Anuroop Pokhriyal

A040341373
Section-D

Cognitive Psychology Assignment

INTRODUCTION

Define or identify the general topic, issue, or area of concern, thus providing an
appropriate context for reviewing the literature.

Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete

stimulus while ignoring other perceivable stimuli. 

Attention can be thought of as the allocation of limited processing resources: your brain can
only devote attention to a limited number of stimuli. Attention comes into play in many
psychological topics, including memory (stimuli that are more attended to are better
remembered), vision, and cognitive load.

Attention is a cognitive process that allows us to choose and concentrate on relevant stimuli.
According to Sohlberg and Mateer model (1987, 1989) there are several types: arousal,
focused, sustained, selective, alternating and divided.

According to William James (1890), The act of the mind taking hold of one of numerous
seemingly contemporaneous conceivable objects or trains of thought in a clear and vivid form
is known as attention. Its essence is focalization, concentration, and consciousness. The
deployment of limited cognitive processing resources has also been described as attention.

 The most accepted model for the attention sub-components is currently the hierarchical
model from Sohlberg and Mateer (1987, 1989), which is based on clinical cases of
experimental neuropsychology. According to this model, attention can be divided into the
following parts:

 Arousal: Refers to our activation level and level of alertness, whether we are tired or
energized.
 Focused Attention: Refers to our ability to focus attention on a stimulus.
 Sustained Attention: The ability to attend to a stimulus or activity over a long period of
time.
 Selective Attention: The ability to attend to a specific stimulus or activity in the presence
of other distracting stimuli.
 Alternating Attention: The ability to change focus attention between two or more stimuli.
 Divided Attention: The ability to attend different stimuli or attention at the same time.

Attentional capacity is the amount of information learners can attend to at any one time
(Fairbrother, 2010). We have a limited attentional capacity, meaning we can only handle so
many things at one time. If we are trying to do more things than we can handle, or take in
more information than our capacity allows us, we will lose focus in some areas.

Our attentional capacity can have an impact on learning and performance outcomes, and
limitations in our attentional capacity can be the cause of this. The only way for learners to
deal with our limited capacity is selectively choosing what to pay most attention on.

The limitations in our attentional capacity force us to selectively choose what we pay
attention too (Fairbrother, 2010), that being what we think is most relevant to the situation we
are in. However, as we will come to see, how we choose what to pay attention to changes,
and it can make a difference to learning and performance.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Himi, Buhner, Schwaighofer, Hilbert et. al in 2019 conducted research which aims to look at
the fundamental cognitive characteristics that underpin multitasking behavior. A total of 202
young people participated in a battery of EFs (shifting, updating, and inhibition) tests, three
WMC tests, three relational integration tests, two split attention tests, and a multitasking
scenario. relative weight analyses revealed that updating, inhibition, relational integration,
and divided attention had strong contributions in explaining multitasking behavior variance.

Cuenen, Jongen, Brijs, Lutin Et. al 2015. The goal of this study was to see if attention
capacity has a moderating influence on elder drivers' driving performance when they are
distracted by visual or cognitive distractions. Older drivers performed a driving task in a
fixed-based driving simulator with and without visual or cognitive distraction. For the first
experiment, the sample size was N=17, with an average age of 78, and for the second
experiment, the sample size was N=35, with an average age of 78. In experiment 1, the
likelihood of crashing rose as a result of visual distraction and was adversely associated to
attention capability. With cognitive distraction, full stops at stop signs reduced,
commencement of braking at pedestrian crossings was delayed, and collision occurrence
rose.

Jong, Verhoeven, Baar 2015. The goal of this study was to assess preterm and term born
toddlers' attention abilities. Eye tracking (18 months), observations during mother–child
interaction (18 months), and mother reports were used to assess attention in 123 preterm (32–
36 weeks gestation) and 101 term born children (12, 18, and 24 months). The results showed
that preterm toddlers scored worse on eye-tracking tests of orienting and alerting than term
children. As early as toddler age, preterm children demonstrated an elevated risk of
inadequate functioning in alerting attention abilities.

Wang, Ren, Altmeyer, Schweizer 2013. In this study, major working memory aspects
including the storage capacity and executive attention were proposed to account for the
relationship between fluid intelligence and complex learning. A total of 184 people took part
in the study, which comprised fluid intelligence and complicated learning scales, as well as
working memory tests with two or three treatment levels, each with different demands on
capacity or executive control. Both storage capacity and executive attention were found to
have a substantial role in fluid intelligence and complicated learning, according to the
findings. A more in-depth examination revealed that the two elements of working memory,
notably storage capacity, accounted for the majority of the shared variation between fluid
intelligence and complicated learning.

Sanchez, Vanhelst, Ruiz et al in 2017. The researchers wanted to see if there was a link
between health-related physical fitness components and accurate measurements of fatness
and attentiveness in European teenagers. This study was conducted using the cross-sectional
approach. This study included a sub-sample of 444 teenagers from six different nations.
Fitness, fatness, and attentiveness were all assessed in adolescents. Higher cardiorespiratory
fitness was favorably connected with improved attention ability, according to the findings. Fit
and non-overweight adolescents had the greatest levels of attention capacity, whereas their
unfit and overweight counterparts had the lowest levels.

CONCLUSION

 Multitasking is defined as the ability to perform two or more things at once that need
both attention and complex cognitive processes. When performing multiple activities
at once, the interconnected cognitive processes determine priorities and devote the
mind's resources to each task. Previous research has found that cognitive ability are
major predictors of multitasking behaviour. The generic EF ability (common EF),
which represents variation common to shifting, updating, and inhibition, was found to
have a substantial overlap with multitasking behaviour. These findings are useful not
only for elucidating the key cognitive correlates of multitasking activity, but also for
situating multitasking behaviour within a larger framework of cognitive abilities.

 Certain events or actions can cause the motorist to get distracted while driving. The
distraction can be minor and have no impact on the driver's attention or driving
performance, or it can be severe enough that the driver is unable to devote the
necessary attention to the task of driving and suffers as a result from poor driving
performance. Distracted driving can occur as a result of certain circumstances or
behaviours. The distraction can be small, with little effect on the driver's attention or
driving performance, or it can be significant enough that the driver is unable to give
the necessary attention to the task of driving, resulting in poor driving performance.

The findings suggest that driving requires a high level of attention ability. As a result,
attention capability may be a focus of driver evaluation and training programmes.
Nonetheless, given the decrease of performance on numerous driving measures in
individuals with low and high attention capacity, it is critical to avoid driver
distraction as much as feasible.

 Preterm children's attention capacities must be researched since they are an important
component of daily living, and attention disorders may be the root of other issues,
such as cognitive impairments. As early as toddler age, preterm children demonstrated
an increased risk of inadequate functioning in alerting attention capacities.

 According to the findings, both storage capacity and executive attention play a role in
fluid intelligence and complicated learning. A more in-depth examination revealed
that the two elements of working memory, notably storage capacity, accounted for the
majority of the shared variance between fluid intelligence and complicated learning.
The differences in treatment levels made it possible to use fixed-links models to
 isolate the core processes of store capacity and executive attention from the auxiliary
processes.

 The relationship between health-related physical fitness components and accurate

measurements of fatness and attentiveness in European teenagers was investigated in
this study. The findings show that both cardiorespiratory fitness and body fatness are
linked to attention, although the two are not mutually exclusive. There was also a
combination effect, with fit and non-overweight adolescents having the highest levels
of attention and unfit and overweight adolescents having the lowest.