Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

Basics Of Psychological
Processes( PSYC153)

Module 2- Attention and

Perception
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Attention
Attention is the ability to actively process specific information in the environment while tuning out
other details. Attention is limited in terms of both capacity and duration, so it is important to have
ways to effectively manage the attentional resources we have available in order to make sense of the
world.

Attention is a basic component of our biology, present even at birth. Our orienting reflexes help us
determine which events in our environment need to be attended to, a process that aids in our ability to
survive.
Newborns attend to environmental stimuli such as loud noises. A touch against the cheek triggers the
rooting reflex, causing the infant to turn his or her head to nurse and receive nourishment. These
orienting reflexes continue to benefit us throughout life.
Attention plays a critical role in almost every area of life including school, work, and relationships. It
allows people to focus on information in order to create memories. It also allows people to avoid
distractions so that they can focus on and complete specific tasks.
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Types of attention
There are many different types of attention that people may use. Some of these include:

Sustained Attention

This form of attention, also known as concentration, is the ability to focus on one thing for a continuous
period. During this time, people keep their focus on the task at hand and continue to engage in a
behavior until the task is complete or a certain period of time has elapsed.
Research suggests that sustained attention peaks during the early 40s and then gradually declines as
people age.

Alternating Attention

This type of attention involves multitasking or effortlessly shifting attention between two or more
things with different cognitive demands. It's not about focusing on more than one thing at the same
time, but about stopping attending to one thing and then switching to the next task.
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• Selective attention involves being able to choose and

selectively attend to certain stimuli in the environment while
at the same time tuning other things out. For example, you
might selectively attend to a book you are reading while
tuning out the sound of your next-door neighbor's car alarm
going off.
• This type of attention requires you to be able to tune out
extraneous external stimuli, but also internal distractions
such as thoughts and emotions in order to stay selectively
attuned to a task.
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Multitasking and Divided Attention

• Multitasking can be defined as the attempt to perform two or more tasks simultaneously;
however, research shows that when multitasking, people make more mistakes or perform
their tasks more slowly. Each task increases cognitive load; attention must be divided
among all of the component tasks to perform them.

• Older research involved looking at the limits of people performing simultaneous tasks
like reading stories while listening to and writing something else, or listening to two
separate messages through different ears (i.e., dichotic listening). The vast majority of
current research on human multitasking is based on performance of doing two tasks
simultaneously, usually involving driving while performing another task such as texting,
eating, and speaking to passengers in the vehicle or talking on a cell phone. This research
reveals that the human attentional system has limits to what it can process: driving
performance is worse while engaged in other tasks; drivers make more mistakes, brake
harder and later, get into more accidents, veer into other lanes, and are less aware of their
surroundings when engaged in the previously discussed tasks.
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How to improve attention?

• Avoiding multitasking: If you want to improve your focus, try to
avoid multitasking. Trying to juggle multiple tasks hurts
productivity, so you can make the most of your limited attentional
research by only working on one thing at a time.
• Getting enough sleep: Research has shown that sufficient sleep is
essential for maintaining optimal levels of attention. Not only that,
the two appear to have a bidirectional relationship; sleep helps
regulate attention, but attentional demands can also play a role in
sleep.
• Practicing mindfulness: Mindfulness, which involves paying
attention to the present moment, is sometimes conceived of as a
form of attention. Research has shown that mindfulness training
may be helpful for improving attention.
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• Divided attention is difficult when:

– Tasks are similar
– Tasks are difficult
– When both tasks require conscious attention
• Divided attention is easier when:
– Tasks are dissimilar
– Tasks are simple
– When at least one of the tasks does not require conscious
attention
– Tasks are practiced

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External factors to attention

 Nature of the stimuli:
 The attributes of the stmuli are more likely to arouse attention and allow
concentration
 Shape , color , beauty, odditiy,
 Picutres are more likely to attract attention than that of the text.
 Intensity of the stimuli:
 The strngth of the stimuli determines the attention it receives
 Like a loudness of sound the brightness of colors etc.
 Size of the stimulus :
General rule is that the bigger the stimuli the more attention it attracts and if the
item or object is unlikely in an environment then that is also more likely attract
attention.
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External factors to attention

 Contrast of the stimuli:
Change and contrast usually attract more of attention, we do not notice the ticking of the
watch usually but when it stops we notice it
 Novelty or newness attracts attention.
 Location of the stimulus :
The area where the stimulus s located is also important for attracting the attention as
advertisements on the upper-half or on the front page attracts more attention than being
located elsewhere.
 Repetition of the stimulus :

A repeated stimulus attracts our attention.

A mis-spelt word in the same paragraph for more than 2 times tends to get noticed more
often.
But the excessive repetition of the stimulus can also diminish the attention.
Eg: people working in a factory with loud noise become adjusted to that environment.
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External factors to attention

 Motion of the object:
The moving stimulus attracts more attention than the stagnant
one.
 Definite form of the object:

A sharply defined object attracts more attention than a vaguely

defined object.
 Isolation of the stimulus:

Isolation is an important determinant of the attention. A black dot

in a middle of a white page attracts more attention than , a dot in a
written page.
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
Internal Factors to attention
Motives :
The basic drives and urges of the individual are more important in
securing his attention.
 Hunger , thirst , curiosity and sex are some motives.
 Mental set up:

A person always attends to one subject which the mind has a set.
During exam any talk about it attracts the attention.
 Interest and attention:

Interest is a very helpful factor in securing attention.

People tend to pay more attention to the items and ideas which they are more
interested.
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Internal Factors to attention

 Past experience :
Learning and previous experience facilitate attention.
If we find that certain thing has been beneficial in the past
we give more attention to it in the present.
 Emotion
The emotional state of he individual determines the
attention the person will put to any certain stimuli.
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Internal Factors to attention

 Habits:
Habit is also an important determinant of attention.
A person develops a habit of attending to important things and a
habit of not attending to the unimportant things.
 Aims:

The personal Aims of the person also guides his ability to attend to
certain stimuli.
 Meaning :

The internal meaning of the stimuli also deposits the meaning to

the methods.
Disposition and temperament of the person.
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Early selection: Broadbent’s Filter Model

• Sensory Channels assumed to have unlimited capacity
• There is a bottleneck limiting the information that can get into working memory
• A selective filter (attention) allows information from only one channel at a time
• Information in the unattended channel is completely blocked
• Two stimuli or messages presented at the same time gain access in parallel (at the same time) to
a sensory buffer. This holds information for a short period before it is attended to or disappears
from the processing system.
• One of the inputs is then allowed through a filter on the basis of its physical characteristics,
with the other input only briefly in the buffer for later processing.
• This filter prevents overloading of the limited-capacity mechanism beyond the filter; this
mechanism processes the input thoroughly.
• Filter selects information based on physical characteristics only
• Filter is all or none
• Switching is under conscious control.
• Selected information receives deeper perceptual processing and enters working memory
• This theory handles Cherry’s basic findings, with unattended messages being rejected by the
filter and thus receiving very little processing. It also accounts for performance on Broadbent’s
original dichotic listening task, since it is assumed that the filter selects one 14
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Broadbent’s Filter Model

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Early selection: Attenuation theory

• Treisman's attenuation model of selective attention retains both the idea of an early selection
process, as well as the mechanism by which physical cues are used as the primary point of
discrimination. However, unlike Broadbent's model, the filter now attenuates unattended
information instead of filtering it out completely. Treisman further elaborated upon this
model by introducing the concept of a threshold to explain how some words came to be heard
in the unattended channel with greater frequency than others. Every word was believed to
contain its own threshold that dictated the likelihood that it would be perceived after
attenuation.
• After the initial phase of attenuation, information is then passed on to a hierarchy of analyzers
that perform higher level processes to extract more meaningful content (see "Hierarchical
analyzers" section below).The crucial aspect of attenuation theory is that attended inputs will
always undergo full processing, whereas irrelevant stimuli often lack a sufficiently low
threshold to be fully analyzed, resulting in only physical qualities being remembered rather
than semantics. Additionally, attenuation and then subsequent stimuli processing is dictated
by the current demands on the processing system. It is often the case that not enough
resources are present to thoroughly process unattended inputs. 16
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Treisman’s Attenuation Theory

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Late filter model: Deutsch

and Deutsch
• In 1963, Deutsch & Deutsch proposed a late selection model of how selective attention
operates. They proposed all stimuli get processed in full, with the crucial difference being a
filter placed later in the information processing routine, just before the entrance into
working memory. The late selection process supposedly operated on the semantic
characteristics of a message, barring inputs from memory and subsequent awareness if they did
not possess desired [Link] to this model, the depreciated awareness of unattended
stimuli came from denial into working memory and the controlled generation of responses to
[Link] Deutsch & Deutsch model was later revised by Norman in 1968, who added that the
strength of an input was also an important factor for its selection.

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Early Filtering (Broadbent): Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
Filter

Input Detection Recognition

Attenuation (Treisman):
Attenuator

Input Detection Recognition

Late Filtering (Deutsch & Deutsch): Filter

Input Detection Recognition

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• Bottom-up processing – processing that starts with

unprocessed sensory information and builds toward more
conceptual representation

• Top-down processing – processing in which conceptual

knowledge influences the processing or interpretation of
lower level perceptual processing

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Perception
Perception is the process by which we organise and interpret patterns of stimuli in
the environment. Atkinsion &
Hilgard 1983
Perception (from the Latin perceptio) is the organization, identification, and
interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the
presented information, or the environment. Schacter,
Daniel (2011)

Perception is active , selective and cognitive mental process through which a

person gain immediate experiences of his own internal organ as well as object
present in external environment.
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Characteristics of Perception:

• Stimulus is essential for perception.

• In perception immediate experiences of object take place.
• Perception is an active mental process.
• Perception is a cognitive process.
• In perception stimuli are organised.
• Perception is a selective process.
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Perceptual constancy
The tendency to perceive objects as maintaining stable properties, such as size,
shape, brightness, and colour, despite differences in distance, viewing angle, and
lighting.
Size constancy
– Perceiving objects as being about the same size when they move farther
away. ( even changes in the size of retinal image)
Theoretical Mechanism of Size Constancy:
– Real Size, Distance already known (Holway & Boring, 1940)
– Simultaneous changes in the object texture and background texture.
(Gibson, 1950)
– Relative Size ratio constant. (Rock & Ebenholtz, 1959)
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• Shape constancy
– Tendency to perceive objects as having a stable or unchanging shape regardless
of changes in the retinal image resulting form differences in viewing angle.
Example: Door opened or closed
• Colour constancy
– Perceiving objects as the same colour even though they are different in shades.
– Example: Red Apple in different light settings
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Perceptual organisation
• Form Perception
• Depth Perception
• Movement perception
• Perceptual constancy
• illusions
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Figure ground
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Law of contour (subjective contours)

Shape perception
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Top Down
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Bottom up
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Depth Perception
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Depth perception
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Depth perception
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Binocular Cues
1. Accommodation:
• When we perceive the closet things, lens decreased and the curvature increased.
• When we perceive the farthest things, lens increased and curvature decreased.
(This process is known as Accommodation)
2. Convergence and Divergence:
When objects are very near to us, we converge our eyes to fixate on them; as the object
moves further away, the eyes diverge to maintain fixation.
3. Binocular Disparity or Retinal Disparity:
Your two eyes are separated (by about 6.3 cm), each eye receives a somewhat different
perspective of the same object. The closer an object is to you, the greater difference in the
retinal image that results from each eye’s perspective.
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Types of illusion
• Physical Illusion : due to distortion in information
Example: Railway track, Stick in water, Sky & land etc.
(Universal Illusion , Permanent Illusion)
• Perceptual Illusion: Misleading cues
Example: Electric pole (Personal Illusion)
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Types of Illusion

• Muller-Lyer Illusion: (A)

• Ponzo illusion: (B)
• Horizontal-Vertical illusion: (C)
• Jastrow illusion: (D)
• Delboef illusion: (E)
• Ehrnstein illusion: (F)
• Orbison illusion: (G)
• Wundt illusion: (I)
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Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

Sources
• [Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]
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• [Link]
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Sources
• [Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]
principles-and-factors-affecting-in-perception/634
• [Link]
• [Link]
[Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]

With regards
Jalendu Dhamija