Attention and (failures of) awareness
Introduction
• Perception is limited partly due to sensory restrictions
-> but even if information reaches the bran, perception of the outside world
seems to be limited
• We all have trouble sustaining concentration for any amount of time --> our
average span reportedly is less than that of a goldfish
• William James --> 'Attention is the taking possession by the mind, in clear & vivid
from, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of
thought. Focalization, concentration of consciousness are of its essence. It
implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.
-> captures how intuitively obvious the concept of attention is, while it remains
very difficult to define in measurable, concrete terms
-> conscious nature of attention, what is in consciousness is often controlled
voluntarily but can also be determined by events that capture our attention
• Inattentional blindness (subtype: change blindness)
= to a large extent, we seem to perceive only that which receives the focus of our
cognitive efforts or in other words, that what receives our attention
-> seeing (sensation) is not the same as perceiving!
-> Observation: f.ex keeping track of bounce passes + areal passes separately
(gorilla passes by)
--> more effort --> stronger inattentional blindness
--> more likely to notice if counting passes of black team (i.e. objects with
shared features of attended object)
--> even unique items can go unnoticed
-> the greater the demands on attention, the less likely people are to notice
objects falling outside their attention & the more distracted we are, the less
likely we are to be aware of our surroundings --> under conditions of
distraction, we effectively develop tunnel vision
• Flicker paradigm & change blindness
- can remain even after observing the images
for several seconds, showing that a detailed
representation of the scene isn't being
stored in (short-term/working) memory
Introduction
• Perception is limited partly due to sensory restrictions
-> but even if information reaches the bran, perception of the outside world
seems to be limited
• We all have trouble sustaining concentration for any amount of time --> our
average span reportedly is less than that of a goldfish
• William James --> 'Attention is the taking possession by the mind, in clear & vivid
from, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of
thought. Focalization, concentration of consciousness are of its essence. It
implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.
-> captures how intuitively obvious the concept of attention is, while it remains
very difficult to define in measurable, concrete terms
-> conscious nature of attention, what is in consciousness is often controlled
voluntarily but can also be determined by events that capture our attention
• Inattentional blindness (subtype: change blindness)
= to a large extent, we seem to perceive only that which receives the focus of our
cognitive efforts or in other words, that what receives our attention
-> seeing (sensation) is not the same as perceiving!
-> Observation: f.ex keeping track of bounce passes + areal passes separately
(gorilla passes by)
--> more effort --> stronger inattentional blindness
--> more likely to notice if counting passes of black team (i.e. objects with
shared features of attended object)
--> even unique items can go unnoticed
-> the greater the demands on attention, the less likely people are to notice
objects falling outside their attention & the more distracted we are, the less
likely we are to be aware of our surroundings --> under conditions of
distraction, we effectively develop tunnel vision
• Flicker paradigm & change blindness
- can remain even after observing the images
for several seconds, showing that a detailed
representation of the scene isn't being
stored in (short-term/working) memory
