Lecture notes on Attention & Perception

Attention refers to the selective focus of mental resources and

concentration. Key aspects include:

Forms of Attention

Voluntary attention - Willfully directing attention based on goals,

controlled internally.

Involuntary attention - Attention captured automatically by salient

stimuli, driven externally.

Overt attention - Orienting sense organs toward stimuli.

Covert attention - Mentally focusing without overt orienting.

Types of Attention

Selective attention - Focusing on specific information and ignoring

other inputs. Enables processing priorities.

Divided attention - Monitoring and responding to multiple concurrent

input streams. Performance typically suffers compared to focused

attention.

Sustained attention - Maintaining consistent attentional focus on

one task over time. Vigilance tasks assess this ability.

Research Findings

Selective attention studies like dichotic listening show limited

processing of unattended inputs. However, exceptions like hearing

one's own name reveal attention limits.

Divided attention studies reveal limits in simultaneously monitoring

multiple inputs without performance declines. Dual-task research

aims to exceed these limits through practice.

The cocktail party effect demonstrates attention capture by salient

meaningful stimuli, even when otherwise focused elsewhere.

The Stroop effect reveals attentional interference when two

conflicting stimulus dimensions compete for processing resources.

ATTENTION THEORIES

Broadbent's Filter Theory

Proposes an early selection attentional filter that blocks processing

of unattended messages based on physical properties like location

or pitch.

Filter prevents exceeding limited processing capacity and overload.

Unattended messages are not analyzed for meaning, explaining

poor recall of such content.

Doesn't account for cocktail party effect of hearing one's own name