ATTENTION
I. Early observations
A. Cocktail party phenomenon (Cherry, 1953)
B. William James (1890) definition
C. Cherry’s studies of selective listening: dichotic listening and shadowing
II. Theories of selective attention
A. Donald Broadbent (1958): sensory filter
1. Activated by sensory aspects and effect of limited capacity
2. Problems: a) duration of sensory store; b) "name effect" (Moray, 1953); c) shifting attention (Gray & Wedderburn, 1960)
B. Anne Treisman (1960): sensory attenuator
1. Partial blockage of unattended
2. Threshold for detection
C. Deutsch & Deutsch (1963) and Norman’s (1968) pertinence
1. Response selection, with effect of linguistic system
2. Evidence in favor of model: a) Lewis (1970) RT to shadow; b) Mackay (1973) effect of disambiguating message; c) Moray et al. (1970) skin conductance
D. Conclusions about attention as selectivity
III. Capacity theories of attention
A. Reasons why "Bottleneck" not the best model
B. Daniel Kahneman (1973): Attention and Effort
1. Connect attention to general arousal
2. Yerkes-Dodson law
3. Available capacity (based on arousal states & evaluation of demands)
4. Allocation policy (based on enduring dispositions & momentary intentions & current demands)
IV. Relation of attention capacity and automaticity
A. Controlled vs. automatic processing (Shiffrin & Schneider, 1977)
1. Controlled process vs. automatic process: a) use of limited capacity; b) interference; c) sequential vs. parallel; d) effort and control; e) change in LTM
2. Veiled vs. accessible control process: a) effect of instruction; b) consciousness
B. Treisman et al. (1986) feature integration theory
1. Pattern recognition, attention, & automaticity
2. Preattentive processing: automatic, in parallel
3. Focused attention: demanding, serial, provides "glue" to integrate features
4. Experimental evidence: a) searching complex combinations vs. single features (Treisman & Gelade, 1980); b) illusory conjunction: when "glue" fails
C. Application to reading (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974)
1. Effect of practice and familiarity
2. Children vs. adults and automaticity
V. Conclusions about attention: Relation to consciousness and memory
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