Outline Attention Categorizing Attention Visual attention The spotlight

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. 9/4/2021

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=3 d. L-b. Mor. TFI

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 • Alertness and Arousal » Tonic arousal and the Yerkes-Dodson law Performance High Medium Task Easy Task Difficult Task Low Arousal High

Attention • Alertness and Arousal » Phasic arousal: Alertness ◊ Posner & Boies’ (1971) dual task experiment RT (ms) 600 500 400 300 Warning -4 -2 0 0. 5 First Letter Second Letter 1 1. 5 Time (sec) 2

Attention • Orienting » The orienting reflex or response ◊ The what and where pathways WHERE WHAT

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 (Mc. Cormick & Klein, 1990; Mc. Cormick 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 Valid (80%) Invalid (20 %) + Neutral + --> + <-- --> X <-> <-- X <-> X

Attention • Orienting » The spotlight model ◊ Posner’s cuing procedure: Exogenous orienting Valid (50%) Invalid (50 %) Neutral + + | + | X + | + X

Attention • Orienting » The spotlight model ◊ Posner’s cuing procedure RT (ms) 450 400 350 300 Valid Neutral Condition Invalid

Attention • Orienting » The spotlight model ◊ The spotlight and visual search – Johnson et al. ’s (1995) suggestion Pop-out -> Input attention Conjunction search -> Controlled attention – Relation to endogenous and exogenous attention

Attention • Filtering and selecting » Selective versus divided attention ◊ Dual message vs. dual task Work Dieting Romantic movies Literature Opera Ballet » Shadowing experiments Doughnuts TV Pork rinds Football Cheap meat Beer Doughnuts , TV, Pork rinds, Football, Cheap meat, Beer. . .

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? S Sensory Memory F I L Pattern T Recognition E R S E L E C T I O N Shortterm Memory Longterm Memory R

Attention • Filtering and selecting » Broadbent’s all-or-nothing filter 1 7 4 6 8 3

Attention • Filtering and selecting » Problems with the all-or-nothing filter ◊ Moray’s Experiment Table Horse Chair Desk Paper House Table, horse, chair, Homer, doohh!. Tree Rock Homer Barn Street

Attention • Filtering and selecting » Treisman’s Experiment Hand me that big jumping in the street I saw the girl song was wishing 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

Attention • Attention as a mental resource » Kahneman’s model Daniel Kahneman

Attention • 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 No list Detection time Shadowing errors 1 list 2 lists (pitch) (semantic) 310 ms 370 ms 433 ms n/a 1. 4% 5. 3% 482 ms 20. 5%

(Exogenous Orienting? )

Attention • Automaticity » Posner & Snyder’s characterization Automatic Controlled (Conscious) – Without intention – Awareness is not necessary – Requires few resources - With intention - Awareness is necessary - Resource demanding

Attention • 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 Demo ◊ The original study http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=nkn 3 w. Ryb 9 Bk

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 P 300: Related to attentional allocation. • Larger P 300 leads to better memory. • Decreases in P 300 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 P 300 • 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

Attention • 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 See previous links to Phantoms in the Brain

Consciousness • Anasognosia (denial of illness) » From “Phantoms”… The Sound of One Hand Clapping 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 yet 4. 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 New Condition Full Attention. 54 Divided Attention. 49 Nonfamous Name New Old. 18. 13. 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

Consciousness • 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 • 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”?