SS3712 Chap.4 Attention, Selection and Control
Attention, Selection and Control
Locate the bottleneck with unattended effects
Attention models disagree about how much information is analysed before selection. Early filtering emphasises physical features, attenuation allows weakened important items through, and later selection permits more semantic analysis before response.
Perceptual load makes the result conditional by predicting less distractor processing when a demanding target consumes capacity.
Let ignored information reveal the selection point
Early-selection accounts predict that unattended input is analysed mainly for physical properties before a limited channel chooses what proceeds.
Attenuation weakens ignored signals rather than deleting them, allowing personally important or strongly expected material to cross a lower threshold. Later-selection accounts allow more semantic analysis before the system limits response. The diagnostic evidence is therefore what an unattended message can still do.
Reporting only voice or location supports an early restriction; intrusion by a name or contextually related word requires more processing. The effect locates processing under those task conditions rather than proving a permanent bottleneck.
Use load to reconcile conflicting findings
Perceptual load theory treats capacity as automatically used.
A demanding target display consumes capacity and reduces distractor processing, whereas an easy display leaves spare resources that reach irrelevant information. This produces early-looking results under high load and later-looking results under low load. Response difficulty must be kept separate: choosing between similar responses can increase interference even when perceptual input is simple.
Check accuracy with latency, because a smaller distractor cost may reflect careless responding instead of stronger filtering. A full interpretation states which demand changed and where in processing it operates.
Distinguish looking from attending
Overt attention normally moves with the eyes; covert attention changes priority while fixation remains stable.
Spatial cueing tests this difference by comparing valid, neutral and invalid locations. A valid benefit and invalid cost support a shift before the target appears, provided gaze is monitored. Divided attention introduces a separate question about sharing capacity. Practice can automate part of a task and reduce controlled demand without making resources unlimited.
Interference returns when two tasks compete for the same response, representation or moment of control, so improved dual-task performance should be explained through the operation that became more efficient.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Selective attention
- 02
Early filter models
- 03
Attenuation theory
- 04
Late selection
- 05
Perceptual load
- 06
Covert and divided attention
Worked example · free
Interpret a shrinking distractor cost
- 2Interpret the low-load cost.
- 2Interpret the high-load reduction.
- 2Give the bounded conclusion.
Key terms
- Selective Attention
- Prioritisation of particular stimuli or locations when processing capacity is limited.
- Attenuation
- Weakening rather than eliminating unattended signals, allowing important material to influence processing.
- Covert Attention
- A shift of processing priority to a location without moving the eyes toward it.
Attention, Selection and Control FAQ
Where does selective attention occur?
The answer depends on the task. Early models place selection before meaning, attenuation permits weakened important signals through, and late accounts allow more semantic analysis. Evidence from unattended influence and perceptual load determines which location is supported under specific conditions.
What does perceptual load theory predict?
A demanding perceptual target should consume available capacity and reduce processing of irrelevant stimuli. An easy target leaves spare capacity that spills onto distractors. Response-selection difficulty is a separate source of interference and must not be relabelled as perceptual load.
How is covert attention measured?
Researchers keep gaze fixed while cueing a location. Faster or more accurate responses to validly cued targets, relative to neutral or invalid cues, indicate prioritisation before an eye movement. Monitoring gaze prevents hidden saccades from explaining the advantage.
Assessment move
Draw the processing stream and place the selection gate for each model. Beside it, write one unattended effect that should or should not occur. Then vary perceptual load and predict how distractor interference changes without treating the result as a universal filter location. Create a table separating perceptual load from response conflict and add one manipulation of each.
Sketch valid, neutral and invalid cue trials while keeping gaze fixed, then predict both benefits and costs. For divided attention, ask whether practice reduced controlled demand or whether the two tasks stopped competing for the same response.
End every practice answer with a conditional sentence naming the task conditions, because attention evidence locates selection in a design rather than discovering one permanent bottleneck. Check whether the same prediction holds for accuracy as well as latency.
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