Introduction To Psychology (Psych 10) Professor Keith Holyoak
Uploaded by
Rosalind W. WongIntroduction To Psychology (Psych 10) Professor Keith Holyoak
Uploaded by
Rosalind W. WongIntroduction to Psychology (Psych 10)
Professor Keith Holyoak
Lecture 3: Attention and Perception
Plato Aristotle
What is cognitive psychology?
• Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of
knowledge
• Behavior is used to make inferences about
– Mental representations and processes
– Based on careful experiments
Scope of Cognitive Psychology
Attention
Knowledge
Perception How is knowledge acquired?
Memory
Language
Reasoning How is knowledge retained?
Thinking
How is knowledge used?
Cognitive Psychology
Computation
• Internal processes rigorously formalized as computation.
• Opened up a rich set of experimental paradigms.
Representations & Processes
Version of something in a different format
– e.g., maps as representation
San Francisco Map of San Francisco
The represented world The representing world
Mental Representations
Mental representations
1) are formed in the mind
2) are reliably activated by objects/events in world
3) make it possible to think about objects/events in
their absence
Do we always see things as they “really are”?
• A young woman or
an old woman?
• Ambiguous image
The Gestalt Approach
• The whole differs from the sum of its parts
– Perception is not built up from sensations
but is a result of perceptual organization
Gestalt Laws
1) Proximity
- elements tend to be grouped together depending
on their closeness
2) Similarity
- items that are similar in some way tend to be
grouped together
3) Good Continuation
- objects arranged in either a straight line or a
smooth curve tend to be seen as a unit
Gestalt Laws
1) Proximity
- elements tend to be grouped together
depending on their closeness
Gestalt Laws
2) Similarity
- items that are similar in some way tend to
be grouped together
Gestalt Laws
3) Good Continuation
objects arranged in either a straight line
or a smooth curve tend to be seen as a unit
a c
d
Gestalt Laws
3) Good Continuation
objects arranged in either a straight line
or a smooth curve tend to be seen as a unit
This is usually perceived as five circles, not as the nine
shapes on right
Demands on attention in everyday life
What is attention?
Traditionally research has distinguished between two
forms of attention.
Selective attention: Participants are told to attend to one stimulus
and ignore another. This informs us about the process of
selection, and what happens to unattended stimuli.
Divided attention: Participants attend to all stimuli. Their degree
of success informs us about processing limitations and
attentional capacity.
Critical Evaluation:
Cell Phones and Driving
• Does talking on cell phone impair driving ability?
– Hands engaged?
– Dual Tasking? (Listening to radio)
– Conversation? (Conversation with other passengers)
• Are hands-free phone better?
Divided Attention: Cell phones & Driving
Simulated driving task with…
•car radio control
•book-on-tape control
•hand-held cell phone
•hands-free cell phone
Measured:
•Number of times missed red light
•Reaction time to red light
Findings:
•Cell phones impaired attention
•Deficits in both hand-held and
hands-free usage
Selective Attention
Constantly bombarded by stimuli
- Limited capacity
Selective attention refers to the selective
processing of task relevant information while
successfully ignoring irrelevant information
Facilitatory and inhibitory mechanisms
Is reading an automatic
(attention-free) process?
Can we look at words without reading them?
Is reading an automatic process?
Can we look at words without reading them?
Is reading an automatic process?
Can we look at words without reading them?
Is reading an automatic process?
Can we look at words without reading them?
The Stroop Interference Effect
Automatic/Preattentive Processing
Shadowing task
What is Remembered In Unattended Ear
During Shadowing Task After Long Delay?
Shadowing task
What gets through the unattended ear?
• Low level information gets through. Subjects are
aware of:
– nonspeech sounds (clicks, buzzers)
– gender of speaker (shifts in voice)
– Was it a human voice?
• Subjects are NOT aware of
– content (same word repeated 30 times)
– syntax (sentences vs. random words)
– language (shifts in language of speaker, e.g. English
vs. German)
Early Selection / Filter Model
• Only one sensory channel is allowed to proceed
• Stimuli filtered at early sensory level
Cocktail Party Phenomenon
BUT, subjects sometimes could recognize own name, and “FIRE”
Salient or overlearned information gets
through early processing without attention
(“Late Selection”)
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Attention and Experiencing a Coherent World
• Binding - process by which features are
combined to create perception of coherent
objects
• Binding problem - features of objects are
processed separately in different areas of the
brain
• So, how does binding occur?
Feature Integration Theory
• Treisman and Gelade
– Preattentive stage - features of objects are
separated
– Focused attention stage - features are
bound into a coherent perception
– Attention serves as the “glue” between the
physiology of the what and where streams
Modern Study of Automatic
and Controlled Processes
• “Pop-out” effect studied by Treisman
• Task
Visual Search
Demo
Find black square
What are the basic visual features used
by the visual system?
• Visual search methods can be used to
reveal the features that are
independently processed by the visual
system; e.g., color/form/shape
– If features are independent →
characteristic feature/conjunction search
pattern
Another Feature Search
Is there a red T in the
T T
Display?
T
T T T T
Target is defined by a T
single feature
T T T
According to feature
integration theory the T T T T
Target should “pop out” T
T
No attention required
Another Conjunction Search
Is there a red T in the
Display?
X X T
Target is defined by two
Features: shape and color
T X T
T X X
According to FIT, the features T
must be combined and so X X
attention is required T
T T
Need to examine one by one
Treisman’s Feature-Integration Theory
• Individual Feature processing is done in
parallel. Simultaneous processing is done on
the whole display and if feature is present--
we detect it. POP-OUT
• Conjunction searching requires attention to
the integration or combination of the features.
Attention to particular combination of
features must be done sequentially to detect
presence of a certain combination. NON-
POP-OUT
Visual Recognition
• The visual recognition processes need to be
specific enough to allow us to detect differences
between objects, and exemplars of objects
• Yet general enough so as to allow us to
recognize objects under variable conditions—
achieve object constancy
What is the problem of object
recognition?
• A single object could generate an infinite number of different
stimuli (retinal stimulation)
Stimulus is pattern of light hitting our eyes.
We somehow generate same response to all.
What changes stimulus?
– Distance to object
– Angle to object
– Lighting
– Occlusion
• Problem: map all of these stimuli onto same response.
Example
The Challenge of Object Perception
• The stimulus on the receptors is ambiguous
– Inverse projection problem: an image on the
retina can be caused by an infinite number of
objects
The Challenge of Object Perception
• The stimulus on the receptors is ambiguous
– Inverse projection problem: an image on the retina can be caused
by an infinite number of objects
• Objects can be hidden or blurred
– Occlusions are common in the environment
B
BB B
B
B
BB B
B
BB B
B
Constancy Demos
Constant Percepts. Changing Stimuli
Color Lighting
Size Distance
Shape Viewpoint
Shape Occlusion
