AT T E N T I O N A N D

T H E P R O B L E M O F
C A PA C I T Y
THEORIES O F AT T E N T I O N

TREISMAN DEUTSCH & DEUTSCH NEISSER

T H E S H A D O W I N G T A S K
T R E I S M A N

Filter
Unconscious
Logogens
Conscious

Only attended
message is processed
 D E U T S C H & D E U T S C H

Rejected the filter

Logogens
Unconscious
Everything is fully
processed
 N E I S S E R

Doesn’t buy it.

No internal mechanism
Cyclic Model of Perception

Object
Object

Directs
Schema
Schema Exploration
S E L E C T I V E L O O K I N G T A S K

Becklen & Neisser

D U A L AT T E N T I O N
 D U A L AT T E N T I O N

Moray
Dual shadowing and number detection
Stein & Solomon
Automatic writing
Downey & Anderson
No automatism
 D U A L AT T E N T I O N

Spelke & Hirst

Used Students
Reading+ dictated
6 wk- achieved automatism
8 wk - sublists introduced to dictated words
9 wk – Identify unspecified categories or sentences in dictated
words
Finally- write down the category of dictated words
 D U A L AT T E N T I O N

Pickup from secondary sources does not

occur automatically
 A U T O M AT I C P I C K U P

Evidence of pickup
Shadowing speed
Interpretation
Electric shock (Corteen & Wood)
Difficult to replicate
Result of intermittent exercise of acquired skills
 A U T O M AT I C P I C K U P

Signals we are always ready for

Loud noises
Sudden movements
Pain
Stimuli repetition
Schema
Operate outside of attention
Indifferent to context or meaning
Some signals compel attention
Requires automatic behavior control
Not filtering it out
LIMITS O F C A PA C I T Y
 L I M I T S O F C A P A C I T Y

Filter protects against overload

No established limit of pickup
Attempting too much
Incompatible tasks
Incompatible stimuli
BUT…
With practice,
tasks can be comined
Conscious
Introspective accounts