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Module – 2
Attention : Capacity and attention Theories of attention Neuropsychological architecture of attention
Attention was first defined in the 1950's by psychologist WIlliam James. Attention is a concept studied in cognitive psychology that refers to how we actively process specific information in our environment. Attention is the focusing on one thing while ignoring other things that may be going on at the same time. Attention allows you to "tune out" information, sensations, and perceptions that are not relevant at the moment and instead focus your energy on the information that is important. Attention is an important mental process. Without it, other mental processes, like imagination, learning and thinking etc. are neither possible nor useful. We cannot think about anything unless we concentrate our attention on it. Think of attention as a highlighter.
Nature of Attention: i. Attention is a mental process and not a mental power. ii. There can be no attention in the absence of interest. iii. The thought of conscious life is impossible in the absence of attention. iv. Attention creates readiness for doing a work. v. Attention is a selective process. vi. Attention is a past of consciousness, it does not mean consciousness.
Characteristics of Attention: (i) Attention is always changing. (ii) Attention is always an active center of our experience. (iii) It is selective. (iv) Attention is continuous. (v) Attention increases the clarity of the object. (vi) It is indivisible. (vii) The limitation of attention somewhat depends upon relation between the things.
Educational Implications: Attention plays a vital role in teaching learning process. Without attention learning cannot be effective. It helps a child to grasp things better. It is a must to learn a skill. Lesson studied with greater attention lasts long. Thus, attention is quite vital to learning.
What is the importance of Attention in Learning?
Attention is the focus of consciousness, which is compared with a stream that flows constantly.
All our thoughts, sensation, ideas and experience constitute this stream of consciousness.
Attention enables the individual to gain these experiences. It also involves specific physical
adjustments.
Firstly, attention increases efficiency.
Secondly, attention improves sensory discrimination.
Thirdly attention is useful for acquisition of skill. The typist or the cyclist or the cricket player
pays attention to the hands and movements, to co-ordination and control. When the skill is
adequately developed, such attention is no longer required.
Lastly, attention is helpful for remembering. When attention is paid to certain specific areas or
objects, concentration helps to know the details and retain them accurately. Other things which
are not properly attended to be not remembered well and as such are forgotten as soon as
possible.
Factors Facilitating Attention
The factors that facilitate attention may be classified into two main types:
i. objective factors which depend on the nature of the object attended to and
ii. (ii) subjective factors which depend on the interest, tastes, tendency and disposition of the individual. These factors under these two categories may be discussed as follows:
Objective Factors
Mainly consist of (i) Intensity (ii) Size (iii) Repetition, (iv) Novelty, (v) Movement and (vi)
Systematic form.
(i) Intensity
A strong stimulus calls for attention. When stimulation becomes intense, attention becomes
capturing. For example, bright light or strong sound draws immediate attention.
(ii) Size
Bigness in size works as a great stimulus in this respect. It is natural that a large object draws
attention more than a small one.
(iii) Repetition
A stimulus given repeatedly attracts attention. Knocking the door repeatedly or calling of the
mother several times draws attention easily.
(iv) Novelty
An unfamiliar object draws our attention more than familiar object. Even a familiar object in an
unfamiliar setting, draws our attention. An unusually dressed person catches everybody's
attention.
(v) Movement
is compelled to attend to the school work out of the teacher's punishment, such attention is called voluntary attention. On the other hand, involuntary attention depends on the person who attends to it. It is passive and free and dependent on the quality of the stimulus. No efforts are necessary for drawing such attention and it is the striking quality of the object that attracts the same. For instance, when we hear a sweet song our attention is automatically drawn to it.
iii. random attention. It is usually effortless and involuntary. This is the most rudimentary form of attention. It is also unlearned and characteristic attention of the young child. Attention of this type is of fluctuating nature and cannot be sustained for long time. There is no goal or purpose in it and no real or genuine interest in the object that draws the attention.
iv. no volitional attention. It is spontaneous and self generating as the individual has the real interest in the object itself. Such attention is effortless and the example of this attention may be found in the school child who is genuinely interested in the work.
ATTENTION AND ITS COMPONENT PROCESSES Attention is a central process and
perception is not possible without attentional processes. That means attention precedes
perception. Attentional processes serve various functions in the organization of our perceptions
and other cognitive functions. The various functions of attention are :
- Alerting function
- Selective function
- Limited capacity channel
- Vigilance
Let us examine these functions briefly.
- Alerting function: Carefully observe a cat poised at the mouse hole. If you look at the cat carefully in such a situation, you will observe that the ears of the cat are directed towards the mouse hole (to receive the slightest sound of movement inside the hole), eyes are converged and focused on the hole (to get visual image of the mouse as it tries to come out), the four leg muscles are in a state of high alert (to pounce at the mouse as it comes out). There is a complete physiological and mental preparedness to catch the prey. This is an example of alertness, what we call an alerting function of attention. You will notice that the cat is allocating all its available attentional resources, this demonstrates the alerting nature of attention.
- Selective function: The most important function of attention is selectivity. Selectivity refers to a process by which attention is focused on stimulus or stimuli of ongoing
interest and other stimuli are ignored. Selective attention acts as a filter, that allows some information in and the other (unwanted) out.
- Limited Capacity Channel: It has been established through research that we have limited capacity to process information that is available in the outside world. That is, tasks that require attentional resources cannot be carried out simultaneously because we have limited capacity to process the incoming information. We process the task one at a time, called serial processing. For example, if you are asked to listen to music as well as read this page in your text book, you cannot carry out both the tasks simultaneously or in parallel. If you attend to music, then during this period you are not able to comprehend what you were reading and vice-versa. That means, when the task requires attentional resources (when the task is difficult) you can carry on with one task at a time called serial processing, carrying two tasks simultaneously is not possible. However, if one task is highly practised or routinized then it is possible to carry on with two tasks simultaneously. For example, when you are a practiced driver, you can drive the car as well as converse with the other person sitting by your side.
- Vigilance Function: Maintaining attention on a task continuously, for some time, like looking at the radar screen, is called vigilance or sustained attention. It has been found that attending to a task for long is taxing, particularly if the task is monotonous and it leads to decrease in performance. You will be able to understand vigilance better by doing the following activity.
A bottleneck restricts the rate of flow, as, say, in the narrow neck of a milk bottle. The narrower
the bottleneck, the lower the rate of flow.
Broadbent's, Treisman's, and Deutsch and Deutsch Models of Attention are all bottleneck models because they predict we cannot consciously attend to all of our sensory input at the same time.
Broadbent's Filter Model
Donald Broadbent is recognized as one of the major contributors to the information processing
approach, which started with his work with air traffic controllers during the war. In that situation
a number of competing messages from departing and incoming aircraft are arriving continuously,
all requiring attention. The air traffic controller finds s/he can deal effectively with only one
message at a time and so has to decide which is the most important. Broadbent designed an
experiment (dichotic listening) to investigate the processes involved in switching attention which
are presumed to be going on internal in our heads.
Broadbent (1958) argued that information from all of the stimuli presented at any given time
enters a sensory buffer. One of the inputs is then selected on the basis of its physical
characteristics for further processing by being allowed to pass through a filter. Because we have
The inputs not initially selected by the filter remain briefly in the sensory buffer store, and if they
are not processed they decay rapidly. Broadbent assumed that the filter rejected the non-
shadowed or unattended message at an early stage of processing.
Evaluation of Broadbent's Model
1. Broadbent's dichotic listening experiments have been criticized because: - Eysenck & Keane (1990) claim that the inability of naive participants to shadow successfully is due to their unfamiliarity with the shadowing task rather than an inability of the attentional system. - Participants reported after the entire message had been played - it is possible that the unattended message is analyzed thoroughly but participants forget. - Analysis of the unattended message might occur below the level of conscious awareness. - Moray (1959) studied the effects of practice. Naive subjects could only detect 8% of digits appearing in either the shadowed or non-shadowed message, Moray (an experienced 'shadower') detected 67%. 2. Broadbent's theory predicts that hearing your name when you are not paying attention should
be impossible because unattended messages are filtered out before you process the meaning -
thus the model cannot account for the 'Cocktail Party Phenomenon'.
Treisman's Attenuation Model
Treisman's (1964) model retains this early filter which works on physical features of the message
only. The crucial difference is that Treisman's filter ATTENUATES rather than eliminates the
unattended material. Attenuation is like turning down the volume so that if you have 4 sources
of sound in one room (TV, radio, people talking, baby crying) you can turn down or attenuate 3
in order to attend to the fourth.
The result is almost the same as turning them off, the unattended material appears lost. But, if a
non-attended channel includes your name, for example, there is a chance you will hear it because
the material is still there.
Treisman's ATTENUATION THEORY , in which the unattended message is processed less
thoroughly than the attended one, suggests processing of the unattended message is attenuated or
reduced to a greater or lesser extent depending on the demands on the limited capacity
processing system.
Treisman suggested messages are processed in a systematic way, beginning with analysis of
physical characteristics, syllabic pattern, and individual words. After that, grammatical structure
and meaning are processed.
It will often happen that there is insufficient processing capacity to permit a full analysis of
unattended stimuli. In that case, later analyses will be omitted. This theory neatly predicts that it
will usually be the physical characteristics of unattended inputs which are remembered rather
than their meaning.
To be analyzed, items have to reach a certain threshold of intensity All the attended/selected
material will reach this threshold but only some of the attenuated items. Some items will retain
a permanently reduced threshold, for example your own name or words/phrases like 'help' and
'fire'. Other items will have a reduced threshold at a particular moment if they have some
relevance to the main attended message.
Evaluation of Treisman's Model
1. Treisman's Model overcomes some of the problems associated with Broadbent's Filter Model,
e.g. the Attenuation Model can account for the 'Cocktail Party Syndrome'.
2. Treisman's model does not explain how exactly semantic analysis works. 3. The nature of the attenuation process has never been precisely specified. 4. A problem with all dichotic listening experiments is that you can never be sure that the
participants have not actually switched attention to the so called unattended channel.
- Deutsch and Deutsch (1963) proposed a late selection model of
- Further evidence is unattended message can influence participants
understanding of the meaning of ambiguous sentences(MacKay, 1973)
- It accounts for capacity of subjects to perform some types of divided attention
task
- However, was criticised because does not account for attention in all
types of tasks(particularly tasks where it’s not possible to preset a
response bias)
- For example : Dichotic listening task
Later, this model was expanded by Norman (
If, for example, there is a child that is suffering from a hearing problem, vision problem, or other physical handicaps, they will have difficulty in learning things like spelling and reading. Things like pituitary gland dysfunction and thyroid disorders will affect a child's behavior and they will not be able to learn properly.
- PERSONAL AND SOCIAL - Social Expectations Cultural Demands Family Background Personal factors, such as instincts and emotions, and social factors, such as cooperation and rivalry, are directly related to a complex psychology of motivation
- TEACHING AND INSTRUMENTAL - Teacher’s Personality Teaching and Learning Methods Each teacher has his or her own personality that can strongly affect the individual's learning environment. The success or failure of the student can depend on the teacher's personality. The way in which his personality interacts with the personalities of the pupils being taught helps to determine the kind of behavior which emerges from the learning situation.
- ENVIORNMENTAL - Some environmental factors such as sufficient light and ventilation, calm and clean place, normal temperature, some minimum furniture will help learning processes. In the school and at the home, the conditions for learning must be favorable and adequate if teaching is to produce the desired results. It cannot be denied that the type and quality of instructional materials and equipment play an important part in the instructional efficiency of the school.
- It was the first type of learning or conditioning to be discovered.
- The major theorist in the study of classical conditioning was IVAN PAVLOV.
- MAJOR CONCEPTS:
- Unconditioned Stimulus - Food
- Conditioned Stimulus - Sound of the bell
- Unconditioned Response - Salivation at the sight of food.
- Conditioned Response - Salivation at the sound of the bell.
- There's a neutral stimulus (the bell), which by itself will not produce a response, like
salivation. There's also a non-neutral or unconditioned stimulus (the food), which will produce an unconditioned response (salivation).
- But if you present the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus together, eventually the dog will learn to associate the two.
- After a while, the neutral stimulus by itself will produce the same response as the unconditioned stimulus, like the dogs drooling when they heard the bell. This is called a conditioned response.
- Stimulus generalisation- It refers to generalisation of the CR to stimuli similar to CS. It was explained by Watson in the year 1913 in his Little Albert experiment. example- In the little albert experiment by Watson, little Albert began to produce CR for white rat (CS) and white beard of santa claus.
- Extinction- It refers to cessation of a response learned through classical conditioning. In
the Pavlovian experiment, for example, when UCS was not provided with the CS for a prolonged time, the association between the CS and CR weakened and this lead to extinction.
- (^) Spontaneous recovery- It refers to recovery of associations between CS and CR using UCS. It is made use of after extinction. In the Pavlovian experiment, after extinction, when Pavlov paired the CS and UCS together, the classical conditioning happened faster than before and CS elicited CR.
- Stimulus discrimination- It refers to the fact that the animal can distinguish between two similar stimuli. Example- In the Pavlovian experiment, after a while, the dogs began to understand at the sound of which bell was food going to come. They stopped salivating at the sound of similar bell and salivated only for the bell the researcher intended to provide food on.
- Higher order conditioning- It refers to a conditioning with more than one CS. for
example, when the dogs have learned to salivate at the ring of a bell, we start producing flashes of red light with the ringing of bell. This simultaneous flashing of red light with ringing of bell further conditions the dogs to salivate for flashes of red light even when the bell is not rung. The strength of higher order conditioning is dependent on how strong the association between previous CS and UCS is.
- Real life examples
- My grandma makes a specific desert or gives me money every time i visit her which i
have associated with feeling good. Let’s say, she wears a specific fragrance. So when i next smell that fragrance elsewhere, i immediately think of the association i have made between my grandma and the feel-good-factor i feel and i immediately start feeling good. (Higher order conditioning)
- A student who concludes that all mathematics courses are terrifying as a result of some early difficulties with arithmetic has persistent overgeneralized reactions.
- A student who does not see the basic Principles of Learning operating in day-to-day
activities reflects an undergeneralization from the classroom to the outside world.
- The principle invades even our own self-image; the "born-loser" syndrome is an overgeneralization based on a few unfortunate experiences that may, as a matter of fact, turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Applications of Classical Conditioning
- Acquiring Fear
- John B. Watson & Rosalie Rayer (1920) set out to obtain clear evidence that fear could be conditioned. They Studied am 11 month- old infant named Albert. When he was playing in the hospital room , Watson and Rayner showed him a white rat. He displayed no sign of fear. Later knowing that Albert was afraid of loud noises, & then should rabbit. The noise scared Albert & made him cry , After several rat- noise pairing , the sight of the white rat alone made Albert cry.
- 2) Overcoming fear
- The assumption is that of the phobias are learned than they can be unlearned.
- In1924, Mary Cover Jones successfully treated a boy named Peter who had a strong fear
of rabbits by using exposure therapies in which patient is exposed to a stimulus (CS) that arouses an anxiety response (such as fear) without the presence of UCS allowing extinction to occur.
- In the chamber there was a lever, which was connected to a food container kept on the
top of the chamber.
- When the lever is pressed, a food pellet drops on the plate placed close to the lever. While moving around and pawing the walls (exploratory behaviour), the hungry rat accidentally presses the lever and a food pellet drops on the plate. The hungry rat eats it.
- In the next trial, after a while the exploratory behaviour again starts. As the number of trials increases, the rat takes lesser and lesser time to press the lever for food.
- Conditioning is complete when the rat presses the lever immediately after it is placed in
the chamber.
- Here, lever pressing is an operant response and getting food is its consequence.
- An example for this can be when children learn to be polite and say ‘please’ when they
- need favours from parents and elder.
Reinforcement
It refers to the responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behavior being repeated. Was first introduced by Pavlov in 1903. In 1911, Thorndike talked about “response reinforcement” and suggested that responses that are “closely followed by satisfaction” will be “more firmly connected with the situation, so that, when it reoccurs, they will be more likely to reoccur.” In 1933 ,Thorndike and Skinner adopted Pavlov’s term reinforcement to denote the strengthening of stimulus-response associations.
Positive reinforcement
- occurs when a desirable event or stimulus is presented as a consequence of a behavior and the behavior increases. It strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding. -For eg : - In skinner’s experiment Whenever a rat presses a button, it gets a treat. If the rat starts pressing the button more often, the treat serves to positively reinforce this behavior. Negative reinforcement
- occurs when the rate of a behavior increases because an aversive event or stimulus is removed or prevented from happening. It strengthens behavior because it stops or removes an unpleasant experience. For eg: In placed a rat in his Skinner box and then subjected it to an unpleasant electric current which caused it discomfort. As the rat moved about the box it would accidentally knock the lever & Immediately the electric current would be switched off. The consequence of escaping the electric current ensured that they would repeat the action again and again.
- It is defined as an aversive event that decreases the behavior that it follows.
- It is designed to weaken or eliminate a response rather than increase it.
- Whether a change is or is not punishing is determined by its effect on the rate that the behavior occurs, not by any "hostile" or aversive features of the change. For example, a painful stimulus which would act as a punisher for most people may actually reinforce some behaviors of masochistic individuals.
Types of Punishment
- Positive Punishment
- It occurs when a response produces an aversive stimulus and that response decreases in probability in the future in similar circumstances.
- For eg : A mother yells at a child when he or she runs into the street. If the child stops running into the street, the yelling ceases. The yelling acts as positive punishment because the mother presents (adds) an unpleasant stimulus in the form of yelling.
- Negative Punishment
- occurs when a response produces the removal of a stimulus and that response decreases in probability in the future in similar circumstances.
- For Eg: A teenager comes home after curfew and the parents take away a privilege, such as cell phone usage. If the frequency of the child coming home late decreases, the privilege is gradually restored.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
Observational learning describes the process of learning through watching others, retaining the information, and then later replicating the behaviours that were observed.
Observational learning is sometimes also referred to as shaping, modelling, and vicarious reinforcement. While it can take place at any point in life, it tends to be the most common during childhood as children learn from the authority figures and peers in their lives.
It also plays an important role in the socialization process, as children learn how to behave and respond to others by observing how their parents and other caregivers interact with each other and with other people.
Examples
- A child watches his mother folding the laundry. He later picks up some clothing and imitates folding the clothes.
- A boy watches another boy on the playground get in trouble for hitting another child. He learns from observing this interaction that he should not hit others.
- A group of children plays hide-and-seek at recess. One child joins the group, but has never played before and is not sure what to do. After observing the other children play, she quickly learns the basic rules of the game and joins in. Stages:
- Attention - the observer must actively watch the stimulus when completing the task.
- Retention - the observer must be able to retain the stimulus(step by step).
- Reproduction - the observer must be able to reproduce whatever he has observed when it is required.
- Motivation - the observer must be motivated enough to perform the behaviour that h has observed.
- Reinforcement – if the behaviour receives positive reinforcement then it is likely for the observer to repeat it.
- Kohler showed the power of insight learning by placing a piece of fruit above the reach
of chimpanzees and watching how they attempted to reach the food.
- In the room there were several boxes, none of which was high enough to enable the
chimpanzees to reach the fruit.
- (^) Kohler found that the chimpanzees spent most of their time unproductively rather than
slowly working towards a solution.
- They would run around, jump, and be generally upset about their inability to snag the
snack until, all of a sudden, they would pile the boxes on top of each other, climb up, and grab the fruit.
Characteristics of Insight Learning
- Insight leads to change in perception.
- Insight is sudden.
- With insight, the organism tends to perceive a pattern or organization (that helps in
learning).
- (^) Understanding plays important role n insight learning.
- Insight is related with higher order animals and not with inferior animals.
- Age influences insight learning. Adults are better learner than children.
- Past experience and perceptual organization is important in perception.
- Some psychologists also relate insight learning with associative learning.
Insightful learning depends on certain factors:
- Intelligence
- Learning situation
- Initial efforts
- Repetition / Generalization
Albert Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment is widely cited in psychology as a demonstration of
observational learning and social learning theory. The bobo doll experiment was conducted
by Albert Bandura in 1961 and studied patterns of behaviour associated with associated with
aggression.
Module - 1
Historical Background
Information processing Approach
Ecological Approach
Contemporary cognitive psychology
The ecological approach –
Ecological perspective (James J. Gibson,1979)
1)The ecological perspective emphasizes the relevance of external factors.
