Introduction to Cognitive Psychology - Department of Psychological ...

Prof. Greg Francis 8/12/11Attention effects!! An illusion because people do not see stimuli orsomething else?!! E.g., do not remember, do not recognize!! In general, attention seems to strengthenstimulus representations if they are weak!! Perceptual processing is better with attentionalfocus!! Detection!! Masking!! Discrimination!! Some neurons respond stronger to stimuli thatare attendedAttentional paradox!! If attention strengthens perceptual representations, we shouldlose perceptual veridicality!! We might expect what is schematized below!! But we normally do not experience this!! Attention generally seems to strengthen information about astimulus that is not perceptual!! Maybe edges rather than surfaces?StimulusAttend redAttend greenReynolds et al., 2000"Purdue UniversityPurdue University!! Sometimes attentioncan change perceptualproperties!! But then we have anincorrect perception ofthe properties of thevisual scene!! So it is difficult tounderstand howattention is helpinghereAttentional paradoxMore demos!! If time permits, here’s some more demos!! http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/djs_lab/demos.html!! Field!! Living room!! Phone call!! Lunch conversation (9 changes)!! Paris sceneTse, 2005"Purdue UniversityPurdue UniversityConclusionsNext time!! Attention can have very powerful effects!!help processing of focused on things!!can cause unawareness of unattended things!! Not precisely defined!!characteristic of processing?!!An “extra” system?!! Methods of studying attention!! What things influence attention!!Timing, features!! CogLabs on Attentional blink and Visualsearch due!!! Should you pay $59.95 for Mega-speedreading?Purdue UniversityPurdue UniversityPSY 200: Intro. to Cognitive Psychology 3