second rate and digits (7-4-3) to right ear at 1/2 second rate

subjects report the digits by ear (either right or left), but cannot report by pair (6-7,1-4,8-3)

if the rate is slowed down to 1.5 seconds, subjects can report ear by ear AND pair by pair

Problems:

Gray & Wedderburn (1960) [two undergraduate students]

They conducted the same task as Broadbent (@ 1/2 second rate), but changed the items:

the left ear (attended)= Dear-7-Jane

the right ear (unattended)= 4-Aunt-9

subjects actually reported either "Dear-Aunt-Jane" or "4-7-9", which showed that information in unattended ears was processed

Treisman's Attenuation Theory (1964)

says the filter weakens the strength of the information paid attention to, but still only one stimulus is fully processed

"All or Some"

Both Broadbent's and Treisman's models are "Early Filter Models", where filtering happens before processing

Data:

​​​​​​​conducted a "Switch Ears" experiment

Experiment 1: performed a shadowing task where they would shadow a physics story in the left ear, while a gardening story was presented in the right ear; the subjects repeated information said in the shadowing ear

as they were shadowing, Treisman switched ear messages, BUT the subjects would continue to shadow the physics information for several seconds (-->meaningful processing happens in the unattended ear)

Experiment 2: subjects were told to switch ears while they shadowed (the message to switch was either presented to the attended or unattended ear

if the message to switch was in the attended ear: 95% would switch, but if in unattended ear: 0%

if the message to switch was preceded by the participant's name in the attended ear: 100% switched, but if in unattended ear: 30% (more likely to be 75%)

Implications:

​​​​​​​there is very efficient processing of attended information

other messages go through a filter, so they do not go through at full strength

some meaningful analysis can come from messages in the unattended ear

Deutsch & Deutsch (1963)

say we process ALL things, but can only respond or attend to one of them at a time

cocktail party effect= able to drown out all conversations around you to focus on your conversation; BUT we are primed to attend to specific information, such as our names or things that we are interested in

Attentional Resource Theories (CAPACITY)

Example of ​​​​​​​inattentional blindness is the gorilla study (focused on something, to where something else is not noticed)

Example of change blindness is the door study (even when strangers asking for directions change, you don't notice)

Kahneman's Single Capacity Theory and Wicken's Multiple Resource Theory

Kahneman's Single Capacity Theory (1973)

says that we have 1 pool of attentional resources and he tested with a dual task methodology (doing two tasks at once)

Problems with his theory:

sometimes people can do two complicated tasks at once, but can't do two simple tasks at once

Wicken's Multiple Resource Theory (1980)

says that we have several pools of attentional resources

information processing stages (encoding, central processing, responding)

modalities (visual vs. auditory)

codes of representation (spatial vs. verbal)

type of response (manual vs. vocal)

if two tasks use the same resources, there is task interference; if they use different resources, there is no task interference

Automaticity

controlled processes= require extensive resources and conscious control

automatic processes= don't require any (or few) resources and don't require conscious control (typing, driving, chick sexing)

Attention and Driving

If driving is an automatic process, is it safe to use your cell phone? Several states and countries have banned the use of cell phones while driving

Redelmeier & Tibshirani (1997)

examined cell phone records for 699 drivers who were in accidents

found that risk of accident was 45 TIMES HIGHER when cell phones were being used (hands-free devices were not better)

Strayer, Drews, & Johnston (2003)

tested subjects in a driving simulator while they had a cell phone conversation (hands-free)

Results: braking time while you drive only (780 ms) and driving time while on phone (912 ms)

causes the car to travel 50 feet further if you hit the breaks while going 70 mph

Other Results:

cell phone use during driving simulation resulted in more rear-ends, slower responses to signals, greater probability of missed traffic signals/signs, and poor memory for signs

resulted in as poor driving performance as being legally drunk

21% of teen drivers involved in fatal accidents were DISTRACTED BY THEIR CELL PHONES

the following activities have less or no impairment:

conversing with a passenger, listening to music, books on tape/CD, shadowing task

walking and talking on a cell phone while navigating campus caused 75% of those on their phones to not notice a clown unicycling across the middle of campus (INATTENTIONAL BLINDNESS)

Subliminal Perception

In 1957, movie audiences in New Jersey had subliminal messages "eat popcorn" and "drink Coca-Cola" in their movie

supposedly resulted in increased sales, but the researcher lied about its effectiveness [his spreading the word about the experiment was more responsible for the increased sales]

Advertisers are using this same idea:

to help lose weight, stop smoking; rock music recordings may contain hidden "satanic" messages; the embedding of erotic messages in liquor ads; imperceptibly printing the word "sex" on crackers

People have different subjective thresholds than each other; also they have different ones themselves throughout the day

Evidence

Rymer (1987) looked at the effect of conversation type on surgery results

found that negative comments correlated with anxiety/complications and positive comments correlated with better health and shorter hospital stays

these results seemed biased because they comment type most likely occurred because of how well the surgery was going!

Numerous studies have not found effects of subliminal messages on behavior (Moore, 1995)

Numerous studies HAVE found effects of subliminal messages on EMOTION (Carver and Wellens, 1987)