PSY270H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Mental Chronometry, Neural Adaptation, Stroop Effect
Document Summary
Attention is the concentration of mental effort on sensory (environment) or mental events( mind) Observer can tell what we are paying attention ( directing our gaze) Paying attention to something but not looking at it. You hear people across the table talking about something ( you start to eves drop) We decide what we pay attention to. Can be overt, but not covert- we can"t help but looking at it. When something grabs our attention and we can"t shift our attention. Habituation- stop paying attention to a physical stimulus and you are no longer aware of it. Dishabituation- feeling of sensation arises once again. Sensory adaptation- when you stop paying attention to a physical stimulus, happens at a neuronal level. If we don"t pay attention to something we won"t be consciously aware of it. Simons and chabris (1999) demonstrated this phenomenon dramatically. Video: gorilla, black shirt member leaves, curtain changing color are related phenomenon known as change blindness.
