Week 2 Cognition, Memory And Learning

Front 1

Define Attention:

Back 1

A concentration of mental activity in whichcertain kinds of perceptual information areselected for further processing, while otherinterfering stimuli are excluded (Shapiro 1994)

Front 2

What is Dichotic Listening & Shadowing?

Back 2

 participant wears earphones

 a different message is presented to each ear  participant instructed to attend to one message andignore other message

 participant repeats attended message word-by-wordas it is presented (shadowing)

 information is presented rapidly

 shadowing is demanding, demands concentration, leaves few resources available to process nonattended message

Front 3

Describe the Filter Theory:

Back 3

• Attentional capacity is limited.
• Filter selects info for further processing.
• Stimuli is filtered at a sensory level, which is early is the process.
• the filter detects physical characteristics of message not meaning.

Front 4

What is the Cocktail Party Effect?

Back 4

• Cocktail Party Effect: you are attending to one conversation but noticeyour name mentioned in another conversation
• Shadowing is disrupted if person hears theirname in the attended or unattended message poses a problem for filter model and earlyselection idea
• Important material can penetrate the filter?
  

Front 5

What is the Attenuation Model?

Back 5

• messages undergo 3 types of analysis: physical, linguistic and semantic.
• We process the attended and unattended messagesonly to the extent necessary to distinguish them andreject the unattended message
• Messages not attended to are not completelyblocked but are attenuated (turned down).
• Priming can adjust threshold.

Front 6

Attenuator vs Filter Model:

Back 6

 Attention operates like an attenuator

- Filter model: on-off switch

 Allows (partial) processing of multiple messages

- Filter model: 1 message only

 Allows many kinds of analyses of all messages(physical, linguistic, semantic)

- Filter model: physical only

Front 7

What are Late Selection Models?

Back 7

• All messages are processed for at least some aspects of meaning
• Bottleneck occurs later in processing inworking memory (not sensory memory)
• Important material is selected for elaboration
• Elaborated material is more likely to be retained

Front 8

What are Capacity Models?

Back 8

• Attention refers to cognitive processes (resources) for categorising & recognising stimuli
• resources are limited
• available resources = f (arousal level)
• complex stimuli require more resources than simple stimuli
  

Front 9

Describe the problems of the Capacity Model:

Back 9

• Problems occur when total resource demand >available supply
• When total demand > supply, performance on one task will decline if we perform a second task simultaneously
• Allocation policy is flexible, under our control (Allocation policy – reflects enduring dispositions, momentary intentions and evaluation of demands on capacity)
  

Front 10

What is the Schema Theory?

Back 10

• Unwanted and many unexpected info is never acquired.

Front 11

What is Inattentional Blindness?

Back 11

• Inattentional Blindness – failing to notice astimulus coming into view
  
• Occurs because our attention is directed(restricted) to specific aspects of the task andnot others
  

Front 12

What is Change Blindness:

Back 12

The inability to detect changes to an object or scene.

Front 13

Explain what the Stroop Interference Effect is:

Back 13

• Stroop Effect: it takes longer to name the inkcolour of a word if the word name and ink colourare incongruent (mismatch) than it does to namethe ink colour of a patch.
  
• Virtually everyone who can read fluently shows a robust Stroop effect from an early age
  

Front 14

Describe Automatic Processing:

Back 14

• Automatic processing (Posner & Snyder, 1975) - occurs without intention, occurs without conscious awareness, must not interfere with other mental activity.
• Automatic processing (Schneider & Schiffrin, 1977)used for easy or familiar tasks, allows parallel operations, operates within capacity limitations.
  

Front 15

Describe Controlled Processing:

Back 15

• Controlled processing (Schneider & Schiffrin, 1977)used for difficult or unfamiliar tasks, serial operation of processes, requires attention, limited capacity, under conscious control
• Controlled processes can become automatic withpractice
  

Front 16

What is Automaticity?

Back 16

 not an all-or-none phenomenon

 increases with practice on task

Shiffrin & Schneider (1977)

 after extensive practice (2000+ trials) on varied mapping, participants performed as well as on consistent mapping

Front 17

What is Feature Integration Theory?

Back 17

When perceiving a stimulus, features are "registered early, automatically, and in parallel, while objects are identified separately" and at a later stage in processing.

Front 18

What is Dual Task Performance?

Back 18

A dual-task paradigm is a procedure in experimental (neuro)psychology that requires an individual to perform two tasks simultaneously, in order to compare performance with single-task conditions.
Hirst et al. (1980) showed that participants learned to combine tasks.