Cognitive Psychology Unit 2

Nature of Attention
Attention is the means by which we actively process a limited amount of information from the enormous
amount of information available through our senses, our stored memories, and our other cognitive
processes.
It includes both conscious and unconscious processes and the conscious processes are usually easier to
study. Attention allows us to use our limited mental resources judiciously. Heightened attention also
paves the way for memory processes. We are more likely to remember information to which we paid
attention than information we ignored.
Consciousness includes both the feeling of awareness and the content of awareness, some of which may
be under the focus of attention. Conscious attention serves three purposes in playing a causal role for
cognition.
First, it helps in monitoring our interactions with the environment. Through such monitoring, we
maintain our awareness of how well we are adapting to the situation in which we find ourselves. Second,
it assists us in linking our past (memories) and our present (sensations) to give us a sense of continuity of
experience.
Third, it helps us in controlling and planning for our future actions based on the first two functions.
Functions of attention involve the following:
● Signal detection and vigilance: We try to detect the appearance of a particular stimulus. Air traffic
controllers, for example, keep an eye on all traffic near and over the airport.
● Search: We try to find a signal amidst distractions, for example, when we are looking for our lost
cell phone on an autumn leaf-filled hiking path.
● Selective attention: We choose to attend to some stimuli and ignore others, as when we are
involved in a conversation at a party.
● Divided attention: We prudently allocate our available attentional resources to coordinate our
performance of more than one task at a time, as when we are cooking and engaged in a phone
conversation at the same time.

Theories of Attention:

Broadbent’s Filter model (1958):

Broadbent’s Model is one of the earliest theories of attention, and states that there are limits on how much
information a person can attend to at any given time. Therefore, if the amount of information available at
any given time exceeds capacity, the person uses an attentional filter to let some information through and
block the rest. This theory suggests that we filter information right after we notice it at the sensory level.
The filter is based on some physical aspect of the attended message like the location of its source or its
typical pitch or loudness, for instance, and permits only one channel of sensory information to proceed
and reach the processes of perception. We thereby assign meaning to our sensations.

Selective Filter Model:

The model suggests that messages that are of high importance to a person may break through the filter of
selective attention. In other words, according to Moray, the selective filter blocks out most information at
the sensory level. But some personally important messages are so powerful that they burst through the
filtering mechanism.

Anne Triesman’s Attenuation Theory

Came from the study (Dichotic listening) conducted by her where she had participants shadowing
coherent messages, and at some point switched the remainder of the coherent message from the attended
to the unattended ear. Participants picked up the first few words of the message they had been shadowing
in the unattended ear, so they must have been somehow processing the content of the unattended
message.
Her findings suggested that at least some information about unattended signals is being analyzed and that
some meaningful information in unattended messages might still be available, even if hard to recover.
Treisman proposed that instead of blocking stimuli out, the filter merely weakens (attenuates) the strength
of stimuli other than the target stimulus. She suggested that the incoming messages are subjected to three
kinds of analysis.
In the first, the message’s physical properties, such as pitch or loudness, are analyzed. The second
analysis is linguistic, a process of parsing the message into syllables and words. The third kind of
analysis is semantic, processing the meaning of the message.

Deutsch and Deutsch, the Late Filter Theory

It holds that all messages are routinely processed for at least some aspects of meaning—that selection of
which message to respond to thus happens “late” in processing. The theory suggested that stimuli are
filtered out only after they have been analyzed for both their physical properties and their meaning. So, in
a dichotic listening activity, this later filtering would allow people to recognize information entering the
unattended ear. All material is processed up to this point, and information judged to be most “important”
is elaborated more fully. This elaborated material is more likely to be retained; unelaborated material is
forgotten.

Ulric Neisser (1976)

He offered a completely different conceptualization of attention, called schema theory. He argued that
we don’t filter, attenuate, or forget unwanted material. Instead, we never acquire it in
the first place. Neisser believes that the unattended information is simply left out of our cognitive
processing.

Feature-integration theory
It explains the relative ease of conducting feature searches and the relative difficulty of conducting
conjunction searches. In feature search, we look for an item with a distinct feature like color or shape and
simply scan the environment for that feature. A problem arises, however, when the target stimulus has no
unique or even distinctive features, like a particular boxed or canned item in a grocery aisle. In these
situations, the only way we can find it is to conduct a conjunction search where we look for a particular
combination of features.
This theory suggests that for each possible feature of a stimulus, each of us has a mental map for
representing the given feature across the visual field. For example, there is a map for every color, size,
shape, or orientation of each stimulus in our visual field. For every stimulus, the features are represented
in the feature maps immediately. There is no added time required for additional cognitive processing.
Thus, during feature searches, we monitor the relevant feature map for the presence of any activation
anywhere in the visual field.

Some phenomena related to attention:

Inattentional blindness, which is a phenomenon in which people are not able to see things that are
actually there. This usually occurs when attention is focused on one object or task and the person misses
a fully visible, but unexpected stimulus.

Cocktail party phenomenon: The cocktail party effect refers to a phenomenon wherein the brain
focuses a person's attention on a particular stimulus, usually auditory even in a crowded place full of
distractions you can hear someone calling your name.

Stroop effect: If the name of a word, and the colour that the word is written in are conflicting, then
people take longer to name the colour.

Theories of Object Recognition:

Template-Matching Theory [TEMPLATES]

Stimuli are compared to a set of templates (specific patterns stored in memory), and matched with the
closest. (Some born with but others developed along life)
Problem:
Cannot account for recognising stimuli as the same context, even though presentation is different, e.g.
upside down.
- Would require too many templates
- Concrete and not flexible
- Unable to comprehend parts of objects
- Unable to account for the complexity of human perception

Prototype Model Theory [PROTOTYPES]

We have prototypes (abstract idealized patterns) in memory, and matched but don’t have to be exact. If
close enough, you can recognise the stimuli, if inadequate then keep searching.
- Prototypes are good for accounting the flexibility of perception.
- Demonstrates creation of capacity and applying it.
Reed’s Experiment: People forming their own prototypes of the two sets of faces. - New faces were
compared to the prototypes and the classification was consistent.

Recognition-by-Component Theory [GEONS]

Objects are represented as an arrangement of simple 3D shapes called geons.
- 24 geons that can be combined to create a meaningful object and words.
- Majority are classified with three geons.

Gestalt Theory
The way we organize and classify visual stimuli was studied by adherents of Gestalt psychology during
the early part of the twentieth century, although perception was only one part of their overall theory.
Pattern organization to these early Gestalt psychologists involved all stimuli working together to produce
an impression that went beyond the sum total of all sensations. Some patterns of stimuli, according to the
founder of the Gestalt movement Max Wertheimer (1923), tend to be naturally (or “spontaneously”)
organized. Other Gestalt laws include, for example, the law of proximity, similarity, closure, symmetry,
continuity, and common fate.
Canonic Perspectives
One extension of the ideas expressed by the Gestaltists can be seen in the work with canonic
perspectives. Canonic perspectives are views that best represent an object or are the images that first
come to mind when you recall a form. If we ask you to think of a common object, say, a blender, the
image that comes to mind is likely to be the canonic perspective.

Bottom-Up versus Top-Down Processing:

How do we recognize a pattern? Do we identify a dog because we have first recognized its furry coat, its
four legs, its eyes, ears, and so on, or do we recognize these parts because we have first identified a dog?
The recognition process is initiated by the parts of the pattern, which serve as the basis for the recognition
of the whole (bottom-up processing), or it is primarily initiated by a hypothesis about the whole, which
leads to its identification and subsequent recognition of the parts (top down processing).

Language:
Language, to cognitive psychologists, is a system of communication in which thoughts are transmitted by
means of sounds (as in speech) or symbols (as in written words and gestures).
The study of language is important to cognitive psychologists. Language development represents a
unique kind of abstraction, which is basic to human cognition. Although other forms of life (bees, birds,
dolphins, prairie dogs, and so on) have elaborate means of communicating and apes seem to use a form
of language abstraction, the degree of abstraction is much greater among humans. Language is
the main means of human communication, the way in which most information is exchanged.

Grammar and Its Structure:

● Phonology (Phonemes): Basic unit of sound/speech
● Morphology (Morphemes): Basic unit of meaningful speech
● Syntax: the rules that govern the combination of words in phrases and sentences.
● Semantics: Grammatical rules
● Pragmatics: Etiquette, politeness, social niceties

Order of learning language (pre vocal learning):

 1. Cooing (by about 2 months of age): child make a non-crying voices, vowel like sounds eg:
(o-o-u-u)
2. Babbling (about 6 months): babbling sound, meaningless speech (phonemes), adds consonants
3. First words: (by about 1 year): starts speaking one word, holophrases. Meaningful one word
(morphemes)
4. Two words (by 2 years): short simple sentences- two word sentences mostly. Syntax is known.
5. Telegraphic speech (3 years): make whole sentences. Eg: I drank water, I saw a cat.
6. Pragmatics (4-5 years): Etiquette, politeness, social niceties. Not necessary for language
development.

Behavioristic approach to language

By B.F. Skinner
Skinner said language is developed through reinforcements, here in the form of verbal operants.

PRIMARY VERBAL OPERANTS:

1. Tact- A child looks up at the sky and says “look, an airplane” and the parent says “wow”. Child
point out things that he/she sees and name it
2. Mand: Demand made by the child and it gets fulfilled.
3. Echoic: Repeating the word someone said. Eg: parent said apple and the child repeats it and
parent appreciates it
4. Intraverbal: Question and answer between parent and child. Parents ask questions to the child and
then he/she is able to understand and answer.

SECONDARY VERBAL OPERANTS

1. Autoclitic: Here syntax is learned by the child
A. Tact: warrants a response
B. Mand: It softens or modifies the statements. Eg: when the child sees another person eating
a donut and she/he wants one then they say “I love donuts”, and expect the other person to
give it to them.

Vygotsky’s theory of language development

Interactionist approach: Language and thought interact.
1. Primitive stage: Utter sounds, nonsense talk
2. Naive stage: speak words, holophrases, short sentences
3. External stage: Egocentric speech or private speech. Use examples to talk. Talk to themselves
before and while doing any task. Child integrates thought and language from this stage.
4. Ingrowth stage: Children start to internalize many of the tasks. Inner speech also shortens during
this phase.

Noam Chomsky(1965)
Nativist, based his theory on innateness.
Follower of Rene descartes, a cartesian linguist.
He said we have a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) since birth. Which means children are born with
some knowledge of language, and then acquire rest from the environment and that all languages share
similar structures and rules.
Universal grammar
Chomsky's theory of universal grammar (UG) states that all languages have formal universals and
principles in common, with specific options and limits for variation between languages.
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
Chomsky's theory also posits that children are born with a hypothetical LAD, a series of underlying
processes that help the brain understand language naturally.

Jerome Bruner
Gave Language Acquisition Support System (LASS)
We learn by interaction with other people who are our support system like parents, teachers. According to him
language is not innate, rather learned by experience.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis or Linguistic relativity hypothesis (by Edward Sapir and

Benjamin Lee Whorf).
According to this hypothesis
Language affects or influences our thinking.
Language shape our thoughts
Language determines our perception and thought.
Proposed that we cannot think about things that are not experienced in our culture. People from different
cultures think differently because of differences in their languages.