Attentional Selection - Answers -The study of attentional selection is the study of how
the mind decides what to pay attention to at a particular point in time and when to switch
the focus of. its attention
How to steer clear of the homunculus problem in explaining attentional selection -
Answers -Provide a simple and complete account of how the controller of the beam
decides to change the focus of the beam.
(i.e., make a mechanistic model of the controller)
Dichotic Listening with Shadowing - Answers -"Dichotic listening" means listening to one
signal in one ear and a different signal in the other ear.
Shadowing" means saying, as quickly as possible, the words you are hearing on one of
the channels
The point: The dichotic listening makes sure that your brain is getting the input from
both channels. The shadowing makes you put all your attention one channel. Thus, the
method allows us to study what the brain picks up from a channel that is definitely
sensed, but not attended to.
Experiment: Cherry (1953)- The Cocktail Party - Answers -Method: Dichotic listening
with shadowing
interrupted and asked what participating heard in the unattended channel
Results: Not much
Participants could report on low-level, physical characteristics:
tone vs. human speech
man's vs. woman's voice
fast vs. slow speech
They could not:
detect a change from forward to reversed speech
detect a change in language
identify words or phrases
experiment: dichotic listening with relevant probes - Answers -Method: Dichotic listening
with shadowing.
Results: People detected their name
People failed to detect an irrelevant word even though it was presented 35 times!
Broadbent's Selective Filter Model - Answers -Look at the image
The filter selects on the basis of low-level physical characteristics only.
A note regarding Moray (1959) - Answers -Loudness of speech, speed of talking,
woman vs. man talking (high pitch vs. low pitch) are all detectable on the basis of low-
level properties.
Detecting your name or recognizing a particular word requires sensitivity to high-level
properties.
(Broadbent's model doesn't predict the name part of Moray's results).
Experiment: Dichotic Listening with Mid-Sentence Switch (Treisman, 1960) - Answers -
Method: Dichotic listening with shadowing.
Right ear: While Aphrodite was walking through the forest / a bank can lend you the
money.
Left ear: If you want to buy a car / a tree fell across her path.
The slashes (/) come at the same point in time.
Result:
Although participants were told to shadow the signal in just one ear, participants would
tend, just after the point of the slash, to switch to the other ear temporarily. Oftenthey
would then notice their error and switch back.
Result:
Although participants were told to shadow the signal in just one ear, participants would
tend, just after the point of the slash, to switch to the other ear temporarily. Oftenthey
would then notice their error and switch back.
Treisman's Attenuation Model - Answers -look at image
Homunculus problem - Answers -Treisman's model posits a sophisticated controller. To
its credit it identifies some of the elements of the controller (e.g. syllables, words,
grammar, semantics). However, to effectively steer clear of a homunculus problem it
, needs to be precise about how those components cause the system to choose one
continuation over the other in the experiment.
Note that Treisman's findings show that the problem is more challenging (and
interesting!) than it appeared under Broadbent's view: Treisman's findings indicate an
interaction between high-level and low-level (between top-down and bottom-up---recall
parallel case in object perception).
Limited Resource Model
(and the accompanying notion of a Processing Bottleneck) - Answers -Examples of
processing bottlenecks in other domains:
Traffic Flow and Manufacturing
Are there processing bottlenecks in the mind? - Answers -This is a corner-labeling task:
"yes" for extreme top and bottom corners, "no" for middle corners.
The previous slide illustrated "Response Type 1": labeling the corners by saying "yes" or
"no".
Response Type 2: Label the corners by pointing up for "yes" and down for "no".
Seven cats climbed through a hole in the fence - Answers -Again for this, "Response
Type 1" is: classify the words by saying "yes" for nouns, "no" for other types of words.
Response Type 2 is: Classify the words by pointing up for "yes" and down for "no".
Experiment: Verbal vs. Spatial (Brooks, 1968) - Answers -Method: Two tasks:
Task 1 (Spatial): Look at a block letter on a screen (e.g a big block-letter X). Letter
disappears. Trace its outline in your mind, starting in the upper left corner. When your
mind gets to each corner, indicate whether it's an extreme corner ("Yes") or the middle
("No").
Task 2 (Experiment: Verbal vs. Spatial (Brooks, 1968)): Memorize a sentence (e.g.
"Seven cats climbed through a hole in the fence"). Go through the sentence in your
mind, indicating "Yes"if the word you're on is a noun, "No" if it's not a noun.
Experiment: Verbal vs. Spatial (Brooks, 1968) pt 2 - Answers -Two response conditions:
---Spatial (point up for "yes", down for "no")
---Verbal (say "yes" or "no")
Response Type: Verbal and Spatial
Trace Letter: Verbal -- Low
Categorize Word -- High
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller millyphilip. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $12.99. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.