Memory and Cognition

1
Memory and Cognition

• Topic Attention
• Dr. Ellen Campana
• Arizona State University

2
Attention

• Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention
• Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes
• High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load
• Visual Attention
• Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention
• Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention
• Overt Bottom-up vs. Top-down control
• Covert Location-based vs. Object-based

3
Attention Vocabulary

• Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention
• Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes
• High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load
• Visual Attention
• Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention
• Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention
• Overt Bottom-up vs. Top-down control
• Covert Location-based vs. Object-based

4
Selective Attention

• Part I

5
Selective Attention

• Everyone knows what attention is. It is the
  taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid
  form, of one out of what seem like several
  simultaneously possible objects or trains of
  thought It implies withdrawal from some things
  in order to deal effectively with others.
• - William James (1890)

6
Selective Attention

• Selective Attention The ability to focus in on
  one message and ignore all others
• Attention is involved in many aspects of
  cognition
• Perception
• Memory
• Language
• Problem-Solving

7
Dichotic Listening
Blah blah blah blah blah
Blah blah blah blah blah
8
Dichotic Listening

• What does it feel like to shadow something???
• Say exactly what the speaker is saying as quickly
  as you can. Dont wait for him to finish start
  doing it while he is still talking.
• Did you hear anything that was going on around
  you while doing it?

9
Attention Models / Theories

• Early Models of Selective Attention
• Early Filter (Broadbent)
• Attenuator Model (Triesman)
• Late Filter
• Load Model (Lavie)

10
Early Filter Model (Broadbent)

• Dichotic Listening Studies
• Cherry participants could only report male /
  female voice (nothing about meaning)
• Moray participants failed to notice a word
  repeated 35 times in the unattended ear
• Interpretation Attention acts as a filter or
  bottleneck
• Attended information gets through
• Unattended information does not get through

11
Early Filter Model (Broadbent)
Messages
Sensory Memory
Filter
Detector
To Memory
Attended Message

• Information processing model from chapter 1
• Not physiological

12
Attenuator Model (Triesman)

• Dichotic Listening Studies
• Moray participants heard their own names in
  unattended ear (Cocktail party effect)
• Gray and Wedderburn Dear Aunt Jane

13
Dichotic Listening
9 Aunt 6
Dear 7 Jane
Attended Ear or Attended Channel (Shadowing)
Unattended Ear or Unattended Channel (Ignoring)
Dear Aunt Jane
14
Attenuator Model (Triesman)

• Dichotic Listening Studies
• Moray participants heard their own names in
  unattended ear (Cocktail party effect)
• Gray and Wedderburn Dear Aunt Jane
• Interpretation Attention acts as a leaky
  filter
• Attended information is full strength
• Unattended information is attenuated (not blocked)

15
Attenuator Model (Triesman)

• Attenuator
• Uses whatever aspects of the messages are
  necessary in order to separate them (surface
  characteristics meaning)
• Output all messages, with the attended message
  being strongest (unattended messages attenuated)

16
Attenuator Model (Triesman)

• Dictionary Unit
• Contains all words, with different activation
  thresholds
• Common or important words have lower thresholds
  so it doesnt take much to recognize them

17
START HERE ELLEN!
18
Late Filter Models

• Dichotic Listening Study
• McKay Bank (River or Money)

19
Dichotic Listening
RIVER
He threw stones at the bank.
Attended Ear or Attended Channel (Shadowing)
Unattended Ear or Unattended Channel (Ignoring)
He threw stones at the bank.
20
Dichotic Listening
MONEY
He threw stones at the bank.
Attended Ear or Attended Channel (Shadowing)
Unattended Ear or Unattended Channel (Ignoring)
He threw stones at the bank.
21
Late Filter Models

• Unattended ear RIVER / MONEY
• Shadowed They were throwing stones at the bank.
• Memory task (afterward)
• They threw stones toward the side of the river
• vs.
• They threw stones at the savings and loan
  association

22
Late Filter Models

• Dichotic Listening Study
• McKay Bank (River or Money)
• Interpretation Much more processing (for
  meaning) much be happening before the filter
• Whole class of models about different mechanisms
• Detail beyond scope of this class
• Soon to end anyway

23
Attention Models / Theories

• Early Models of Selective Attention
• Early Filter (Broadbent)
• Attenuator Model (Triesman)
• Late Filter
• Load Model (Lavie)

24
Load-Dependent Processing (Lavie)

• There was a lot of evidence for each type of
  model, and no clear winner
• Lavie made a critical observation
• When tasks were difficult or stimuli were
  complex, experiments supported the early filter
  model
• When tasks were easy or stimuli were simple,
  experiments supported attenuator / late filter
  models
• Interpretation Attention is Load-dependent

25
Attention Vocabulary

• Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention
• Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes
• High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load
• Visual Attention
• Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention
• Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention
• Overt Bottom-up vs. Top-down control
• Covert Location-based vs. Object-based

26
Cognitive Load

• Attention has limited capacity
• High-load tasks use all resources, leaving
  nothing for other tasks
• Low-load tasks use fewer resources, leaving some
  available for other things
• One way to study attentional load is by using a
  flanker compatibility task

27
Flanker Compatibility Task

• Participants have to look for a particular target
  item within the circles (say its a square)
• Push a key whenever you see a square within the
  circle areas, as quickly as possible
• Ignore anything outside the circle areas
  (distractors)
• BUT keep eyes focused on the cross in the center

28
Flanker Compatibility Task
29
Flanker Compatibility Task
30
Flanker Compatibility Task
31
Flanker Compatibility Task

• Participants have to look for a particular target
  item within the circles (say its a square)
• Push a key whenever you see a square within the
  circle areas, as quickly as possible
• Ignore anything outside the circle areas
  (distractors)
• BUT keep eyes focused on the cross in the center
• Compatible distractors same as target
• Incompatible distractors different from target

32
Flanker Compatibility Task

• It took less time for people to correctly respond
  when there was a compatible distractor
• What does that tell us about model of attention?

LATE FILTER
C Compatible I Incompatible
33
Flanker Compatibility Task

• That was the low-load condition, because only one
  circle had an object in it that participants
  needed to compare against the target
• In the high-load condition, there are more
  objects that might be targets
• Task is harder, therefore consumes more resources

34
Flanker Compatibility Task
35
Flanker Compatibility Task

• Now people did NOT respond more quickly when
  there was a compatible distractor
• What does that tell us about model of attention?

EARLY FILTER
C Compatible I Incompatible
36
Lessons from the Flanker Task

• Low load late filter, High load early filter
• Just like Lavies theory predicts
• When the task is easy, it becomes hard to ignore
  irrelevant information
• Resources left over, so unattended info leaks in
• When the task is hard, it becomes easy to ignore
  irrelevant information
• No resources left over, so unattended info does
  not interfere

37
Reading and Coglab

• Now pause the video and re-read pages 82-91 in
  the book, from the start of the chapter to
  Divided Attention
• If you havent already done it, do the Stroop
  Experiment on Coglab

38
Divided Attention

• Part II

39
Attention Vocabulary

• Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention
• Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes
• High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load
• Visual Attention
• Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention
• Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention
• Overt Bottom-up vs. Top-down control
• Covert Location-based vs. Object-based

40
Divided Attention

• Selective attention is the ability (or at least
  intention) to attend to just one thing
• Divided attention is the ability to pay attention
  to multiple things at once
• Driving while talking, listening to music, and
  thinking about what to do that day
• Walking and chewing gum
• Depends on Practice, Task Difficulty

41
Automatic Processing

• If you practice a task over and over it can
  become automatic
• Can be done without intention
• Consume few resources
• Can be combined with other tasks that do consume
  resources
• Reading for comprehension and taking dictation
• Impossible at first
• Could be done after 85 hours / 17 weeks of
  practice

42
The Stroop Effect

• Name the colors out loud as fast as you can,
  going from left to right

43
The Stroop Effect
44
The Stroop Effect
45
The Stroop Effect

• Which case was faster?
• Is naming colors automatic?
• How about reading?

46
Automaticity Intentionality

• Schneider and Shiffrin (1977)
• Consistent mapping condition
• Targets numbers, distractors letters
• Nothing both target and distractor

47
INSERT VIDEO

• Consistent Mapping Condition

48
Automaticity Intentionality

• Schneider and Shiffrin (1977)
• Consistent mapping condition
• Targets numbers, distractors letters
• Nothing both target and distractor
• Became automatic (even with 4 in set)

49
Automaticity Intentionality
50
Automaticity Intentionality

• Schneider and Shiffrin (1977)
• Consistent mapping condition
• Targets numbers, distractors letters
• Nothing both target and distractor
• Became automatic (even with 4 in set)
• Varied mapping condition
• Targets letters, distractors letters
• Target in one trial could be distractor in the
  next
• Never became automatic

51
INSERT VIDEO

• Varied Mapping Condition

52
Automaticity Intentionality

• Schneider and Shiffrin (1977)
• Consistent mapping condition
• Targets numbers, distractors letters
• Nothing both target and distractor
• Became automatic (even with 4 in set)
• Varied mapping condition
• Targets letters, distractors letters
• Target in one trial could be distractor in the
  next
• Never became automatic

53
Automaticity and Task Difficulty

• Schneider and Shiffrin (1977)
• Consistent mapping condition
• Knew targets ahead of time, targets stayed the
  same
• Varied mapping condition
• Targets kept changing for every trial

54
Automaticity and Task Difficulty

• Schneider and Shiffrin (1977)
• Consistent mapping condition (from before)
• Knew targets ahead of time, targets stayed the
  same
• Varied mapping condition
• Targets kept changing for every trial
• Varied mapping condition was too hard to become
  automatic
• Opposite of automatic controlled processing

HARDER
55
Inattention and Driving

• 100-car Naturalistic Driving Study
• 82 crashes, 771 near-crashes
• Recorded view out front back, plus what driver
  was doing
• For most of the accidents near-accidents the
  driver was inattentive just beforehand
• Toronto traffic study
• Cell phones increased crash risk by 4x
• No advantage for hands-free cell phone

56
Inattention and Driving

• Simulation Study
• Missed more red lights when talking
• Took longer to apply brakes when talking

• What is happening here?
• Having a conversation uses cognitive resources
  that could be used for driving

57
Reading

• Now pause the video and re-read pages 91-95 in
  the book, from Divided Attention to Attention
  and Visual Perception

58
Visual Attention

• Part III

59
Attention Vocabulary

• Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention
• Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes
• High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load
• Visual Attention
• Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention
• Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention
• Overt Bottom-up vs. Top-down control
• Covert Location-based vs. Object-based

60
Visual Attention

• There is a lot of research in the connection
  between vision and attention
• Usually need vision in order to attend
• Usually need attention in order to see
• Can be hard to think of as being separate!
• Not aware of everything we dont see.
• Not aware of everything we dont attend to
• Demos Missing things that are right in front of
  our eyes

61
INSERT VIDEO

• MACKROCK

62
INSERT VIDEO

• Umbrella

63
INSERT VIDEO

• Change detect

64
INSERT VIDEO

• ChangeBlindDoor

65
INSERT VIDEO

• Scene Continuity

66
Direction of Attention

• Scary to think of how much you might be missing,
  isnt it?
• Not really as bad as it seems these are
  experiments, after all.
• Other things going on in the world that keep it
  from being a problem
• Did were you sometimes in control of your
  attention while other times you found that it
  changed without you wanting it to?

67
Attention Vocabulary

• Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention
• Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes
• High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load
• Visual Attention
• Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention
• Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention
• Overt Bottom-up vs. Top-down control
• Covert Location-based vs. Object-based

68
Direction of Attention

• Endogenous control of attention
• You are in control of how your attention flows
  from one object to another (may miss unrelated
  things)
• Endo Latin for inside
• Exogenous control of attention
• Attention can be drawn to things in environment
  (surprising things, bright things, important
  things, movements accompanied by sounds, etc.)
• Exo Latin for outside

69
Reading

• Now pause the video and re-read pages 95-98 in
  the book, from Attention and Visual Perception
  to Overt Attention Attention by Moving our Eyes

70
Attention Vocabulary

• Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention
• Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes
• High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load
• Visual Attention
• Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention
• Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention
• Overt Bottom-up vs. Top-down control
• Covert Location-based vs. Object-based

71
Eye Movements and Attention

• We only see sharply and in color with the fovea
  of our eye
• Fovea is a really tiny region in the very center
• Eyes move all the time in order to see the world,
  most of the time jumping not gliding
• Fixation the eyes stay looking at the same spot
  for about 1/3 of a second
• Saccade rapid movement of the eye from one
  place to another

72
Tracking Eye Movements
Picture of an eyetracker
73
Eye Movements

• What determines where an individual fixations?

74
Attention Vocabulary

• Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention
• Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes
• High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load
• Visual Attention
• Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention
• Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention
• Overt Bottom-up vs. Top-down control
• Covert Location-based vs. Object-based

75
Where the Eyes Move

• Determined by both bottom-up and top-down
  effects. Recall from before
• Bottom-up driven by the data coming into the eye
• Top-down driven by our knowledge
• Bottom-up effects
• Stimulus salience areas stand out to our
  perceptual system because of how they look
  bright colors, high contrast, etc.

76
Salience
77
Salience

• There are just a few facts associated with
  salience
• A picture like we just saw is called a saliency
  map
• Used in experiments to make predictions about
  where the eyes will go
• If theres a sudden change in saliency, the eyes
  (and attention) can be captured
• Salience isnt the only thing there are also
  top-down effects

78
Top-down Eye Movement Control

• Scenes with meaningful elements
• fixate on those meaningful elements
• Familiar scenes
• Fixations influenced by perceivers scene schema
  (knowledge about what is contained in those
  scenes)
• Task-dependant information
• WHY youre looking determines where you look

79
Meaningful Elements and Scene Schemas

• Fixate on people because theyre meaningful
• Fixate on chair because it helps figure out what
  the room is (which Scene Schema)

80
Task Dependancy (Yarbus, 1967)

• Different eye movement patterns when people were
  asked to do different tasks

81
Eye Movements

• http//viperlib.york.ac.uk/
• (keyword eye movements or hayhoe)

82
Attention Vocabulary

• Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention
• Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes
• High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load
• Visual Attention
• Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention
• Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention
• Overt Bottom-up vs. Top-down control
• Covert Location-based vs. Object-based

83
Attention Without FixationPosner Coworkers
(1980)





84
Attention Without FixationPosner Coworkers
(1980)
FASTER
Cue Matches Target Location (lots of these)
Cue Mismatches Target Location (few of these)
85
Attention Without FixationPosner Coworkers
(1980)

• People were faster at detecting the lights when
  the cueing matched the target
• True even though their eyes were always fixated
  on the square
• People must have been attending to the location
  indicated by the cue, even without fixating there

86
Object-based Visual Attention

• We have just seen how attention can be directed
  to particular areas in space (with or without
  fixation to that area)
• Called location-based attention
• Like a spotlight that shines on a particular
  area
• Contrasted with object-based attention
• In static scenes attention can be to an object
• In dynamic environments attention locks on to
  particular objects and follows them as they move

87
Attention Vocabulary

• Selective Attention vs. Divided Attention
• Automatic Processes vs. Controlled Processes
• High Cognitive Load vs. Low Cognitive Load
• Visual Attention
• Exogenous vs. Endogenous Direction of Attention
• Overt Attention vs. Covert Attention
• Overt Bottom-up vs. Top-down control
• Covert Location-based vs. Object-based

88
Object-Based Attention Egly Coworkers (1994)
FASTER
89
Object-Based Attention Egly Coworkers (1994)
FASTER
90
Object-Based Attention Egly Coworkers (1994)

• Flash that occurred on the same object was faster
  than the on that occurred on the other object
• True despite the fact that both flashes were the
  same distance from the cued location
• True even when an occluder appeared in front of
  the objects
• Evidence that aspects of attention are
  object-based, even for stationary objects.

91
Object-based Attention

• Hemineglect House vs Normal House

92
Object-based Attention
YES
NO
93
Object-based Attention
YES
94
Reading

• Now pause the video and re-read pages 98-104 in
  the book, from Overt Attention Attention by
  Moving our Eyes to Feature Integration Theory

95
Feature Integration Theory

• Two stages of the visual process
• Preattentive Stage
• Automatic, effortless, unconscious
• Objects analyzed into independent features
• Focused Attention Stage
• Requires attention by the perceiver
• Features combine to form perception of whole
  object
• Evidence
• Pop-out effect and Illusory Conjunction studies
• Balints Syndrome

96
Evidence for Features Popout

• Yell me when you

See the TILTED LINE
97
Evidence for Features Popout
98
Evidence for Features Popout

• Yell me when you

See the VERTICAL LINE
99
Evidence for Features Popout
100
Evidence for Features Popout

• Yell me when you

See the CLOSED CIRCLE
101
Evidence for Features Popout
102
Evidence for Features Popout

• Yell me when you

See the CIRCLE WITH A GAP
103
Evidence for Features Popout
104
Popout

• Tilted line among horizontal lines
• Vs.
• Horizontal line among tilted lines
• Circle with gap among closed circles
• Vs.
• Closed circle among circles with gaps

105
Visual Search Times
Time to Respond
POP!
Number of distractors
106
Conclusions of Popout Studies

• Tilted line is a feature (vertical line is not)
• Gap is a feature (closed shape is not)

107
Illusory Conjuctions
108
Illusory Conjunctions

• Green Triangle? Red Triangle? Red Circle? Black
  Circle?
• People misremember
• Shapes and color features combined wrong
• Effect goes away when ppl focus on shapes
• Effect goes away when shapes are meaningful

109
Illusory Conjuctions
110
Illusory Conjunctions

• Green Triangle? Red Triangle? Red Circle? Black
  Circle?
• People misremember
• Shapes and color features combined wrong
• Effect goes away when ppl focus on shapes
• Effect goes away when shapes are meaningful
• Balints syndrome (parietal lobe damage)
• Inability to focus attention on objects
• See illusory conjunctions even with lots of time

111
Reading

• Now pause the video and re-read pages 104-106 in
  the book, from Feature Integration Theory to
  The Physiology of Attention

112
Physiology of Attention

• Part IV

113
Attention Without FixationColby Coworkers
(1995)
Fixation Condition Fixate on the fixation light,
release bar whenever fixation light dims
FIXATE
IGNORE
RELEASE BAR WHEN DIM
114
Attention Without FixationColby Coworkers
(1995)
Fixation Condition Fixate on the fixation light,
release bar whenever fixation light dims
FIXATE
RELEASE BAR WHEN DIM
Fixation And Attentin Condition Fixate on the
fixation light, release bar whenever peripheral
light dims
115
Attention Without FixationColby Coworkers
(1995)

• Monkeys could learn to do both tasks
• That in and of itself shows that attention and
  vision are not quite the same thing
• Cell in parietal cortex fired in response to the
  peripheral light
• Fired MORE in the fixation and attention
  condition, even though the image on the retina
  was exactly the same

116
Reading

• Now pause the video and re-read pages 106-108 in
  the book, from The Physiology of Attention to
  Something to Consider

117
Attention and Autism

• Part V

118
Autism and Attention

• Autism developmental disorder that includes
  withdrawal of contact from other people
• Difficulty understanding social cues, non-verbal
  communication, emotions of others
• Often normal (or even above average) IQ, though
  language ability is often impaired
• Klim Coworkers (2003) individuals with autism
  can reason about social situations but not
  understand them in day-to-day life

119
Autism and AttentionKlim Coworkers (2003)

• Video Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Emotional scene, after a character breaks a
  bottle
• Nonautistics focus on eyes to get emotional
  reaction (white in book)
• Autistics look off to the side (black in book)
• Character pointing across the room
• Nonautistics follow the gesture to see target,
  then face of another character
• Autistics look at things unrelated to the social
  event
• Ppl with autism dont attend to social cues

120
Autism and Attention

• Does inattention to social cues cause the
  social deficits? NO, but they contribute
• Feedback loop
• Negative emotions influence eye-movements
  attention
• Eye-movement attention differences influence
  how well they understand
• How well they understand influences how well the
  perform

121
Autism and Attention

• There might be other things going on, too.
• Silverman Coworkers (including Campana)
  individuals with autism have difficulty putting
  together verbal and nonverbal information even
  when they see and hear all of it

122
Reading

• Now pause the video and re-read the remainder of
  the chapter.

123
THE END