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Tema Introductorio a la Psicología de la Atención, impartida en un curso universitario de psicología.

1. Psychology of Attention and Percepction Attention Introduction Psychology of attention Elizabeth A. Styles

2. Introduction Attention as a unifying agent of consciousness: …psychic state characterized by the predominance of being aware of a single representation ( Ribot , 1889). …Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession of mind in clear and vivid form . . . it implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others (James, 1890). …the realisation that the doctrine of attention is the nerve of the whole psychological system, and that as men judge of it, so shall they be judged before the tribunal of psychology ( Titchener , 1908). …Fifty years ago, psychologists thought of attention as “the focalization of consciousness” or “the increased clearness of a particular idea”. But these and other definitions in terms of mental faculties or subjective experience proved sterile for empirical research and ended in a series of inconclusive controversies. Recently interest in this problem has revived ( Treisman , 1964). …Attention has been used to refer to all those aspects of human cognition that the subject can control... and to all aspects of cognition having to do with limited resources or capacity, and methods of dealing with such constraints ( Shiffrin , 1988). Psychology of Attention

3. -Behaviorism: removal of mentalistic psychology. Orientation reflex -The cognitive view and the mental processes Cues to reach the cognitive paradigm: problems with behaviorism paradigm Communication theory and cybernetics: the mind as a computer system -Attention and will: voluntary / involuntary attention or controlled / automatic processes -Problems with attention definition: selective attention, control system and homunculus . Introduction Psychology of Attention

4. - The Cognitive perspective: the Second World War influence - Welford and SOA ( Stimulus Onset Asynchrony ): the bottleneck - Psychological Refractory Period (PRP): limit of human processing capability. - Dichotic listening: Early experiments on selective attention - Cherry and the shadowing - Broadbent and the flow of information. the beginning of the information processing: information reduces the amount of uncertainty transmission of information: maxim if we find the same response rate of information transmission=info/TR - The nervous system as a single limited channel - The selective filter: the split spam task The cognitive approach Perceptive process Response selection Performance Perceptive process Response selection Performance Waiting Psychology of Attention

5. - Dichotic listening: filter models. Early models of attention: filter models and dichotic listening as procedure: 1. Shadowing. Simultaneous presentation of two messages Instruction: follow one message (relevant) and ignoring the other one (irrelevant) Result: The relevant is remembered without difficulty but not the irrelevant 2. Split-span technique Presentation of a dichotically fractionated material. Instruction: repeat both messages after receiving them. Memory of digits grouped by channels. F I L T E R M2 Limited capacity channel M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 Storage of probabilities (long term memory) Broadbent's filter model (1958) Input S System Effectors Response Psychology of Attention The cognitive approach

6. Problems with rigid filter theory: Unattended ear and recognition memory (Moray, 1959; Wood & Cowan , 1995) Treisman's Attenuation Model (1964) The cognitive approach A T T E N U A T O R Limited capacity channel M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 Storage of probabilities (long term memory) Input S System EfFectors Response M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 Psychology of Attention

7. Problems with rigid filter theory: Unattended ear and recognition memory (Moray, 1959; Wood & Cowan , 1995) Treisman's Attenuation Model (1964) Early and late selection Deutsch & Deutsch Model (1963): response to the highest importance signal The cognitive approach Signal selection Pertinence device M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 Objeto atendido Input Sensory processing Psychology of Attention

8. Problems with rigid filter theory: Unattended ear and recognition memory (Moray, 1959; Wood & Cowan , 1995) Treisman's Attenuation Model (1964) Early and late selection Deutsch & Deutsch Model (1963): response to the highest importance signal Sperling and selective attention The partial and the total report Item identity and item position Correct letters Max Total report Partial report Number of letters The cognitive approach Psychology of Attention