models of attention

Which model of attention do you find most convincing: filter/bottleneck, spotlight, competition, feature integration? Why?

The model of attention which I find most convincing is the Feature Integration. It is a theory proposed by Anne Treisman (1986,1998), to explain how we perceive initially separated features as part of the same object. With the usage of this model, objects are analyzed into their features in the preattentive stage, and then the features are combined later with the aid of attention. It can be easily presented with a very easy diagram: Object-->Preattentive stage(Analyze into features)-->Focused attention stage(Combine features)-->Perception. It could be used in an every day life while perceiving different objects and their shapes, colours etc.

I find it the most appealing because even though it's controversial and many people are not convinced by it; it is easy to grasp and understand. Some people argue that when we look at an object we do not brake it into parts. However there are some cases such as the R.M patient's case (with a lack of focused attention which made it difficult for him to combine features correctly) which proves that this theory/model if effective.

Of course the feature integration theory/model does not answer every question because the binding problem still exists and remains unsolved. The thoery answers the 'easy problem' (how an object is perceived with the different processes active) and not the 'hard problem' (how is all of this processing accompanied by a conscious experience of perceiving an object and feeling it's shape with the different features etc.). However the validity of this theory can be explained while analyzing different brain areas active while attending to certain objects. For example whenever a person is watching a ''red ball roll by, different areas of his cortex are activated by different properties of the ball. These areas are in separated locations in the cortex, although there is communication between them''; (as cited by E.Bruce Goldstein, Cognitive Psychology, page 104).

I agree with Kasia, that the feature integration model is very convincing. But I think, that the filter model of attention is also worth mentioning. It may not be as elaborate as the one proposed by Treisman, but remember that it served as the base for feature integration model.

Filter model of attention was proposed by Donald Broadbent in 1958. He argued that information from all of the stimuli presented at any given time enters a sensory buffer. One of the inputs is then selected on the basis of its physical characteristics for further processing by being allowed to pass through a filter. Because we have only a limited capacity to process information, this filter is designed to prevent the information-processing system from becoming overloaded. The inputs not initially selected by the filter remain briefly in the sensory buffer, and if they are not processed they decay rapidly. Broadbent assumed that the filter rejected the non-shadowed or unattended message at an early stage of processing.

I think that this model is much better than the spotlight and competition models. I'm still not sure which one I like better; Broadbents or Treismans. They're quite similar to each other, and it may be why I can't decide.

What convinces me most about this model is the evidence given by Broadbent with his dichotic listening task. In this task Broadbent wanted to see how people were able to focus their attention, and to do this he deliberately overloaded them with stimuli - they had too many signals, too much information to process at the same time. He simultaneously sent one message (a 3-digit number) to a person's right ear and a different message (a different 3-digit number) to their left ear. Participants were asked to listen to both messages at the same time and repeat what they heard. The outcome was that people made fewer mistakes repeating back ear by ear and would usually repeat back this way instead of repeating the digits back in the order that they were heard. In this task each ear is a different channel. We can listen either to the right ear (that's one channel) or the left ear (that's another channel). Broadbent also discovered that it is difficult to switch channels more than twice a second. So you can only pay attention to the message in one ear at a time - the message in the other ear is lost, though you may be able to repeat back a few items from the unattended ear. This could be explained by the short-term memory store which holds onto information in the unattended ear for a short time.