PSYCH 1X03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Visual Search, Cocktail Party, Inattentional Blindness
11 Oct 2018
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Document Summary
Attention is defined by the ability to selectively focus, consciously or unconsciously, on relevant stimuli in our environment in order to navigate successfully and economically through daily experiences. When engaged in a task our attention is still able to attend to relevant stimuli, such as our name being called, from the background of our focus. This effect is demonstrated with the dichotic listening task, where some information from unattended channels are remembered in addition to information from attended channels. A two way flow of information guides our attentional selection. Bottom up: attention is guided by salient stimuli or environmental changes; automatic. Top down: attention is guided by conscious directed in order to fulfill a goal or meet memory expectations; controlled. Spatial cuing paradigm: measures the movement of attention across a scene and factors involved. Overt attending: the direction of attention is made clear through eye movements.
