PSYC 256 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Daniel Kahneman, Unit, Cocktail Party
13 Jun 2018
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UNIT 2 (Includes 9-15)
ATTENTION
What is Attention?
• Taking possession of the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one of what seem several
simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought (William James, 1890)
• Limited capacity to actively process limited amounts of information from amongst
enormous amount of available information
Attention as Capacity
• Capacity theory (Kahneman, 1973)
o Attention is limited and budgeted
o Allocated according to demands of situation
o Allocation depends on factors such as arousal, intentions, disposition, etc.
o
Selective Attention
Change Blindness
• Attentional phenomena (not perceptional)
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Selective Attention
• Ability to selectively ignore some information in order to concentrate on other
information
• But, at what point do you stop processing ignored stimuli?
How do we determine this?
• Dichotic listening task (headphones, play separate messages into each ear)
• Cherry 1953: can shadow one message, but can’t recall content of unattended
message
Early-selection Theory
• Broadbent, 1958
o Attend based on physical properties
o Gateway blocked at early stage of processing
o
Challenges to Early-selection Theory
• Moray (1959): Cocktail party effect
o Ability to selectively attend to one particular conversation over a cacophony
of others
o However, certain things can get through this filter, such as your name and
other important information/words
Late-selection Theory
• Deutsch & Deutsch 1963
• All stimuli are processed for some aspects of meaning
• Most important information is further elaborated and better remembered
o Everything must be first processed to be determined its not important and
ignorable
• Importance can depend on:
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o Context, personal relevance, alertness
• Gateway is open to processing meaning, but stopped before further processing
•
Challenges to late-selection theory
• How does the filter decide what is important?
o Is fire always important
o Treisman (1960) dichotic listening test
o ***
o Perceptual vs conceptual (One is stronger?) *
Problems with both filter theories
• People do not follow message based on physical attribute (location of message)
• Instead, people follow the message based on the meaning
• Second message must be getting through at level higher than physical
characteristics
Attenuation Theory
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Document Summary
Attention as capacity: capacity theory (kahneman, 1973, attention is limited and (cid:498)budgeted(cid:499, allocated according to demands of situation, allocation depends on factors such as arousal, intentions, disposition, etc. How do we determine this: dichotic listening task (headphones, play separate messages into each ear, cherry 1953: can (cid:498)shadow(cid:499) one message, but can"t recall content of unattended message. Early-selection theory: broadbent, 1958, attend based on physical properties, gateway blocked at early stage of processing. Challenges to early-selection theory: moray (1959): cocktail party effect, ability to selectively attend to one particular conversation over a cacophony of others, however, certain things can get through this filter, such as your name and other important information/words. Late-selection theory: deutsch & deutsch 1963, all stimuli are processed for some aspects of meaning, most important information is further elaborated and better remembered, everything must be first processed to be determined its not important and ignorable.
