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Class notes PSY 200

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Course
PSY 200

Institution
Cuny John Jay College Of Criminal Justice

this is cognitive psychology chapter 4. Use this study guide to prepare for the next exam. This includes 25 practice questions on the chapter and explained answers on the bottom.

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Uploaded on September 24, 2024
Number of pages 14
Written in 2024/2025
Type Class notes
Professor(s) Lisa tsuei
Contains Chapter 4

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To provide a more detailed study guide that thoroughly covers all topics in the chapter,
I’ll expand on each key concept and theory, delving deeper into their definitions,
experiments, and implications.

Expanded Study Guide for Attention Chapter (Cognitive Psychology)

1. Introduction to Attention

Attention refers to the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on specific
information while ignoring other perceivable information. It is essential for perception,
learning, and action. The study of attention explores how we manage limited cognitive
resources in environments that often present overwhelming amounts of information.

● Selective Attention: This is the ability to focus on a specific stimulus while
filtering out distractions. Example: In a noisy room, you can focus on a
conversation while ignoring background noise.
○ Key Study: Cherry’s Dichotic Listening Task showed that participants
could focus on one auditory message while ignoring another. They could
report basic physical features (e.g., gender) of the unattended message
but not its content.
● Divided Attention: Occurs when attention is split between multiple tasks. It is
generally less efficient than selective attention.
○ Key Study: Schneider and Shiffrin’s experiment on divided attention
demonstrated that with practice, participants could perform tasks
automatically with minimal conscious attention.
● Attentional Capture: The automatic redirection of attention toward an
unexpected or significant stimulus (e.g., a loud sound or flashing light).
○ This is an involuntary response, driven by the salience of the stimulus.
● Visual Scanning: Involves moving your eyes to different locations to gather
visual information. It plays a role in how we perceive our environment,
especially in complex visual scenes.

2. Broadbent’s Filter Model of Attention

Broadbent (1958) proposed one of the first theories of attention. This early selection
model suggests that information passes through a series of stages where irrelevant
information is filtered out based on physical properties before higher-level processing
occurs.

● Key Elements:

, ○ Sensory Memory: Holds all incoming information briefly before it's
passed to the next stage.
○ Filter: Selects information based on physical characteristics like pitch or
loudness.
○ Detector: Processes the meaning of the selected information.
○ Memory: Information moves into short-term memory.
● Limitations: The model struggles to explain how people can still recognize
unattended information, like their name being mentioned in a crowded room
(Cocktail Party Effect).

3. Treisman’s Attenuation Model

Treisman modified Broadbent's model, suggesting that unattended information isn’t
completely filtered out but rather “attenuated” or weakened. This means that even
unattended information is processed to some degree, depending on its importance.

● Attenuator: Analyzes incoming messages based on physical characteristics,
language, and meaning. Both attended and unattended messages pass through
the attenuator, but the unattended message is weaker.
● Dictionary Unit: Contains stored words, each with a threshold for activation.
Important words, such as a person's name, have lower thresholds and are likely
to be detected even when unattended.
● Key Study: Treisman’s experiments using dichotic listening tasks demonstrated
that participants could switch attention based on the meaning of the messages,
contradicting Broadbent’s theory of rigid filtering.

4. Late Selection Models

The late selection model suggests that all stimuli are processed for meaning before
attention is applied. This theory emerged to explain cases where unattended stimuli
seem to influence behavior.

● MacKay’s Study (1973): Participants listened to ambiguous sentences while
biasing words were presented to the unattended ear. The biasing words
influenced their interpretation of the sentence, even though they weren’t
consciously aware of them.
● Conclusion: This suggests that unattended stimuli can be processed
semantically before selection occurs, especially in tasks with low perceptual
load.

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