Attention and Perceptual

Processes
Dr. Sneha Burman
Assistant Professor of Psychology
SHSS Block II
Jain (Deemed-to-be) University
 Attention
• According to William James ”Attention is the taking
possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one
out of what may seem several simultaneously possible
objects or trains of thought…It implies withdrawal from
some things in order to deal effectively with others.”
• Attention is the ability to actively process specific
information in the environment while tuning out other
details.
• Attention is limited in terms of both capacity and
duration, so it is important to have ways to effectively
manage the attentional resources we have available in
order to make sense of the world.
 Types of attention
• Selective Attention: Selective attention is the
process of directing our awareness to relevant
stimuli while ignoring irrelevant stimuli in the
environment.
• This is an important process as there is a limit
to how much information can be processed at
a given time, and selective attention allows us
to tune out insignificant details and focus on
what is important.
• Selective attention are of two types:
– Visual
– Auditory
• Examples:
• Listening to your favorite podcast while
driving to work
• Having a conversation with a friend in a
crowded place
• Reading your book on a public transport bus
 Broad-bents filter model
• Broadbent (1958) proposed that physical characteristics of
messages are used to select one message for further
processing and that all others are lost
• Information from all of the stimuli presented at any given
time enters an unlimited capacity sensory buffer. One of
the inputs is then selected on the basis of its physical
characteristics for further processing by being allowed to
pass through a filter.
• Because we have only a limited capacity to process
information, this filter is designed to prevent
the information-processing system from becoming
overloaded.
• The inputs not initially selected by the filter remain
briefly in the sensory buffer store, and if they are not
processed they decay rapidly. Broadbent assumed that
the filter rejected the unattended message at an early
stage of processing.
• According to Broadbent the meaning of any of the
messages is not taken into account at all by the
filter. All semantic processing is carried out after the
filter has selected the message to pay attention to. So
whichever message(s) restricted by the bottleneck (i.e.
not selective) is not understood.
 Treisman's Attenuation Model

• Treisman (1964) agrees with Broadbent's theory of an

early bottleneck filter. However, the difference is that
Treisman's filter attenuates rather than eliminates the
unattended material.

• Attenuation is like turning down the volume so that if

you have 4 sources of sound in one room (TV, radio,
people talking, baby crying) you can turn down or
attenuate 3 in order to attend to the fourth.

• This means that people can still process the meaning of

the attended message(s).
• In her experiments, Treisman demonstrated that
participants were still able to identify the contents of an
unattended message, indicating that they were able to
process the meaning of both the attended and unattended
messages.
• Treisman carried out dichotic listening tasks using the
speech shadowing method. Typically, in this method
participants are asked to simultaneously repeat aloud
speech played into one ear (called the attended ear) whilst
another message is spoken to the other ear.
• For example, participants asked to shadow "I saw the girl
furniture over" and ignore "me that bird green jumping
fee", reported hearing "I saw the girl jumping over"
Triesman’s Attenuation Model
 Evaluation of Treisman's Model

• 1. Treisman's Model overcomes some of the problems associated

with Broadbent's Filter Model, e.g. the Attenuation Model can
account for the 'Cocktail Party Syndrome'.

• 2. Treisman's model does not explain how exactly semantic analysis

works.

• 3. The nature of the attenuation process has never been precisely

specified.

• 4. A problem with all dichotic listening experiments is that you can

never be sure that the participants have not actually switched
attention to the so called unattended channel.
 Divided attention
• Divided attention could be defined as our brain's
ability to attend to two different stimuli at the
same time, and respond to the multiple demands
of your surroundings.
• Divided attention is a type of simultaneous
attention that allows us to process different
information sources and successfully carry out
multiple tasks at a time. This cognitive skills is
very important, as it allows us to be more
efficient in our day-to-day lives.
• Our ability to attend to multiple stimuli and do various
tasks at a time does have its limits.
• When you divide your attention, the efficiency with
which you do these actions is decreased, and you will
almost certainly perform poorly.
• Interference is the term used to describe when a
person has a hard time attending to two stimuli at a
time. We see interference when the brain is only able
to process a certain amount of information.
• However, cognitive training can help improve divided
attention, and as a consequence, the ability to do more
than one activity at a time.
 Examples :
• A restaurant attendant has to take and
remember different orders from multiple
tables and communicate them with the chef
• Most cab drivers like to strike up
conversations or engage in small talk. They
drive, focus on the road as well as talk to
passengers at the same time
• A teacher needs to educate, train and connect
with a classroom full of students
 Kahneman’s Model
• Kahneman’s model of divided attention proposes a
model of attention which is based around the idea of
mental efforts. This is a description of how demanding
the processing of a particular input might be.
• Some tasks might be relatively automatic(in that they
make few demands in terms of mental effort) despite
the fact they have a high information load.
• Kahneman thus believes in the existence of a Central
Processor which operates a Central Allocation Policy,
constantly evaluating the demands made by each task
and adjusting attention accordingly.
 Kahneman proposes that
• Some activities are more demanding(and therefore require more mental
effort than others

• The total available processing capacities may be increased or decreased by

other factors such as arousal

• Several activities can be carried out at the same time , provided that their
total effort does not exceed the available capacity

• Rules or strategies exist which determine allocation of resources to

various activities and to various stages of processing. Attentional capacity
will therefore reflect the demands made at the perceptual level, the level
at which the input is interpreted or committed to memory and the
response selection stage
• Momentary intention: A conscious decision to
allocate attention to certain aspects of the
environment.
• Enduring disposition: An automatic influence
where people direct their attention.
 Other Types of Attention
• Sustained attention: ability to maintain
attention resources and respond correctly.
• Visual attention: ability to pay attention to
stimuli that are in our field of vision. This is
related to spatial aspects.
• Auditory attention: ability to pay attention to
stimuli sensed by the ears. This is related to
temporal factors.
 Factors influencing attention
• External factors (external determiners): come from surroundings and make
concentration on relevant stimuli easier or more difficult. Some examples are:

• Intensity: the more intense a stimulus is (strength of stimulus) the more likely you
are to give attention resources to it.
• Size: the bigger a stimulus is the more attention resources it captures.
• Movement: moving stimuli capture more attention that ones that remain static.
• Novelty: newer or strange stimuli attract more of our attention.
• Change: if a different stimulus appears that breaks the dynamic, our attention will
be directed to the new stimulus.
• Colour: Colourful stimuli are more attention grabbing than black and white ones.
• Contrast: stimuli that contrast against a group attract more of our attention.
• Emotional burden: positive just as much as negative stimuli attract our attention
more than neutral ones.
 Internal factors
• Internal factors (internal determiners): come from the individual and
therefore, depend on each person. Some examples are:
• Interests: we concentrate more on stimuli that interests us.
• Emotion: stimuli that provoke stronger emotions attract more attention.
However, it must be kept in mind that positive moods contribute to focusing
attention resources, but negative moods make concentration more difficult.
• Effort required by the task: people make a prior evaluation of the effort
required to do a task and depending on this, it will attract more or less
attention.
• Organic state: depends on the physical state that the person is in. So,
states of tiredness, discomfort, fever, etc. will make mobilizing attention
more difficult. If, on the other hand, a person is in a state relating to survival,
for example, thirst or hunger, stimuli related with the satiation of these
needs will attract more attention resources.
• Trains of thought: when thoughts follow a determined course, based on
concrete ideas, the appearance of stimuli related to these will capture more
of our attention.
 Perception
• Perception is the organization, identification, and
interpretation of sensory information to
represent and understand the environment.
• Perception is the sensory experience of the
world. It involves both recognizing environmental
stimuli and actions in response to these stimuli.
• Sensation: the process by which our sense organs
receive information from the environment.
• Through the perceptual process, we gain information about
the properties and elements of the environment that are
critical to our survival.
• Perception not only creates our experience of the world
around us; it allows us to act within our environment.
• Perception includes the 5 senses; touch, sight, sound,
smell, and taste.
• It also includes what is known as proprioception, a set of
senses involving the ability to detect changes in body
positions and movements. It also involves the cognitive
processes required to process information, such as
recognizing the face of a friend or detecting a familiar
scent.
• There are also other senses that allow us to
perceive things such as balance, time, body
position, acceleration, and the perception of
internal states. Many of these are multimodal
and involve more than one sensory modality.
Social perception, or the ability to identify and
use social cues about people and
relationships, is another important type of
perception.
• Absolute thresh hold: the smallest intensity of
the stimulus that must be present for it to be
detected.
• The stimulus can be detected from our five sense
organs.
• Difference thresh hold: the smallest level of
stimulation required to sense that a change has
occurred.
• Just noticeable difference: The minimum
stimulation required to detect the difference
between the two stimuli.
• Adaptation: An adjustment in sensory capacity
following prolonged exposure to stimuli.
• Ear structures :
• Semicircular canals: 3 tube like structures in the
inner ear containing fluid that sloshes through
them when the head moves, signaling rotational
or angular movement to the brain.
• Otoliths: Tiny motion sensitive crystals within the
semicircular canals that sense body acceleration.
• Skin senses : the senses that include touch,
pressure, temperature and pain.
 Illusions in Perception
• illusion, a misrepresentation of a “real”
sensory stimulus—that is, an interpretation
that contradicts objective “reality” as defined
by general agreement.
• Illusions are special perceptual experiences in
which information arising from “real” external
stimuli leads to an incorrect perception, or
false impression, of the object or event from
which the stimulation comes.
Visual perceptual illusions
Gestalts laws of Perceptual Constancy
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FryaH599
ec0
 Depth Perception
• Depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the
world in three dimensions, coupled with the ability to
gauge how far away an object is. Depth perception,
size, and distance are ascertained through both
monocular (one eye) and binocular (two eyes) cues.
• Monocular vision is poor at determining depth. When
an image is projected onto a single retina, cues about
the relative size of the object compared to other
objects are obtained.
• In binocular vision, these relative sizes are compared,
since each individual eye is seeing a slightly different
image from a different angle.
• Depth perception relies on the convergence of
both eyes upon a single object, the relative
differences between the shape and size of the
images on each retina, the relative size of
objects in relation to each other, and other
cues such as texture and constancy.
 Importance of depth perception
• Recognition of location in space is essential for
almost all activities
– navigating/avoiding objects
– jumping – catching/throwing
– reaching/grasping
– size judgements and
--recognition
 Stereopsis

• Stereopsis refers to our ability to appreciate

depth, that is the ability to distinguish the relative
distance of objects with an apparent physical
displacement between the objects. It is possible
to appreciate the relative location of objects
using one eye (monocular cues). However, it is
the lateral displacement of the eyes that provides
two slightly different views of the same object
(disparate images) and allow acute stereoscopic
depth discrimination.
 Monocular Cues

Several strong monocular cues allow relative

distance and depth to be judged. These monocular
cues include:
• Relative size
• Interposition
• Linear perspective
• Aerial perspective
• Light and shade
• Monocular movement parallax
 Relative Size:
• Retinal image size allow us to judge distance
based on our past and present experience and
familiarity with similar objects. As the car
drives away, the retinal image becomes
smaller and smaller. We interpret this as the
car getting further and further away. This is
referred to as size constancy. A retinal image
of a small car is also interpreted as a distant
car
 Interposition:
• Interposition cues
occur when there is
overlapping of
objects. The
overlapped object is
considered further
away (figure 2).
• Linear Perspective: When
objects of known distance
subtend a smaller and
smaller angle, it is
interpreted as being further
away. Parallel lines converge
with increasing distance such
as roads, railway lines,
electric wires, etc (figure 3).
 Aerial Perspective:
• Relative colour of objects give us some clues to
their distance. Due to the scattering of blue light
in the atmosphere, creating “wall” of blue light,
distance objects appear more blue (figure 4).
• Thus distant mountains appear blue.
• Contrast of objects also provide clues to their
distance.
• When the scattering of light blurs the outlines of
objects, the object is perceived as distant.
Mountains are perceived to be closer when the
atmosphere is clear.
 Light And Shade:
• Highlights and shadows can
provide information about an
object’s dimensions and
depth (figure 5). Because our
visual system assumes the
light comes from above, a
totally different perception is
obtained if the image is
viewed upside down.
Size constancy

• This is also known as Ponzo

Illusion after Mario Punzo
who first demonstrated it.
• The illusion uses linear
perspective to confuse the
brain into thinking that two
lines are of different
lengths.
 Binocular Cues

• Retinal Disparity also called • Binocular Convergence refers

binocular parallax, that to the amount of rotation our
eyes have to do in order to
refers to the fact that each focus on an object. It enables
of our eyes sees the world us to determine how near or
from a slightly different far things are away from us. A
angle, which is triangulated proprioceptive sense, it is the
by the brain to figure out amount of inward rotation our
eyes have to do in order to
the correct distance. focus on an object.
• Closer the object larger is • Closer the object more is the
the disparity convergence
• Seperation of the eyes • In convergence the closer
causes different images to the object the more the eye
fall on each retina. turn inwards.
• 3D movies make use • These binocular cues are
of binocular disparity by most effective for objects
providing each eye with a up to 6 m away. Beyond
different image to create the that, our eye separation
3D effect. However, the brain
does not give a great
does not receive any cues from
enough difference in images
convergence as it normally
would. This is why some to be useful in depth
people may feel uncomfortable perception.
when watching 3D movies.
 Advantages of Binocular Views

• 1. Binocular cues allow us • 3. Retinal disparity and

to take advantage of a binocular convergence can
spare eye. Even if one is be used to distinguish the
lost or damaged there is variation in distance.
still another one left. • 4. It allows us to partially
see an object behind an
• 2. it gives us the scope of
obstacle.
a much wider field of
view.
Cont…

• 5. It allows binocular • 7. The binocular summation

summation that helps improve is one factor that results in
contrast sensitivity, brightness
perception, visual acuity, and faster reaction times when
also flicker perception. we are viewing something
• 6. Binocular viewing can using both our eyes.
happen at different stages of • 8. Binocular viewing also
information processing and
helps activate a more direct
can have a cumulative effect
on an overall improvement in cortical path for planning,
the performance of fine motor reaching and grasping of
skills. movements
 Perceptual constancy
Perceptual constancy refers to the tendency to perceive an object you
are familiar with as having a constant shape, size, and brightness
despite the stimuli changes that occur.
• Shape constancy: when an object appears to maintain its shape
despite marked changes in the retinal image. Ex: whether we view
bangle from side or front, its shape is round.
• Color Constancy: Color constancy refers to our ability to perceive
colors as relatively constant over varying illuminations (i.e. light
sources). For example, a red apple will still look red on a sunny day
or cloudy day – or in a grocery store or a home.
• Size Constancy: the ability to perceive an object as being the same
size despite the fact that the size of its retinal image changes
depending on its distance from the observer. Ex : muller lyer illusion
and ponzo illusion
 Real and Apparent motion
• Real movement means that the physical
stimulus is actually moving and we perceive
it as moving.
 Apparent movement
• Apparent movement is when we perceive
movement but there is actually no movement.
• Examples of this could be :
• Phi Phenomena
• Motion after effect (MAE)
• Induced motion
• Autokinetic movement
 Phi Phenomenon
• Perception of movement

The so-called phi phenomenon is an illusion of

movement that arises when stationary objects—
light bulbs, for example—are placed side by side
and illuminated rapidly one after another.
• The effect is frequently used on theatre
marquees to give the impression of moving lights.
• Motion pictures
 Motion after effect
• https://www.yorku.ca/eye/mae.gif
• Starry night gif
• The visual system has motion detectors that, like most neurons,
undergo spontaneous activity. You normally do not see motion
when there is none because the spontaneous activity is in
balance. However, when you viewed circling motion of the on top
you adapted the motion detectors for motion in the downward
direction.
• When the real motion stopped, the spontaneous activity was no
longer in balance, the upward spontaneous activity being slightly
stronger and thus the painting appears to be in motion. The
adaptation effect lasts for a short time, the motion detection
system quickly becomes balanced again and the apparent
movement stops.
 Induced motion
• Have you ever sat in a train or bus station
patiently waiting to get moving? Then all of a
sudden, low and behold there you go. Or are
you? You feel no vibration, something feels
wrong. Then you notice that it is the vehicle
(train or bus) right next to you that is moving
and it just felt as if you were moving. This is
called induced motion.
 Auto-kinetic movement
• Try viewing a small, very dim light in an
otherwise completely dark room. Make sure
that the light is in a fixed position and not
moving. After sometime in the dark, the small
light will appear to move somewhat randomly.
This is called auto-kinetic movement.
• Electrophysiologists have discovered that
there are cortical neurons in the brain which
are specialized for movement. In fact,
these neurons often are so specialized that
they will respond best when the motion is in a
specific direction.
 Visual illusions
• Muller Lyer Illusion
• Moon illusion
 Moon illusion
• The moon often looks huge as it begins to
peek up over the horizon, but hours later as
you glance up into the night sky you will note
that it now appears much smaller. This
phenomenon is known as the moon illusion.
 Apparent distance theory
• According to this possible explanation for the moon
illusion, depth perception plays an important role in how
we see the moon at the horizon versus high in the sky.
• This theory is centered on the idea that when you view the
moon at the horizon, you are seeing it in the presence
of depth cues such as trees, mountains, and other scenery.
• When the moon has moved higher into the sky, those
depth cues disappear. Because of this, the apparent
distance theory suggests, we tend to see the moon as
further away on the horizon than we see it when it elevated
in the sky.
 Angular size contrast theory
• This explanation focuses instead on the visual
angle of the moon in comparison to
surrounding objects. When the moon is on the
horizon and surrounded by smaller objects, it
appears larger.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLXryXb2
rmY
 Extra sensory perception
• It is the perception that occurs independently of
the known sensory processes extrasensory
perception (ESP).Also called 6th sense.
• The belief is that one can have a perceptual
experience without any sensory input.
• Types of reported ESPs include
• mental telepathy, the ability to read another
person's thoughts
• forecasting, the ability to predict future incidents
accurately (for example, who will win a race or
engage in a particular activity)
• clairvoyance, the awareness of some event that
one cannot see (for example, knowing where a
body is hidden)
• psychokinesis, the ability to cause things to move
by virtue of thought processes
• Psychologists known as parapsychologists study
these phenomena, but the majority of
psychologists feel that evidence for the existence
of ESP phenomena has not been adequately
documented.