ATTENTION

by
Pn. Naqiah Puaad

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In this lecture, we will discuss:
How do we focus on one thing?
Selective Attention
 Two approaches:-
(1) Filter Approach
 Broadbent’s theory
 Treisman’s theory
 Late-selection model

(2) Task-dependent Approach

Divided attention
 How do we focus on two or more things at the
same time?
 Three factors to consider
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Attention???

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 Attention

 “Attention” – concentrating on specific

features of the environment or specific
thoughts or activities

 What are some examples to show that

you are paying attention?

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Attention is involved in….

 Perception
 auditory, visual

 Memory

 Language

 Problem solving

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 SELECTIVE
Attention???
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Selective Attention
giving attention to important things only: the ability to pay
attention to those things that are considered important and to ignore
those that are not

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 Selective attention

 Humans find it difficult to focus on

information from two messages that are
presented at the same time

 Example from experiments

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 Selective Attention

 Experiment by Cherry (1953) – Dichotic

Listening Task
 “dichotic”- two different messages presented
to different ears at the same time
 2 messages presented - one in each ear
 Shadowing: ‘attend to’ and repeat the attended
message out loud
 Didn’t remember much from the ‘unattended’
message - even when repeated 35x’s!
 Demonstration on page 101

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Selective Attention

 Cherry’s dichotic listening experiment is

also known as the “Cocktail Party
Phenomenon”

 Ability to pay attention to one message

and ignore all other messages at a noisy
party when you are focusing on what
someone is saying to you

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 Theories of Selective Attention
Two approaches (3 models) to explain Selective
Attention

 1. Models of attention that equates

attention to a filter (penapis)
 a. Broadbent’s Filter Model of Attention (early-selection
model)
 b. Treisman’s Attenuation Theory of Attention (early and
intermediate-selection model)

 2. Models of attention that depends on

the type of task we are involved in
 Late-selection model

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 Class Task!

 Divide into three groups.

 Discuss and present to the class each of
the theory selected.

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1) a. Broadbent’s Filter Model of Attention

 Filter = penapis
 Theory of auditory attention
 Early-selection model based on
information processing

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Broadbent’s Filter Model of Attention

 Sensory Store
 Holds information for a short amount of
time
 Transfers information to the filter

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Broadbent’s Filter Model of Attention

 Filter (penapis)
 Identifies attended message using physical
characteristics of the sound
 voice, pitch, speed, accent
 All other messages are removed (filtered)
except the attended message

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Broadbent’s Filter Model of Attention

 Detector
 Where unfiltered (attended) messages is
processed to identify meaning
 Processes ALL information sent to it

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Broadbent’s Filter Model of Attention

 Short term memory

 Output from the Detector
 Used immediately, or moved to long term
memory, or lost...

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Why is it called an Early-Selection Model?

 Attended message can be separated from the

unattended message early in the information
processing system
 Filtered before meaning is :
 Like a sieve (penapis)
 Filters based on pitch, rate rather than size of particle

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Channels of Attention

 Channel- ‘terowong’
 Cherry’s dichotic listening task and
Broadbent’s theory assumes our left
and right ears are different channels
 Broadbent’s conclusion: it is difficult to
switch attention between channels

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 Problem with Broadbent’s theory

 Later research showed information

(awareness of the meaning) is
“detected” before being “filtered”

 Evidence against the filter model

began to increase…

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Problem with Broadbent’s theory

 Moray conducted an experiment to show:

 Information presented to the unattended ear is
processed enough to give the listener some
awareness of its meaning
 Participants could switch channels and become
aware of the meaning of the unattended
information
 Eg. You may be talking, and laughing with some friends,
then, above your conversation and all of the background
noise, you hear your name

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The importance of Broadbent’s
theory
 Analyzed human thought processes in
terms of information being processed
through a sequence of stages
 Stimulated more research on
ATTENTION

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1 b. Treisman’s Attenuation Theory of
Attention

 Theory of auditory attention

 2-stage theory that replaced filter with
an attenuator
 Early (or intermediate) selection model

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Treisman’s Attenuation Theory of
Attention
 Attenuator - Analyse incoming message in
terms of:
 Physical characteristics

 Language ( grouped into syllables or words)

 Meaning (meaningful phrases)

 Just enough processing to distinguish different incoming

messages
 Attended message emerges – full strength but,

unattended message emerges – attenuated (Leaky filter

model)

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Treisman’s Attenuation Theory of
Attention
 Dictionary Unit
 Contains stored words that have thresholds for being activated
(tahap pengaktifan)
 Threshold- the smallest signal strength that can just be detected
 Common words/especially important – low threshold
 Uncommon words/unimportant to the listener –high thresholds
(need stronger signal to activate the words)

 Treisman would say your name (if you are the listener) has a low
threshold

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Treisman’s Attenuation Theory of
Attention

 The final output of this model:

The STRONG Attended message that gets
through

+
The IMPORTANT parts of the weaker
unattended message
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2) Late-Selection Model of Attention

 MacKay (1973):
 Shadowed an ambiguous sentence:
 “They were throwing stones at the bank”

 Presented biasing words in unattended ear “money” or

“river”

 After many trials, participants were asked which of

these two target sentences was closest in meaning to
one they heard earlier.
 They threw stones towards the side of the river

 They threw stones at RHB bank yesterday

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Late-Selection Model of Attention

 MacKay’s experiment found that”

 Even though participants reported not
hearing the biasing words, they were more
likely to pick target sentences that fit the
bias
 This result suggests unattended
information was processed to the level
of its meaning

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Comparing Early & Late-Selection Models

(Broadbent) (MacKay) 29
How to decide when to use Early or Late-
Selection Models?

 There are evidences for both theories

 Some researchers suggest attention is
task dependant (bergantung kepada
tugas)
 The important factor is task load: the
amount of cognitive resources needed
to complete a task

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Task Load

 High-load task: difficult and requires lots of cognitive

resources
 Eg. When you want to solve a mathematical or programming
problem, a tough problem
 Make use of early selection model of attention
 Require most of your cognitive resources, process only
attended task

 Low-load task: relatively easy and requires less

cognitive resources
 Eg. Listening to music
 Make use of late selection model of attention
 Require less cognitive resources, so both attended and some
unattended tasks can be processed
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Divided Attention

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 Divided Attention

 Divided attention
 How do we focus on two or more things at
the same time?
 When is this possible and when is it not?

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Divided Attention

 Paying attention to two different things

simultaneously
 Simultaneously drive and talk
 (not very good to drive and talk on your hand
phones)
 Possibility to divide attention depends on 3
factors:
 a. Skill
 b. task difficulty, and,
 c. task type

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 a. Skill- Effect of Practise

 Results of research on Divided Attention:

 With practice, people can learn to do 2 quite
difficult tasks simultaneously

 Experiments by:
 Schneider & Shiffrin (1977) - detecting ‘targets’ in
rapidly presented frames
(memilih target dari rangka-rangka yang ditunjukkan dalam
jangkamasa yang sangat pendek)

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Skill- Effect of Practise

 Schneider & Shiffrin (1977)’s

experiment 1: consistent
mapping condition
 First shown a memory set
consists of letters or numbers
 Shown 20 frames (2.4 seconds)
 Each frame had four positions
 Dot pattern or a target or a
distractor is placed at any one of
the four positions
 Distractors from different
category than target
 Same target is never used as a
distractor on another trial and
same distractor never used as
targets
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Skill- Effect of Practise
 Results:

 Participants only had 55% correct answers at first, but…

 They reported the task became automatic after
about 600 trials (In the first 600 trials, they had to keep
repeating the target items in order to remember them)
 occurs without intention/ consciously thinking about it
 uses few cognitive resources
 => Automatic Processing happens after practicing 600 times
 => Divided attention became possible after practice 37
b. Effect of Task difficulty

 If a task is difficult, divided attention is

sometimes not possible

Evidence from experiments:

 Strayer & Johnston (2001) – Cell phone
conversations and driving

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Task difficulty

 Hard/Difficult tasks may not eliminate

divided attention but…

 Can negatively affect performance on

one or more of the performed tasks

 For example...

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Task difficulty
 Study by Strayer & Johnston (2001) on driving while
talking on handphone:
 Results: Hands-free phones provide no safety

advantage
 You run pass more red lights and take longer to

hit the brakes (slower reaction time)

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 c. Effect of Task Type
(jenis tugas)
 Experiment by Brooks (1968)
 2 conditions:
 First condition:
 “John ran to the store to buy some
oranges”
 Memorize the sentence above and in
your mind say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to whether
a word in the sentence is a noun

 Second condition:
 Try again by pointing to the Y or N
 “The bird flew out the window to the
tree”

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Task Type

 Results:
 People found the first condition harder
compared to the second condition
 it harder to respond when they had to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’
compared to pointing to Y or N
 First condition: Verbal response matches the task
or remembering the sentence
 Second condition: The pointing response (spatial
response) does not match the verbal task

 => Responding is harder when similar types of

tasks compete for cognitive resources
 => Highlights competition between similar tasks
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Summary

 Selective attention – focus on one thing &

ignore the others
 Three approaches in auditory attention:
 Filter Approach
 Early Selection Model - Broadbent’s theory : filters sound
based on physical characteristics
 Early/Intermediate Model - Treisman’s theory: attenuator
filters sound based on meaning, language & physical
characteristics
 Late Selection model – McKay’s model: filters sound based
on meaning
 Task-dependent Approach-
 The use of any of these theories is dependent on task load

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Summary

 Divided attention – focusing on 2

stimulus simultaneously

 Ability to divide our attention depends

on 3 factors:
 a. Skill
 b. task difficulty, and,
 c. task type
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Happy Reading
&
Bye! Bye!

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