One class were inanimate
less related to target
o
Found:
o
People less likely to report target when it was a following a semantically related
word than an inanimate word
o
The more meaningful it was to the target, the more attention they paid to it
o
Process involved an initial glance, followed by a closer look if it seemed to be a
possible target – the more time spent looking at an item, the less likely the next
item would even receive a glance, Tf caused AB
o
Meaningful stimuli capture our attention
o
Bartlet: “effort after meaning”
Task Switching
-
Set
= temporary, top down organization in the brain that facilitates some responses, while
inhibiting others in order to achieve a certain goal; also referred to as a ‘mental set’
o
E.g. when looking for a lost object you tune out sounds that at other times would
have attracted attention
-
Gibson
had considered it to vague
-
Woodworth
found sets essential in explaining human behaviour
-
Example of a set – “the way an individual often prepares to act before beginning the overt
effective action” – like a sprinter
-
Woodworth:
-
Many dif kinds of sets
o
Preparatory sets (sprinter)
o
Executive sets (driving)
o
Goal sets
-
Task switching
= changing from working on one task to working on another; usually
studied in situations in which the switch is involuntary
-
Jersild 1927/Monsell 2003:
o
At computer trying to finish essay, get email saying deadline is today to pay fees,
annoyed at interruption but message is important, you get bank card, walk to pay
and run into friends
o
Each task (essay writing, reading email, finding bank card…) requires: a
procedural-scheme / task-set
o
We exercise intentional control to select and implement the task-sets that are
appropriate to our dominant goals, resisting temptations to satisfy other goals
-
Switch cost
= finding that performance declines immediately on switching tasks
o
E.g. when you go back to write you essay, you cannot pick up smoothly – you
may even feel a need to start all over
-
This may be due to the time required to reset the cognitive system so that behaviours
appropriate to the current tasks are engaged, and to prior tasks are inhibited
-
Young and Monsell 2003:
-
Given letter number pairs (H,3) – participants asked to perform one of two tasks in each
trial
o
Alphabet arithmetic – add number to letter
o
Perceptual comparison task – Yes if both contain only curved or only straight
lines, No if one does
o
Participants must switch when given cue to do so, and switch cost observed
-
Arrington and Logan 2004:
o
Experiment where the participant chooses when to switch: voluntary task
switching (just told to do half for each)
o
Shown numbers 1-9: tell even/odd OR greater/less than 5
o
Even though task switching was voluntary, there was still a cost!
o
They also did not switch randomly, they would do a chunk of each, suggesting
once they started one task they were reluctant to incur the cost of switching –
maybe they would have only done 1 task the whole time if allowed until boredom
sets in
-
Task switching suggests that top-down processes play an important role in regulating our
attention
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