About Attention

This is a series of blog posts about the learnings and discoveries I made while studying Cognitive Psychology at the University of Berkeley, California. It will introduce you to the basic concepts of human cognition; attention, memory, categorization, semantic organization, language, problem solving and decision making.

Marc-Oliver
Jul 22, 2017 · 4 min read

I can recall recent events that took place in pubs and coffee shops, where the so called ‘cocktail effect’ was at work. In those scenarios, I often found myself sitting in close proximity of, or between, two tables occupied with chatty guests (unattended environment) and trying to have an uninterrupted conversation with my wife or friends (attended environment). As described in the lecture and course book (‘PSYCHX170–007 Cognitive Psychology’ with Christopher Gade, 2017 and ‘Cognition’ from Stephen K. Reed, 2012), I, too found it occasionally very hard to pay constant attention to my partner and friends and process or respond effectively/timely to what they were saying, especially when two additional incoming conversations from strangers were arriving simultaneously at my left and right ear. I got often distracted and picked up some words or conversational snippets from the unattended environment.

What information does our brain select? How does this selection work, and what happens to the information selected?

I can certainly confirm what research found (Treisman, 1960): My attention switched, as I picked up a higher or louder pitch from the two tables beside me, as well as when they were referencing a recognizable (to me) event, which just made the news that same day (low threshold), but also had a ‘danger’ signifier attached to it (meaning). Moreover, I also noticed that my attention tended to wander off more frequently to this unattended channel when the nearby conversation happened to be in my native language, German. For now, I can only assume, that this has to do with the familiarity of the language and the words, and a greater ability to automatically encode German words and syntax. Another observation, which I made today at brunch, and which was confirmed by Nilli Lavie (Perceptual Load Theory), amongst other researchers, was that a higher task-load results in inattentional blindness/deafness. So, the more I needed to focus and increase mental power to respond, interact or engage in a conversational topic, the less I noticed my environment.


The findings from above lead us back to the main questions we try to answer when discussing the field of Attention: What information does our brain select? How does this selection work, and what happens to the information selected?

Researches seem to have come to the conclusion that our brain has a built-in mechanism that helps select what input seems to be most important at a given moment and situation. If this mechanism would not be in place, our attention would constantly shift and we become unable to focus and do crucial things well (Chun, Golomb & Turk-Brown, 2011). As demonstrated above, we are partially in control of this mechanism and where it is located in the information processing flow (Kahneman, 1973). For instance; we can increase or decrease task difficulty intentionally to lower or increase the threshold for distraction. A difficult task leads to early selection and an easy task leads to a late selection (Lavie, 1995). Now, this would be easy, would we not have to deal with the fact that some information processes are automated and happen unintentionally, quite frequently. Research suggests, that these automated processes almost always trump controlled processes, which was demonstrated by the Stroop effect. As a bilingual speaker, you can experience the difference between automated and controlled processes almost on a daily basis; If you are tired or your brain is occupied with other activities, your mother tongue is there to rescue you.


Let us have a quick recap what I have learned from my own observations and summarize the key findings from the book (Cognition, Stephen K. Reed, 2012): When I was sitting there in the pub and coffee shop with my friends, my brain got constantly bombarded by new incoming inputs and it tried to process whatever it could process at any given moment (unintentionally and intentionally recording different types of information as well as frequency, spatial and temporal information, Hasher & Zacks, 1979). This process can not be stopped (Lavie, 1996).

My brain was more receptive to new incoming inputs when I was in a sort of auto-encoding mode, such as engaging in small-talk, since this ‘task’ is very repetitive and required little mental effort. As a consequence, my brain mind-wandered and my senses picked up inputs from the previously unattended, nearby environment (late selection). When all of a sudden, the conversation and interaction with my friends shifted towards a more controlled and cognitive demanding task, my brain stopped to respond to almost any input that was not part of this new task (early selection). Until, of course, the moment when the fire alarm went of, and some automated processes, such as jump and escape — trumped everything else. Another reallocation of brain processing power took place.

We can conclude that Broadbent was not correct with his early ‘filter model’, since I was able to process inputs that came from my unattended environment. That in return gives credits to Treisman’s work, which suggests that we process fractions from our unattended channel (Attenuation Model). The Capacity Theory (Kahneman, 1973) and Nilli Lavie’s Load Theory seem to provide the framework to explain how Attention and Processing really works.


Related videos and academic resources:

  • Andre Szameitat, 2017 [Video]
  • Nilli Lavie, 2014 [Video]
  • Stephen K. Reed, 2012 [Link]
  • Alfredo Spagna, Melissa-Ann Mackie, Jin Fan [Link]
  • Berkeley Course Material, Dr Christopher Gade

The Versatile Designer

The hidden stories every product designer should know about markets, products & consumer behavior.

Marc-Oliver

Written by

Senior UX Manager @Appnovation, Canada. Writes about Cognitive Psychology, Behavioural Economics & Platform Design. Creator of https://axurewidgets.com.

The Versatile Designer

The hidden stories every product designer should know about markets, products & consumer behavior.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade