Running head: EFFECT OF SUDDEN ONSET ON ATTENTION 1
Investigate to What Extent Attention will be Affected by a Distractor Sudden Onset
Mingfeng Chen
The University of Sydney
EFFECT OF SUDDEN ONSET ON ATTENTION 2
Abstract
Attention is an important part in psychology study which provide us knowledge about how we process the information around us in the environment in our brain. This report was about an experiment we done in the University of Sydney to investigate to what extent our attention can be captured by a distractor sudden onset. From the result, we found that to a large extent our attention would be affected by a sudden onset but if there are some outstanding indicator to help us focus on the target, attention might stay more stable. Also, we can deduce that attention is
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I decided six conditions for this experiments and each condition had different level of the rate of “sudden onset” appearance. What is attention? In words of Cherry, K(2015) “Attention is a concept studied in cognitive psychology that refers to how we actively process specific information present in our environment.” Think about our everyday life, a highlighter is always being used to mark the important elements in our notes so that when we do the review, our attention may easily be attracted by the highlighted area. However, if we assume that there are some elements which are not important but highlighted and the important one are not highlighted, we may have a high possibility that ignore the no highlighted important elements. Therefore, I suggests that sometime our attention is easy to be affected and also focus on the things that stand out the environment instead of the information we actually
A video is put on, and in the beginning of this video your told to count how many times the people in the white shirts pass the ball. By the time the scene is over, most of the people watching the video have a number in their head. What these people missed was the gorilla walking through as they were so focused on counting the number of passes between the white team. Would you have noticed the gorilla? According to Cathy Davidson this is called attention blindness. As said by Davidson, "Attention blindness is the key to everything we do as individuals, from how we work in groups to what we value in our classrooms, at work, and in ourselves (Davidson, 2011, pg.4)." Davidson served as the vice provost for interdisciplinary studies at Duke University helping to create the Program in Science and Information Studies and the Center of Cognitive Neuroscience. She also holds highly distinguished chairs in English and Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke and has written a dozen different books. By the end of the introduction Davidson poses five different questions to the general population. Davidson's questions include, "Where do our patterns of attention come from? How can what we know about attention help us change how we teach and learn? How can the science of attention alter our ideas about how we test and what we measure? How can we work better with others with different skills and expertise in order to see what we're missing in a complicated and interdependent world? How does attention change as we age, and how can understanding the science of attention actually help us along the way? (Davidson, 2011, p.19-20)." Although Davidson hits many good points in Now You See It, overall the book isn't valid. She doesn't exactly provide answers ...
Although correlation does not equal causation, we can conclude that similar cognitive processes, such as interference and automaticity, have influenced the results in our experiment. This can be expressed by the data and in identifying and saying aloud/reading a simple number compared to quantifying simple numbers. The cognitive load of reading familiar or smaller words is lower than that of counting, thus creating perchance a longer reaction time. In the experiment conducted in class as well as the one conducted by Stroop, the issue of divided attention may have been a great factor in interference or prolonged reaction time in the conditions. Psychological refractory period which states that the response to a second stimulus is slowed down by the first stimulus being processed; this can be a cause for the finding of increased reaction time when conflicting information is given. Attention may unconsciously be given to the less complex task, which is reading/identifying, and counting the main and more complex task may be interfered by the simpler stimulus. The expectation of having a longer reaction time when conducting the incongruent task was referenced back to the Stroop effect due to the similar implications of identifying and saying aloud the color presented in the print of the color descriptive word (Stroop,
Classical theories demonstrating the inattentional blindness paradigm are (1) the perceptual load, (2) inattentional amnesia and (3) expectation.
Humans are creatures that spent more time looking for the distraction from work than actually working. Humans are naturally easily distracted and need something to help us focus on the tasks at hand. Two stories that clearly reflect this are "Stopping by Woods on a snowy evening" by Robert Frost and "Effort by Distraction" by Josephine Miles. In Frost 's story, it shows how humans are easily distracted so we need something so push us forward the goal in mind. Mile 's poem supports this by explaining on how humans focus more on trying to distract themselves than actually working and paying attention. My artifact extends the meaning of my poem because it analyzes how humans are naturally lazy and how we need to push ourselves to continue working.
Attention-deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) is a prevalent disorder in which individuals display difficulty with attention and/or impulse control and hyperactive behavior relative to most individuals of the same age and gender (Barkley & Mash, 2009). Also known to be prevalent in conjunction with ADHD are significant deficits in many areas including educational, family and peer relationships. In order to diagnose a child with ADHD they must exhibit a number of inattentive, impulsive and hyperactive behaviors over a period of 6 months, which should be present in school and at home, and which significantly impair daily functioning (Daley & Birchwood, 2010). Evaluation for ADHD can provide a clear understanding of the functional impairment and a sound basis for initiating treatment, including which problems to prioritize. ADHD is most commonly treated with medication, classroom behavior interventions and parent training (Barkley & Mash, 2009).
Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness to dynamic events, contrary to popular belief, is not about gorillas in the zoo. The entire article is a focus upon inattentional blindness, which is a lot more common in situations than one would believe. The focus of inattentional blindness is brought on by a study that includes many volunteers, mainly undergraduate students, in the attempt to point out that one can be so focused on one thing that they could completely miss a gorilla coming into the room, or some other obscure factor that occurs without anyone noticing. Through multiple sessions of differentiating experiments, Daniel J. Simmons and Christopher F. Chabris from Harvard University were able to produce further insights into inattentional blindness.
Ratey, John J., and Albert M. Galaburda. A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(5): 182-186. Styles, E. A. & Co. a. The adage of the ad The Psychology of Attention. 2nd Edition.
Macleod and Mathews (1991) induced attentional biases within a laboratory setting to determine that a ca...
Distracted driving: the practice of driving a motor vehicle while engaged in another activity. Anything besides focusing on the road can be considered distracted driving. Most people would think that the only real distraction while driving is the use of a cell phone, however, that is entirely untrue. There are people that give the term, distracted driving, a whole new meaning. People do everything from fixing their makeup to shaving while driving in their cars. Distracted driving is one of the leading causes of car crashes in the United States.
Though the experiment shows that attention is vital for change detection, we should consider the size/ impact of the change in the environment. If the change to an environment is small, would it result in the change being detected? Do providing little clues draw attention effectively to where the change is being made? In support of this argument, Rensink (1997) showed that even with small clues, if the clue is not directed properly then detecting change will not have an effect. A proposal of Rensink is that the absence of attention will cause visual contents to be missed. On the other hand, Simon and Levin (1998) suggest that a person could miss things happening in their environment if his or her attention is occupied by something
Attention is defined as “notice taken of someone or something; the regarding of someone or something as interesting or important”.
In Betty White’s opening monologue to Saturday Night Live, she said, “I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time. I would never say the people on it are losers, but that’s only because I’m polite.” Originally intended for the use of students at Harvard University in 2004, Facebook grew exponentially to be an online phenomenon in the years following. In 2006, it became accessible to anyone and everyone with internet connection. Aside from the advantages that give the site its popularity, creating a profile comes with a number of significant disadvantages inherit to online social networks. What do more than 500 million active users use their Facebook for? Communicating with long distance friends and spreading awareness of causes are common responses. Unfortunately, Facebook has it flaws, from limiting the privacy of relationships to creating a form of almost unmanageable bullying, making one reconsider their involvement and think, “do I really want my Facebook account?”
Attention refers to the state of applying the mind into specific information currently seen in our surroundings. W. James defines attention as the clasp possession of the mind which can do several coincidentally possible objects or train of thoughts. It also suggests recession from some things in order to handle with others effectively (Cherry, n.d.).
Khaneman (1973) devised model of attention as he believed a limited amount of attention is allocated to tasks by a central processor. Many factors determine how much attentional capacity can be allocated and how much is needed to carry out a task, as the central processor has variable but limited capacity which is dependent on motivation and arousal. The central processor engages a variety of tasks such as motor, visual, auditory, memory and so on. The central processor evaluates the amount of concentration necessary to meet task demands, which forms the basis of allocation of capacity.