PSY 243.3 Lecture 4: Chapter 4
Document Summary
Executive attention: strategically control attention in response to situational demands. Cocktail party phenomenon: tendency to overhear own name even in unattended sources of stimulation. Failure of inhibition as it intrudes on consciousness. Study: operational span: person"s ability to keep track of multiple streams of info. Is divided attention situation: must answer math problems & keep track of words to recall them. Low span people 3x likely to hear name than high span & 4x likely to make an error: operation span is a task that can be used to assess one"s ability to control attention. Load theory: speculate older adults: executive functioning occupied by shadowing task to extent that there is none left to monitor in unattended channel. Low executive attention causing reduce for irrelevant info to be noticed. The role of executive function in cognition: executive function plays key role in complex task performance. Controlling attention (operational span tasks) linked to complex spoken & written abilities.
